Worthy of Celebration

This is the way it works, I don't post for weeks, then I write 3-4 in a row. I guess they call it a brain dump. At least I've divided my thoughts across a few days.

This year there are a number of significant celebrations going on; my Portland Festival Symphony is celebrating their 30th year, Ringo Starr is celebrating turning 70, The United Nations is celebrating its 60th year, but the anniversary I think is most worthy of celebrating is the 50th anniversary of the writing of "To Kill A Mockingbird".

One of the best all time books (stories), Pulitzer Prize-Winning, and and an equally good movie. Could you imagine having the hutzpah to write such a thought-provoking and accurate portrait of the prejudice and racial injustice so prevalent in her part of the country. It was written by a woman lawyer, Harper Lee, from the small town of Monroeville, in Alabama literally based on her own experiences growing up which made it very accurate.

It has sold over 30 million copies and has been published in over 40 languages. It has been rated as second only to the Bible as a book that "is most often cited as making a difference" by the Library of Congress. It's quite interesting to read the many conflicting views on the value and appropriateness of the book. My favorites are those who decry it for it's shabby treatment of white Southerners...yea, right.

Anyway, I'm thinking I might find time some time before the year is over to celebrate the book's anniversary by rereading it, even though man's inhumanity to man is always difficult for me to take.