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jaimehqs · 4 years

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Did you see the moving van outside? It looks like there is a new resident moving in. There’s a new name on the resident directory and it’s JAMES ‘JAIME’ CARMICHAEL. They are a 34 year old PEDIATRIC NEUROSURGEON (CURRENTLY IN FELLOWSHIP) and they seem quite cool. Well, they come across as someone who is COMPASSIONATE, RECLUSIVE & DEMURE but they can also be VERBOSE, WORKAHOLIC & STUBBORN.

TRIGGERS

as a disclaimer, below you will find triggering content, chief among them is CHILD NEGLECT and MENTIONS OF WORKING IN A HOSPITAL. my overall trigger warning tag to blacklist which will be used on ALL of my tw posts will be: hey don't look at this, but i will be tagging specific tags too.

PSA: if you’re interested, please check out my CONNECTIONS page !

BASIC INFORMATION

FULL NAME: james alexander malcolm carmichael

NICKNAME(S): doesn’t particularly mind his birth name, but at times people have often called him jaime.

BIRTH DATE: september 25, 1986

AGE: thirty-four

ZODIAC: libra

GENDER: cismale

PRONOUNS: he/him

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: panromantic

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: demisexual ( it isn’t so much so that cris is completely disinterested in sex (he’s got a perfectly good libido, thank you very much), he just doesn’t find himself sexually attracted to people based on physical appearance or initial impressions. instead he finds personality, intellect, and existing emotional attachment considerably more compelling )

NATIONALITY: british

ETHNICITY: english, dutch-german jewish

OCCUPATION: pediatric neurosurgeon ( currently in his fellowship program )

POSTIVE TRAITS: independent, versatile, adaptable, curious, inquisitive, intelligent, divergent thinker, anti-authoritarian, self-actualizer, flexible, original, ambitious, charismatic, creative, loyal, thoughtful, warm-hearted, respectable, compassionate

NEGATIVE TRAITS: stubborn, unconventional, uncooperative, assertive, cynical, temperamental, withdrawn, restless, insecure, jealous, intolerant, naïve, impatient

BACKGROUND

BIRTH PLACE: england, united kingdom

HOMETOWN: oxford, england

EDUCATION LEVEL: went to university of oxford and majored in human physiology, went to medical school at ucl for 4 years, did residency for 7 years, and now is currently in last few months of pediatric neurosurgeon fellowship program

FATHER: william carmichael

MOTHER: diana carmichael

SIBLING(S): two older brothers and one older sister: nathaniel, matthew, and sarah

CHILDREN: none

PET(S): female ragdoll call named ginsberg ( yes, she’s named after allen ginsberg )

OTHER IMPORTANT RELATIVES: cecelia and grant ( grandparents on mom’s side )

PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIPS: 2 serious romantic relationships in the past

BACKSTORY

— TRIGGER WARNING BEGINS —

- when someone hears the name carmichael, they automatically think of words like prestigious, wealthy, and perfect. and who wouldn’t? with the father being a lawyer and mother owning her own real estate business, you had to think like that. in the public eye the carmichael family was flawless. everyone wanted what they had. jaime carmichael, was born into a world where perfection was of the utmost importance. the carmichael family is one of those prestigious families that has always been full of wealthy and high-class snobs, and jaime’s parents were no exception. he grew up learning how to be charming and how to be well behaved. jaime’s childhood years consisted of him sitting restlessly at various fancy parties and dinners, while his mother kept him from all the fancy treats so that he would grow up to be fit and strong. jaime’s parents were always cold and emotionally isolated from him, only after a perfect son to show off to the world.

- as a young, restless little child, jaime sought escape from his shallow, chilly life in the form of a friend. his friend taught him that there was such a thing as warmth and friendliness, told him lots of stories of greek mythology, and he learned that his parents had been lying about “tactless individuals” being horrible people. however, when his father found out about his associations with his friend, within a week, the boy mysteriously disappeared. since then, jaime kept all his unapproved-of friends to himself except from his grandparents on his mom's side who loved him unconditionally and were his best friends.

— TRIGGER WARNING ENDS —

- jaime is the youngest child of the 4 carmichael children & although there are age gaps between him and his siblings he doesn’t feel as though he’s the stereotypical ‘forgotten child’. this reason is solely base off the fact he typically makes himself scarce anyway to go off to do his own thing lmfao.

- for most of his adolescents up until adulthood, jaime always has had a rather tranquil personality. he never was one to act on emotion or impulsiveness, which meant most of his time he was seen in the his father's den reading about art history, helping his mother around, etc instead of learning the family business like his other siblings. it never personally interested him, so he never thought to pay much attention.

- because of his serene behavior, also came the fact that he’s mostly reclusive and demure, too. one would think being of carmichael blood would mean one would act diplomatic in all situations, but not for jaime. when given the chance, he will most likely be in the back listening rather than participating unless addressed, making him a great observer of his surroundings because of this skill. he prides himself on being a great listener in important situations even if people may believe he’s not particularly interested.

- a lot of people have come to believe over the years that because of his reclusive personality, he must be unapproachable.

- which he would clearly tell anyone that rumor is further from the truth. it’s not that he’s unapproachable, per se, it’s more of the fact he doesn’t typically go up to people to spark conversation unless it’s for work or art related means. otherwise, his conversational skills are subpar at best and he doesn’t mind much.

- as unfortunate as people’s misconceptions are when people do have the courage to approach him, they’re always surprised he’s rather civil, zen, and all around friendly and not at all like the rumors make him out to be. he always has to laugh at those kinds of things, of course.

- but besides that, he’s also witty and sarcastic. he likes to crack jokes and puns ever so often, even though he can have pretty dry humor at times. his sarcastic remarks are never meant to be harsh, but because of his dry humor undertones, he can sometimes come off rather offensive.

- although jaime has patience, he’s still a carmichael through and through, which he will not let anyone forget. he is unafraid to stand up for himself when he feels he’s in the right–or at least, attempt to do so. and although he strives to contain his zen aura, he can fall into fits of frustration and annoyance quite often when his family are involved ( which happens to be quite often ).

- jaime doesn’t care to raise his voice or scream his head off when he’s upset, because frankly, he doesn’t see that as a reason to make his point come across effectively. but when he does become upset, his silence speaks louder than any person’s words could muster. it’s actually quite scary how the atmosphere around him drastically changes when he becomes angry. in simple terms, he’s somewhat like a praying mantis in the ways he becomes very still & silent. one look can be a 1,000 words unsaid. if he’s upset at you, his silence will cut deeper than anything.

- importantly, jaime’s romantic sexuality is panromantic, meaning he would pursue both sexes and beyond romantically. when it comes to developing a far more intimate relationship, however, jaime is demisexual. meaning it is not so much so that he is completely disinterested in sex ( he’s got a perfectly good libido, thank you very much ), he just doesn’t find himself sexually attracted to people based on physical appearance or initial impressions. instead he finds personality, intellect, and existing emotional attachment considerably more compelling.

- although he often makes himself scarce when it comes to familial ties, jaime is fiercely protective and loyal to his family. no one will ever come between him and his family.

- he was born and raised in oxford, england.

- when he graduated from secondary school, he pursued a higher education by going to university of oxford. in the beginning, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to major in. the possibilities were endless, of course, but he wanted to pursue something he loved and also make a decent living on his own two feet when he graduated. at first, he thought he would be interested in something to do with the arts, but that dream died rather quickly when he rationalized how he didn’t want to make his passion for art into a full-time job that he would come to quickly hate in a few years. so, after some thought, he weighed his options and fell into step with human physiology. he always believed he had an eye for helping people and it was also a perfect career to fall into when it came to making a really great income. from there he studied his ass off by finishing university in 4 years, went to med school at ucl medical school, did his residency in 7 years, and is currently in his last few months of his pediatric neurosurgeon fellowship program.

- to put it plan and simple jaime is an art ho. jaime always loved anything artistic. even when he was little, he would go around with his disposable camera and take pictures of everything and then take to paper to draw the things he had taken pictures of as well.

- he’s like a hippie dippy child of the universe. no joke. no seriously, his place at home is full of sensual shit and art. it’s getting out of hand and somebody needs to stop him soon.

- he strongly believes that art is an umbrella term that relates to expressing oneself ( not just through photography and painting ) and that everyone has the freedom to express themselves however they please. because of his beliefs, he chooses to break gender roles like bread and wears whatever the fuck he wants because yolo.

- his appearance pretty much represents his hippie dippy lifestyle with him wearing all sorts of cute hipster shit. he’s clothes are v flow-y but don’t let that fool you. he doesn’t miss the opportunity to represent his upper-middle class within his style, so he does dress to impress, let me tell you ( he’s a fashion ho too ). his hair color changes sometimes too depending on his mood but it’s generally never too eccentric.

5 RANDOM FACTS

1. to put it plan and simple jaime is an art ho. jaime always loved anything artistic. even when he was little, he would go around with his disposable camera and take pictures of everything and then take to paper to draw of all the things he had taken pictures of as well.

2. he’s like a hippie dippy child of the universe. no joke. no seriously, his place at home is full of sensual shit and art. it’s getting out of hand and somebody needs stop him soon. he strongly believes that art is an umbrella term that relates to expressing of oneself ( not just through photography and painting ) and that everyone has the freedom to express themselves however they please. because of his beliefs, he chooses to break gender roles like bread and wears whatever the fuck he wants because yolo.

3. has a female ragroll cat named ginsberg. he named her after allen ginsberg because he’s obsessed with the dead poets society and sometimes deems himself as a member.

4. sometimes when he’s nervous, he will tap his leg pretty quickly.

5. jaime is never one to get drunk ever. he’s usually the one to always babysit the drunk ones ( he’s the honorary dad friend ), but he thought one day he would have a little solo party in his apartment on the one saturday night he had off and watch the lizzie mcguire movie for nostalgia purposes. long story short, he eventually ended up drunk on wine and recorded a whole music video of myself dancing to the ‘what dreams are made of’ song. let’s just say that video recording will never see the light of day.

OCCUPATION & INCOME

PRIMARY SOURCE OF INCOME: being a pediatric neurosurgeon.

SECONDARY SOURCE OF INCOME: when he has the time, he’ll usually do photography and/or art commissions. but it’s mostly only as a hobby and when he feels like it.

CONTENT WITH THEIR JOB (OR LACK THERE OF)?: it’s a tiring job, but well worth it.

PAST JOB(S): during high school, he used to help his mom with her real estate business by handing out flyers and during med school, he would work as a tutor.

SPENDING HABITS: mostly he spends money on his hobbies such as photography and art supplies. he also spends spoiling his cat, too. if he’s really feeling like a ‘treat yo self’ moment, he’ll splurge on a designer outfit or a shit ton of food.

MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION: when he was about 10 years old, his grandmother gifted him a book on the history of art because she knew he had a passion for it. it’s a bit tattered and dog-eared but it’s well loved when it comes to looking for inspiration.

SKILLS & ABILITIES

TALENTS: painting, being ambidextrous, somehow waking up at the ass crack of dawn every morning.

LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: english, french, and a bit of korean.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE & CHARACTERISTICS

FACE CLAIM: ben barnes

EYE COLOR: deep brown. his eyes are as hickory as rich as the earth’s soil; stained with the color of hot chocolate on a cold winter night that wraps around you like a blanket; engulfs you in its warmth and makes you feel at home.

HAIR COLOR: warm brown. his hair is a lovely whisky, the color of fallen leaves browned and sleek with the first rain of autumn.

HAIR TYPE/STYLE: thick, full, and silky to the touch. shaved and shortened on the sides. primarily put into a curly contemporary quiff. sometimes grows out his hair to shoulder length and then puts it into a bun.

GLASSES/CONTACTS?: wears contacts and glasses.

DOMINANT HAND: technically both, but uses the right more.

HEIGHT: between 5′10-5′11.

EXERCISE HABITS: goes for a 2 hour run/jog every saturday morning, but let’s be real, he doesn’t exercise much lmao.

TATTOOS: currently doesn’t have any, but wants to get one someday.

PEIRCINGS: as a rebellious teenager, he once got his tongue pierced on a dare ( long story ), but ended up liking the look of it anyway ( he doesn’t wear it any longer but will sport it out once in while just for shock value ). he also has industrial piercing on his right ear and both lobes pierced.

MARKS/SCARS: probably? but nothing too big or noticeable.

NOTABLE FEATURES: has particularly long eyelashes.

USUAL EXPRESSION: neutral???

CLOTHING STYLE: light and flowy high fashion displayed throughout an extensive wardrobe, mixed with dark and elegant taste. commonly paired with rings of all sorts and simple necklaces.

JEWELRY: varies rings and necklaces.

ALLERGIES: none

DIET: predominately pescatarian.

PHYSICAL AILMENTS: none

PSYCHOLOGY

MORAL ALIGNMENT: true neutral and occasionally teetering on chaotic good.

TEMPERAMENT: delicate and unfaltering, never without a sense of poise. posture tall, a prominent feline sway in his walk – every move is calculated. appears very energetic and optimistic when first meeting, but has a very apollonian vibe once you get to know him well. very much of a flower child, as you will. he expresses his tranquility in his persona and actions.

MENTAL CONDITIONS/DISORDERS: generalized anxiety disorder.

OBSESSION(S): his cat, food, binge watching soap operas and sci-fi shows, baby yoda aka grogu, sleeping when he can.

COMPULSION(S): buying too much art supplies and home décor.

PHOBIA(S): coulrophobia ( fear of clowns ).

ADDICTION(S): none that he’s aware of.

DRUG USE: smoked weed once and thought he was gonna die. moral of the story, he never touched a drug again.

ALCOHOL USE: social drinker

MANNERISMS

SPEECH STYLE: can range from intimate, formal, to casual.

ACCENT: british

QUIRKS: refuses to hurt any animal, including insects, fights for human rights, belongs to a fan club, enjoys jokes with puns, has an obsession with a particular TV show, series, film, or franchise, gardens, is always reading, paints, takes pictures of everything, practices calligraphy, must drink coffee or tea to “wake up”, is “organized chaos”, loves to hug, taps foot when bored or nervous, sleeps during the day, always answers a question with a question, always answers a question with a question, goes off on tangents, is extremely sarcastic,

HOBBIES: photography, painting, anything art related.

DO THEY CURSE OFTEN?: like a motherfucking sailor.

FAVOURITES

ACTIVITY: anything art related.

ANIMAL: cats, red pandas, ferrets.

BEVERAGE: tea or coffee.

BOOK: and then there was none by agatha christie

COLOR: blacks, greys, purples, mustard yellow.

DESIGNER: balenciaga and dior

FOOD: salmon or tilapia

FLOWER: sunflowers

HOLIDAY: halloween

MODE OF TRANSPORTATION: train or car

SCENT: vanilla or lavender

WEATHER: fall type atmosphere

#florencev.intro #florencev-starters #child neglect tw #hospital mention tw #hey don't look at this

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theancientgeekoroman · 6 years

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I want to study classics in college, but I have no clue what that’ll entail. What can I expect from that being my major?

Okay, so the Classics majors will depend on your University! I went to the University of Delaware so I can tell you what happened with my major.

So, when I began undergrad, the only program at UD for Classics was a History major with a concentration in a language. Luckily for me, Classics was one of those options. You could take the option to focus on both of the languages or one specific language.

I chose the route of both languages, so I took sequences of both Ancient Greek and Latin. I took (what is now the equivalent of, since they changed the numbers of the courses since I took them) Greek 101, 102, 201, and 202 and Latin 101, 102, 201, and 202, and those were my language requirements. I could have gone into the 300-level if I wanted to, but then they would have been considered electives and not counted towards my major specifically. If I had chosen just Latin or just Greek, I would have had to take the sequence of 101-102-201-202-301-302 in one or the other. Part of the reason I had ended up with both languages (which I took at the same time, mind you) was that I had changed my major late and I would have never been able to meet the language requirement for one language in time for graduation.

The History requirements were a little laxer for me (this was before they changed requirements) - so the requirements, because I was a Classics concentration, was two 300-level (or above) courses in ancient history. The issue I ran into was the professor that taught the courses was a little harsh, and I had trouble concentrating in his courses because he put it in the syllabus that half the class would fail the course. I had to psychologically withdraw from his classes twice because of it (aside: please remember there is no shame in dropping courses if it’s affecting your mental or physical health!). Luckily, I did end up getting permission from the History Department to count my 400-level Art History seminar (Women in Antiquity) to count towards one of those courses. The other 300-level History course I ended up taking was Ancient Rome, which I took with a different professor when the aforementioned professor was on sabbatical.

My other history courses didn’t have to do with ancient history if I didn’t want them to. I ended up taking mostly Medieval courses for the remainder of the requirements because that is my secondary interest (and my name is Brythonic, so it was always fun to see the professors’ reactions when I joined the classroom). I think the history courses I ended up taking for my other higher level coursework were Colonial America, 1066, 11th Century Medieval Europe, Renaissance History and then I had the required things like History 101 and 102, etc.

The next thing that was required was two Civilization courses, one of which had to be Biblical and Classical Literature (I believe it’s just an option now), which I took under the Jewish Studies subject (you could take it as Jewish Studies or English, and apparently I was the only one in that section who had taken it as Jewish Studies). The other course I took was Classical Literature in Translation: Tragedy (it rotated from different subjects, but Tragedy and Comedy were offered pretty often).

That was the bulk of my Classics that I took specific to my major. Additionally, you have to remember that electives/breadth (”gen eds”) are also present, so a lot of the things I took that were Classics-related that did not go into my degree requirement were also there, but these were the classes that I needed to graduate. Also, I was a double major/double minor, so some of my Classics were English, Art History, or Theatre as well.

The current requirements for the BA I completed at the University of Delaware is here: https://catalog.udel.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=18&poid=10630&returnto=1243

Another program that the University of Delaware has (that I would have preferred had it been added before my junior year of university) is the Ancient Greek and Roman Studies major. This major is a little more flexible than the one I outlined above, and here are the major-specific requirements you need for that BA:

Language/Culture:

2 classes like Biblical and Classical Literature or Classical Literature in Translation or one of the rotating literature courses offered when it has a Greek or Roman theme

Ancient Greek or Latin

One of the languages at the 200-level or higher, so 2 courses (e.g., 201, 202) but if you took either language in high school, you might be going to 301 and 302, etc.

Electives

18 credits (6 classes) of electives relevant to the ancient world, which can be from a variety of subjects like Anthropology, Art History, more Greek or Latin, History, Philosophy, or Theatre

Courses I took under these elective lists are: Classical Mythology, Introduction to Prehistoric Archaeology, World Religions, and Theatre/Drama: Classical/Medieval

Now the majors also have the option to fulfill something called a capstone, which is like a final project of some sort and you write a senior thesis

https://catalog.udel.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=18&poid=10589&returnto=1243

Additionally, Villanova is where I’m getting my MA right now in Classical Studies and they have a BA/MA option for motivated students, so keep your eye out for programs like that as well! (They also have BA and MA separately; they’re the only non-profit university in the U.S. that I know of that offers an online MA in Classical Studies, too, which is why I ended up going there because I couldn’t justify moving again for a two-year program). (More here: https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/artsci/classical.html)

I hope that helps! Please feel free to send me any more asks if you want to know more or get clarification from this ask!

All the best,

Tychon, the Ancient Geeko-Roman

#Classics #Classical Studies #tagamemnon #university #college #academia #long post #personal #University of Delaware #Villanova University #Anonymous

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awake-and-strange · 5 years

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This obituary by Janis Ian about Anne McCaffrey is very A Passion for Friends:

There've been so many mentions of Anne McCaffrey in the post below, I thought to post this homage I wrote for Locus Magazine when Annie died. I miss her, a lot. I kept a few of the most precious books she gave me, but last time I opened one I burst into tears... I feel fortunate to have loved someone so wonderful, to have been loved in return, and to miss her this much. From Locus Magazine: THE MASTERHARPER IS GONE "I have a shIelf of comfort books, which I read when the world closes in on me or something untoward happens." —Anne McCaffrey I miss her fiercely, more than I have any right to miss her. I remind myself of this whenever I run into her at the library and am stricken with tears. She was not kin, was not connected to me by family ties, not even a distant cousin. Not even Jewish. I have no right to miss her this much. And once in a while, when I chide myself for my silly sentimentality, the sudden lightning that pierces my heart gives way to a duller, deeper pain. One I can live with, perhaps. Like today, waking to a terrible cold, with headache and foggy brain I reach for solace. Put on my red flannel comfort shirt, add my favorite PJ bottoms, then a pair of fleece-lined slippers. Make my favorite tea, cover myself with an old patchwork quilt, and reach blindly for a book on my “comfort shelf.” Of course. I can’t escape her. Hours later, still miserable, I finish "All the Weyrs of Pern" for the umpteenth time, and scold myself for the tears that fall – first, because she is gone, and second, because I never really succeeded in telling her just how much she meant to me. I’d never heard of her when I stumbled across for "The Ship Who Sang" at my local library. I wrote to her, saying that it had moved me profoundly, wondering how a prose writer could have such a clear understanding of a musician’s soul. Being one myself, I said, a musician that is, and would like to send a copy of my last record in gratitude. She responded with a laugh that she had never heard of me but oh my, her children had, and could we trade books for recordings? And so, we began. I raced through everything she sent – such generosity, so much that it took two large boxes to ship it all. She, in turn, told me that while she appreciated the beauty of my “Jesse” and the clarity of “At 17”, she was writing her current novel to the beat of my one disco hit, “Fly Too High.” I laughed aloud because it made an artist’s sense to me – dragons flew, and Anne flew with them, regardless of the beat. It was the third or fourth email that she began with the salutation “Dear Petal,”. Petal. Me? I responded that of all the things I’d been called, no one had ever dreamed to name me “Petal”. She answered briskly that obviously, they’d never seen me bloom. From that day forward, I was her Petal, and she my Orchid. We corresponded ferociously, both all-or-nothing no-holds-barred types, Aries to the hilt. Weekly, daily, sometimes hourly. Dropped out at times when one of us was “on tour”, came back to it as we could. The time passed. Her beloved agent died. My parents passed away. She got a scathing review; I sent a few of my own. She was stuck on a chapter, I was stuck on a verse. We got unstuck, stuck again, and through it all we talked, comforting one another as only a “good hot cuppa” can. She picked me up herself in Dublin, leaning on a cane, nervous to meet in the flesh until I ran into her arms and smothered her with hugs. She drove between the hedgerows with complete abandon, a total disregard for ruts or speed limits, while I clutched the seat and wondered who’d get the bigger headline if we crashed. Annie, I decided, for she was truly a two-column, bold print kind of gal. By then, she was always “Annie” to me, or “Annie Mac”. My larger than life friend, who consorted daily with dragons and starlight, her own luster never dimming beside them. Once, after she showed me the rock cliffs of the Guiness Estate and explained that Benden Hold looked just like that, she asked if I would write a theme for it. For the movie? I said. “Yes”, she said, “A theme. Because if Menolly came to life, it would be with your voice.” I say this not to brag, but to indicate the trust between us – such trust that when I got home, with no film in sight, I began sketching out some notes for “Lessa’s Song”. I wanted it to be haunting, the way her words haunted me. I wanted it to be sweeping, like the thrust of dragon wings. I wanted it to be everything I could bring to her, a gift for someone whose words took me out of my world and into hers. As she said herself, “That’s what writing is all about, after all, making others see what you have put down on the page and believing that it does, or could, exist and you want to go there.” I hope someday to finish that melody. I hope it’s good enough for a MasterHarper to sing. I hope she regarded me worthy of the title. Because that’s what she was for so many of us – the MasterHarper, singing in prose, songs that reminded us of where we’d been, and what we could become. She came and stayed with us in Nashville, bringing a broken shoulder and trusting me to care for her. We visited Andre Norton, Annie insisting I not just drive but sit with them and listen to “a bit of gossip”. These two women—one writing at a time when pseudonyms were necessary for a woman to get published, the other cracking the New York Times bestseller list with, of all things, a science fiction book, and by a female at that!—talked of publishers, rumors, scandals old and new, while I sat as silent as an unopened book, wishing I’d thought to bring a tape recorder. At first, as her health declined, she bore it cheerfully. “I’m bionic now, Petal, complete with metal knees!” she declared. “Better than ever, and no pain.” She kept to her writing schedule, doing what she could to help her body retain its youth. Swam every day, bragged about her granddaughter’s accomplishments at school – “First prize, don’tcha know!” and commiserated over our various surgeries. We sound like a couple of old Yiddishe mamas, comparing whose surgery was worse! I laughed, and she laughed along with me. Neither of us reckoned on the psychic toll. “Old age is not for the faint of heart,” she quoted, as her energy began to leech away. How is it we artists always forget just how hard it is to write? how much work it is? How can we ignore the vast psychic drain that accompanies every act of creation? We both knew it from her Pern books, when going between enervated even the hardiest of dragon riders. But somehow, we never expected it in “real” life. It’s only when we lose that effervescence, through age, through illness, through sheer attrition, that we realize how necessary it is to our work. How fundamental to our beings. “I can’t write.” She confessed the shameful secret to me not once, but dozens of times, as if repetition would prove it a lie. At first, playing the friend, I tried to reassure her. Then don’t! Take some time off, Annie. Restore your body, and the brain will follow. Talent doesn’t just disappear, you know – it lies in wait. But she knew better. “I'm still not writing. I think I know how Andre Norton is feeling, too, because I suspect that she's finding it very difficult to write, as the wellspring and flexibility that did us so much service is drying up in our old age. And no false flattery. AT 76 I AM old, and she's in her nineties. It takes a lot of energy to write, as much as it takes you to keep on adding flavor to your song presentation. Sorry to blah at you but you're one of the few people who does understand the matter when an artist questions their output.” I responded in kind. "No worries talking to me about not writing... I sure as hell know the amount of energy it consumes. Every time you sit down to write, it's a performance. Only you don't have the luxury of props - no lights, sound, other actors to step behind when the inevitable fatigue hits. Heck, Annie, I'm feeling it more and more now, and you've got a quarter century on me. I notice it mid-show; two hours used to be a piece of cake. Now I feel myself flagging at 45 minutes, and I really look forward to that 20 minute intermission, if only so I can have some water and sit for a few minutes. "Same with writing, for me. Used to be able to sit and write for 6 hours at a stretch. Now I'm good for two if I'm lucky. Part of it's my back, but most of it is - I fear - just that I'm older. It sucks." And she wrote back. “Must write. There are IRS problems. You wouldn’t believe. Mouths to feed, people depending on. Advances already spent and gone. Must write.” And so, she wrote, but for a while there was no joy in it. Still, I loved what she wrote, and told her so. I was proud of our friendship, not because she was so damned famous, but because she was so damned good. She even used my name in a book – Ladyholder Janissian in Skies of Pern – and roared with laughter when I admitted I’d been so wrapped up in the story that I hadn’t even noticed. But she knew – as artists always do – that while her ability to plot continued apace, the actual writing of it was becoming an endurance contest she couldn’t hope to win. “Turn more of it over to Todd,” I argued. Her son had a real knack for a sentence, but it was hard for Annie to let go. Of course. What artist can? “His words may not sing the way yours do – yet. He doesn’t have your lyrical grace – yet. But he will, Annie, you’ve just got to let him breathe!” I said it and said it and said it, to no avail. Then came a day when, 25 years younger and an ocean away, I finally lost patience and angrily berated her. “Damnit Annie, quit complaining and just stop! By God, you have created a mountain of work, an incredible legacy that will endure and be read by zillions of people long after both of us are gone – so quit whining about what you cannot do and start looking at what you have done. It’s time, Anne. Take this unbearable weight off your shoulders and stop!” I sent the email off and waited for her response, fearing I’d gone too far. A day. Then another. Finally, sure I’d lost a friend, I called to ask just how angry she was with me. Oh, no, not at all, she’s “in hospital.” She took a fall. She’d write soon. And she did, quoting me and saying “I knew you, of all people, would make sense.” A sweeter absolution I’ve never had. We continued our friendship, bitching about our bodies, menopause, the inevitable “drying up” of everything that comes with the feminine mystique. You cannot imagine the luxury, for me, to have a compatriot a quarter-century older. As an artist, I admired her work. But as a woman, I was relieved to have someone relentlessly honest about what was to come in my own life. We traded constantly. I sent her Lhasa de Sela, Sara Bettens. She sent stories about her animals, and the garden. One spring she changed my salutation to “Dear Crocus Petal – there are eight coming up now!” We planned to visit Prague together in September ’01, but then came 9/11, and I chickened out. To be brutally honest, I was afraid to fly. Annie gently took me to task, then went off with someone else instead. I will regret that for the rest of my life. She went into the hospital for the last time while I was touring the UK – just a ferry boat and an ocean of commitments away. Knowing how out of touch she’d feel, how fretful she’d be, I tried to call every day. We fell into a pattern – I’d wait until I was in the van, then phone her up and tell an off color joke, a bawdy story, a bit of kindly gossip. Sometimes about people we knew in common, Harlan perhaps, or Scott Card, whose work she admired. Sometimes just a silly series of puns I’d found on line. Whatever it was, I wanted to make her laugh, because I loved to hear her laugh. She died while I was on vacation, just days after the tour’s end. I’d brought a copy of Dragonsinger with me because on vacation, I always brought a few “comfort re-reads.” I’d fallen asleep over it, waking to an email from Gigi. Please keep it quiet until I can reach everyone, she asked. My older brother Alec is still in flight, and we don’t want him seeing it in the paper before I can reach him. I called with sleep still in my eyes and heard the hum of people behind Gigi’s answering voice. It was fast, it was painless, it was everything Annie had wanted. No lingering. A “good death” for her. But not for me. It’s hard to open my computer knowing there will be no “Dear Petal.” It’s hard, after knowing such a warm and giving shelter, to go without. Sometimes I run across a sentence that sings to me, and jot it down to show her. And sometimes, when she leaps out at me from the cover of a book, I remember she is gone, and it hits me like lightning, fast and lethal and completely unexpected. It stops my breath, until I remind myself that she is gone, but I am still here. When the lightning hits, I comfort myself with this. The beauty of Anne’s writing is that she makes it all seem, not just possible, but normal. For men to go dragonback. For women to become ships. For young, unwanted girls to become MasterHarpers. For brains to pair with brawns, and sing opera under alien skies. And for an unlikely friendship to bloom, a pairing no one could have imagined, between a petal on earth, and an orchid in flight.

#a passion for friends #janis ian #anne mccaffrey #petal and orchid

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gleekto · 6 years

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One Night Love Affair (22/24)

Summary: Kurt and Blaine never met in high school. They each finally make it to college, out of Ohio, to New York City - where they won’t be the only gay kid in the state. So when they meet at the first Queer NYADA mixer of the year in their freshman year of college, eager and hopeful has to be trumped by playing it cool (because whatever). Things move too fast (no big, it’s cool), and they’re left with pretending like it’s nothing (because everyone hooks up - so what?).

One night and its aftermath.

One Night Love Affair

Athlete, Bury, Camera, Paper, Exclude, Feed, Gradual, House, Incident, Joke, Kidnap, Language, Momentum, Negligence, Orange, Pledge, Quantity, Realism, Stay, Transaction, Understand

Part 22: Vegetarian

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

“You there? It’s 11 o’clock!” A female voice jolts Blaine out of sleep. “Come on, wake up!”

What the? Blaine was just having a fantastic dream that he was in bed with Kurt and it’s going to end with Rachel Berry crashing in to knock him out of it. He opens his eyes.

“Kurt? Are you in there?” Rachel’s voice continues. Blaine is not in his own bed. “I have been waiting for a full report since I woke up two hours ago! Are you still sleeping?”

Kurt pops up beside him. “I am so sorry about her,” He whispers to Blaine. “Yes, Rachel. I was still sleeping. Though obviously not anymore,” Kurt says more loudly to the voice behind the door.

“Oh a late night?” Rachel sing songs as Kurt rolls his eyes at Blaine, clearly irritated. Blaine bites his lower lip and tries not to laugh out loud. “Open this door so I can actually hear about it!” Her persistence is admirable. Though that might not be the word Kurt would choose.

Kurt stands up, naked, and wow. This is way better than leaving in the middle of the night. Kurt in the morning - messy hair, long body, soft, warm. Kurt pulls on his boxers and a white t-shirt and sits on the edge of the bed. “You wanna borrow a pair?” Kurt mouths quietly to him and grabs another pair of boxers. “Or do you just wanna use-” Kurt points to his black briefs shoved under the desk on the floor.

“I’ll borrow,” Blaine says quickly. “If you don’t mind, I mean-”

“I don’t mind,” Kurt says back quickly, tossing him the boxers. “But you have to wear these.” Kurt blushes at the black boxers with little red hearts all over them.

“If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that an ex-boyfriend gave these to you,” Blaine whispers back as he pulls them up.

“Just a gag gift on Valentine’s Day from my friend Mercedes, I’m afraid.”

“Well, lucky me, then.” Waking up at 11am in Kurt’s bed, wearing Kurt’s heart shaped boxers. Accurate.

“Oh my god, Kurt!” Rachel again. “Please don’t tell me there’s another note. If he left you with a note again, I’m going to-” Rachel is huffing as Kurt opens the door a crack and sticks his head out.

“Good morning, Rachel.”

“Oh good, you’re up.” Blaine is on the bed behind Kurt and can’t see his face but he’s sure it’s meme-worthy. “Why are you just standing there? Let me in so I can hear about this night.”

“No note this time, Rachel,” Blaine answers as he stands up behind Kurt, resting his head over Kurt’s shoulder. Rachel’s jaw drops and Kurt smirks.

“No note,” Kurt repeats.

“Hi Rachel,” Blaine says brightly. “We had a lovely night. Thank you for asking.” He wants to continue just to prolong the satisfied look on Kurt’s face. And the shock on Rachel’s.

“Oh my god, Kurt!” Rachel grabs Kurt’s hands. “Blaine stayed over!”

Kurt sneaks a quick look at Blaine peaking out over his shoulder. “He did?”

“He’s here!” Rachel says again, ignoring the sarcasm. Blaine’s gotta hand it to her - she looks almost as excited as he feels. And though he’d never say it out loud, he loves the approval. “You’ll give me all the details later,” she stage whispers to Kurt.

“Ha!” Kurt laughs, opening the door to let her in as he pulls on the rest of his clothes and throws Blaine a sweater. “Nothing to report, really. We drank tea and listened to show tunes. The usual.” Rachel crosses her arms and looks at Blaine, hoping for a hook.

“Alright Rachel. I’ll give - “ Blaine says and Kurt turns to him sharply. “It was mint tea. And the West Side Story soundtrack.” Kurt smiles.

“Gender flexible,” Kurt adds. “I played Mario. Of course.”

“Of course,” Blaine agrees.

“We all know what happens in West Side Story,” Rachel hints as she hums ‘One Hand, One Heart’.

“Yes. And luckily, we’ve lived to see the morning,” Kurt answers back. “Now can we meet you downstairs and go to brunch or something. I’m starving.”

“I’ll text Sam and Tina to join us. Where to?”

“This calls for a celebration!” Rachel claps her hands. “Bacon! I need bacon! How about Hog’s Hollow Cafe?” Rachel waves and leaves to get her purse as Kurt closes the door.

“Sounds good to me. But isn’t she a vegetarian?” Blaine asks. “And Jewish?”

“Only selectively,” Kurt says drily. “Any momentous occasions in her life - like me having sex - call for crispy pig parts.”

“It was pretty momentous.” Blaine pushes Kurt up against the closed door, bodies flush and waking up, interested again. Blaine groans. “I know she’s waiting downstairs.”

Kurt groans. “You see what a terrible influence she is. I’m being forced to go out and eat artery clogging saturated fats with greasy potatoes, instead of staying here for a cardio work out.”

“I promise a work out this afternoon then,” Blaine smiles. “As long as, you know, I’m not going to tire you out.”

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

Blaine feels confident they will easily achieve their fitness goals by the end of the month.

#klaine advent 2018 #klaine advent: vegetarian #gleekto writes #one night love affair #with that word prompt this obviously had to be a rachel chapter

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dontstophq · 5 years

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RACHEL BERRY is a SOPHOMORE at WILLIAM MCKINLEY HIGH SCHOOL. she is SIXTEEN YEARS OLD, and a member of the NEW DIRECTIONS. she is SINGLE, but has a crush on FINN HUDSON.

finn hudson, crush → rachel’s been in love with finn hudson for over a year now. at least, she likes to think it’s love. she watches him walk through the hallway with nothing but stars in her eyes, and she only hopes that one day he can return the same affection. when he joined glee club, she finally got her chance to get close to him. she doesn’t want to overdo it, of course, but she’s too eager, and she can’t entirely help herself. hopefully, he’ll see there’s more to her than most girls, and they’ll be wed before the end of the year.

kurt hummel, potential friend → rachel wants to be friends with kurt. truly and honestly, she does. she understands, however, that she’s abrasive, and her personality doesn’t always mesh well with others. however, there’s too many similarities between her and kurt for rachel to let her ego get in the way. is it frustrating that he insists he’s better than her? of course. however, she’ll swallow her pride -- if only for a moment -- if it means she’ll have a friend.

quinn fabray, enemy → rachel is positive that quinn fabray isn’t always what she seems. she plays up the act of cold hearted ice queen to keep everyone at an arm’s length away. and, if she wasn’t so threatened by rachel being near finn, quinn wouldn’t be on her case all the time. there’s something else going on, something that rachel is determined to find out. this, of course, requires her getting closer to quinn, and she’s not sure how to make that happen without risking death. (metaphorically, of course.)

THUNDERCLAP REVIEW.

1. what drew you to show choir?

It might sound cliché to say that every other moment in my life has led me to this moment, but all I can tell is the truth. My truth.

I was born out of love, and ever since I made my debut into the world, I knew I was destined for greatness. My Dads did as well, and catching onto the fact that I was very verbally talented from a young age, enrolled me in every single arts class they could find in Lima, OH. I’ve been taking vocal lessons since I was two, dance lessons since I was three, and I’ve been involved in four community theatre productions since turning thirteen.

Therefore, when the show choir was finally given a new director after the... unfortunate incident with Mr. Ryerson, it was nothing less than an act of fate. With a club that allows my truest talents to shine, I’m one step closer to my New York City destiny. Though I’m the unofficial captain of a team that lacks any real coordination, leadership, or flexibility, I’m doing my best to ensure that the New Directions are a hit at William McKinley. My entire future depends on it.

2. who do you think is the most popular person in school, and why?

This question seems targeted to those who aren’t fortunate enough to grace the top of the social pyramid. Though I myself can admit the strange longing to be popular, it’s obvious that no one can take the metaphorical crown from Quinn Fabray. And, by that respect, her counterpart -- Finn Hudson.

There’s something archaic about the way that people value athleticism over true talents like the arts, however I’ve been made very well aware that my opinion on such things rarely matters when it comes to conversations about the do’s and don’ts of high school. Either way, they’ve been happily together for over a year, and there’s little chance of anyone -- or anything -- changing that in the few short years we have left.

Perhaps it’s Quinn’s classic Hollywood glamour and good looks, and Finn’s rugged but approachable build that makes them the perfect blend of the teenage American dream. I, however, prefer reality, and things like social hierarchies simply don’t matter when you’ve graduated. My status in high school cannot and will not affect my Broadway dreams, and the jock heads that waste their breath belitting me will surely change their tune once my success has overshadowed anything they’ve amounted to.

3. out of everyone in the world, who would you say is your biggest inspiration?

Barbra Streisand. With ease. It’s no secret that Barbra and I are cut from the same cloth -- both Jewish, both trained in the theatric arts, and both told we’d never amount to anything due to our looks. While I can agree that I’m not what you’d call conventionally attractive, looks don’t matter when it comes to talent. I can out perform anyone within a one hundred mile radius of this cow town, and I can and will prove that with each passing day that the New Directions grow.

This group is my chance to show that the things people call me and the names they like to throw my way are meaningless, because what I lack for in personality and looks, I make up with my undeniable skills. Barbra overcame a handful of struggles until she made her big debut in Funny Girl, and ever since, she’s been fighting back against stereotypes. Along the way, she’s become a Tony award and Oscar winning icon, inspiring people just like me around the world to pursue their dreams with hopes of validation and acceptance.

I could never be her, of course, but I can certainly be the best Rachel Berry I can. With her guidance, I can truly do no wrong.

#c: all.#c: taken.

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adrabas · 22 days

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Hybrid Learning and Jewish Education: A Parent’s Guide to Understanding the Benefits

Hybrid learning isn't just a trend; it's a revolution. Especially in Jewish education, where tradition meets innovation, the hybrid model offers unparalleled advantages. It seamlessly blends online and in-person learning, providing an adaptable, sophisticated approach to meet the needs of modern teens.

Flexibility That Fits Modern Life

Flexibility. It’s what every teen needs. Hybrid learning delivers just that. Traditional education can be rigid, demanding students' presence at specific times and places. But with hybrid learning, the game changes. Students have access to Flexible Jewish High School Courses online, at times that suit them. Whether they’re balancing sports, jobs, or family responsibilities, they can structure their learning around life, not the other way around.

This adaptability isn’t just about convenience; it’s about access. Jewish teens in remote areas or those without nearby Jewish schools can still participate fully in their education. They stay connected to their heritage, no matter where they are.

Personalised Learning

Every student is different. Hybrid learning understands that. It offers a personalised approach to education, catering to individual strengths and weaknesses. Flexible Jewish Education Programs for Teen senable teachers to customise learning paths. A student excels in Torah study but needs more time with Hebrew? No problem. The hybrid model allows for tailored instruction, ensuring each student gets exactly what they need to thrive.

Personalised learning also means students can progress at their own pace. Fast learners aren’t held back, and those who need more time get the support they need. This isn’t just education; it’s education done right.

Engagement Redefined

Engagement is key to learning, and hybrid models redefine it. By incorporating digital tools, Flexible Jewish High School Courses become more than just lessons; they’re interactive experiences. Videos, quizzes, and online discussions make learning vibrant and engaging. Teens aren’t just passive learners; they’re active participants.

Yet, the in-person component remains vital. It fosters community, a cornerstone of Jewish education. Through group activities and cultural events, students don’t just learn—they connect. They build relationships that enrich their understanding of Jewish life and values.

Preparing for the Future

Hybrid learning isn’t just about the present; it’s about the future. In these programs, students develop skills beyond academics. They learn digital literacy, critical thinking, and time management—skills essential in today’s world.

Final Note:

Hybrid learning is not merely a method; it’s a movement. It offers flexibility, personalisation, and engagement while preparing Jewish teens for the future. Most importantly, it ensures that tradition and modernity walk hand in hand, creating a rich, relevant educational experience.

#Flexible Jewish Education Programs for Teens #Flexible Jewish High School Courses #Accredited Jewish High School Courses #Accredited Jewish High School in Ontario

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mwsa-member · 5 years

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MWSA Interview with Zita Fletcher

Date of interview: 19 January 2020 Zita Ballinger Fletcher (also known by the pen name Zita Steele) is a journalist, author and military history writer. She writes fiction and nonfiction books, and has published more than 10 works. With a background in art, she designs and illustrates her published work. She also produces videos and creates multimedia content. Zita is the author of the first published collection of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s wartime photography, an ongoing book series. Her areas of interest include World War II British and Commonwealth history and German Resistance. In addition to MWSA, Zita is a member of the British Military Historical Society and the Friends of the Fusilier Museum Warwick (conserving the history of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment) in the UK. Zita is also a member of the National Society of the Washington Family Descendants and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). Zita is fluent in German. She attended the Honors College at the University of South Florida and graduated Magna Cum Laude with an Honors Degree in Social Sciences. Her writings have been published by: Military History magazine, World War II Quarterly journal, World War II History magazine, The National Rifle Association, The Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, The Abraham Lincoln Association’s For the People Newsletter, North Irish Roots (UK), and the Journals of the Gloucestershire and Lincolnshire Family History Societies (UK). She is also a photographer. Visit Zita’s website at: http://www.fletcherpublishers.com/ Visit Zita’s Amazon Author profile: https://www.amazon.com/Zita-Steele/e/B009W3L5H8 MWSA: Would you recommend MWSA membership to other authors? Zita Fletcher: Definitely. MWSA provides so many resources for professional development and opportunities to learn from and connect with a wonderful community of fellow authors. I am happy to be part of the MWSA writing community and encourage all prospective authors to join. No matter what your experience level, you will find opportunities to learn, engage with others and share your story. MWSA: Please tell us a little about your writing background and philosophy. Zita Fletcher: I’ve been writing stories for as long as I can remember. I excelled at writing in school and loved storytelling. My earliest ambition was to write books. Besides writing, history and social studies were my strongest subjects in school. They continue to be my strongest subjects. In college, I majored in Social Sciences with concentrations in International Studies and Criminology. Within my discipline, I focused on criminal profiling and psychology. I earned many academic distinctions. After graduation, I strongly considered pursuing a career in Forensic Psychology. I ultimately decided to become a professional writer and am happy with my choice. As a journalist, I've enjoyed being able to share the stories and thoughts of many of our country’s veterans including a Marine medic who fought in the Battle of Guam, a Korean War veteran, wounded veterans who participated in the Warriors to Lourdes journey, a Medal of Honor recipient and others. As an American, I’m a strong believer in intellectual freedom and the human right to question. Freely exchanging opinions and firsthand learning are opportunities for discovery and enlightenment. Throughout my life I have rejected attempts by others to control or dictate what I think or believe. I became a political independent in college and remain so. I reject labels. I use the term “free thinker” to emphasize my philosophy of independently determining my beliefs and values. MWSA: Why do you write under a pen name as an author? Zita Fletcher: As a creative person, I like to have the flexibility of writing under a creative name to express myself. I use the pen name Zita “Steele.” The name “Steele” is a wordplay on steel metal. According to the Chinese zodiac and Five Element system, my element is Metal. I do not believe in astrology or horoscopes; I simply find this very cool. MWSA: When did you become interested in military matters? Zita Fletcher: My interest in war, soldiers and generals dates from an early age. As a child, I liked to play with toy knights instead of dolls. Also growing up in a Catholic house, I had a strong attraction to muscular male saints (often depicted with weapons) including St. Michael, St. George, and St. Sebastian. When I was 10, people were astonished to learn that my favorite movie was Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator.” I also amazed others when I bought Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” during a bookstore trip at about age 12. I was one of the only girls I knew who liked shooting games and war movies. On trips to museums, I was fascinated by guns, armor, swords and spears. In high school I was a voracious reader of ancient Roman war histories and keenly interested in samurai. One of my favorite TV shows was “Human Weapon.” I liked to watch the Military Channel, which is now called the American Heroes Channel. I think my interests surprised people who did not expect a feminine young lady to have such a strong attraction to warriors and military science. My genetic makeup is English, Irish, German, and Spanish—all ethnicities known for having great fighting spirit and strength of character. I was also born in the Chinese zodiac Year of the Horse. While I do not believe in astrology, some traits associated with the Horse accurately describe my personality. I was raised in a single-parent household; given my strong-willed nature, things could have been difficult. Thankfully my mom appreciated my free spirit and allowed me to be very independent growing up. In addition to military history, I’ve also had a lifelong interest in martial arts and sports. My favorite sports include mixed martial arts and fencing (foil); I started foil fencing at age 17, and still love it. MWSA: What do you like about military history? Zita Fletcher: One of the main reasons I love military history is because it is filled with courage, leadership and self-sacrifice. I like to learn about feats of bravery and strength. There is also a lot of warmth and humor among soldiers. I admire stories of brotherhood and great commanders who bonded with their troops. I’ve always been very curious about the international landscape—I love travel and foreign languages. This has led me to have keen interest in military history and theories from other countries. MWSA: Do you come from a military family? Zita Fletcher: My family history includes military tradition. My great-grandfather Edward W. Arnold was a U.S. Marine Corps instructor during World War I. My grandfather Ray A. Fletcher Sr. served as a medic in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II and as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Civil Air Patrol during the Korean War. My direct ancestor, Morris Gibbons, was a “bushwhacker” guerilla chief who led raids under Col. Joe Porter in Missouri during the Civil War. My other ancestors include a Southern cavalryman in Hampton’s Legion, several Revolutionary War-era militia captains, a British Royal Navy privateer, a Swiss-German mercenary who fought for the Duke of Marlborough and Spanish conquistadors. MWSA: Why do you speak German? Zita Fletcher: I studied German for many years as part of a personal journey to get in touch with my heritage. Aside from the rewarding experience of connecting with other people, this skill has also been priceless regarding military history. I’ve been able to do research at many German-language institutions in Europe, including the German Historical Museum in Berlin, the Jewish Museum of Berlin, the Nuremberg Trials Memorial, the Munich City Museum, the Museum of Military History in Vienna, and many other places. I find there is a void when it comes to sharing German history and perspectives with English readers—things get lost in translation, or just simply lost. I use my German language skills to research and share knowledge through my writing. MWSA: Where did your interest in British military history come from? Zita Fletcher: The first time I encountered the British military was through research on World War II North Africa for a project that started when I was 15. The desert war has remained a major interest for me ever since. I was impressed with the brave soldiers of the British Eighth Army. I learned so much from the compelling stories of these heroic men from England and the Commonwealth countries. I was also impressed with the Eighth Army’s leader, Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery. This led me to develop interests in other aspects of the British military and its rich history. I also personally relate to and admire British people and culture given my strong British heritage (Northern Irish + English). British history is a great source of inspiration to me. MWSA: Why did you decide to write a book series on Field Marshal Erwin Rommel? Zita Fletcher: Rommel is a controversial figure—but that is why he is interesting. We cannot ignore controversy if we want to learn from the past. Studying Rommel gives insights into the experiences of a German soldier who began his career in an era of turmoil, rose in the ranks and was ultimately killed by the Nazi system. There are many aspects of his story that are worth examining. What first got my attention regarding Rommel was his photography collection, which I found fascinating. I created my book series because I wanted to share my discoveries. Rommel is not the only general I find interesting. Other military leaders I’ve enjoyed studying include Hannibal, Yi Sun Shin, George Washington and T.E. Lawrence—and of course my favorite commander, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

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clovercoast9-blog · 6 years

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shaizstern · 6 years

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Article from NYT: Sidney Shachnow, 83, Is Dead; Holocaust Escapee and U.S. General

General Shachnow speaking at Fort Bragg in North Carolina in 1992. He survived the Holocaust as a child, rose through the ranks of the Army and led its forces in Berlin.CreditCreditKen Cooke/The Fayetteville Observer

By Richard Sandomir

Maj. Gen. Sidney Shachnow, who escaped a Nazi labor camp in Lithuania as a boy and later rose through the ranks of the United States Army, eventually leading its forces in Berlin at the end of the Cold War, died on Sept. 27 in Pinehurst, N.C. He was 83.

His daughter LeeAnne Meister confirmed the death, at a hospital near his horse farms in Southern Pines, N.C. He had Parkinson’s disease, atrial fibrillation and polycythemia vera, a blood cancer, she said.

His path to becoming a major general began in Kaunas, also known as Kovno, a major city in south-central Lithuania, where he was born Schaja Shachnowski on Nov. 23, 1934, to Leon and Rose (Schuster) Shachnowski. His father was an engineer; his mother, a homemaker and seamstress.

The Shachnowskis were relatively prosperous Jews. But their lives were altered dramatically when they were uprooted from their home and herded into shoddy housing in a nearby ghetto that had been sealed off by the Germans. They became forced laborers for their occupiers.

The ghetto was a de facto concentration camp, General Shachnow recalled many years later. Though it had no gas chambers or crematories, he said, nearly everybody there died.

“Our camp did things the old-fashioned way,” he said in a speech at Elon University, in North Carolina, in 2014. “Several bulldozers would dig a ditch; people would be asked to move to the edge of the ditch. In most cases they were naked. Automatic weapons would kill them. They would fall into the ditch, some wounded and not dead, and if you were lying on the ledge, an individual would throw you into the ditch.”

After three years of escalating brutality (in one instance a guard beat him with a shovel), his family devised an improbable but successful escape plan for him. Leaving behind his weeping parents one morning before dawn, 9-year-old Schaja hid under his Uncle Willie’s long coat as the uncle, with Schaja moving in rhythm with him, walked through the gates, passing guards and a work detail that was often sent outside the ghetto. Shortly afterward, children at the camp were liquidated.

When he and his uncle reached the streets beyond the gates of the ghetto, he said, his uncle gave him a prearranged signal to emerge from under the coat and find his contact, a woman wearing a red kerchief. Following the route he had been given, Schaja found her and followed her to temporary safety — in a storage room of a building with a table, chairs and a toilet.

She locked the door, and he wondered, he later recalled, if he had traded one imprisonment for another.

“I had escaped from hell!” General Shachnow wrote in his autobiography, “Hope and Honor” (2004), written with Jan Robbins. “Or had I?”

Afterward he was taken in by a Roman Catholic family and lived with them for several months. He was then reunited with his mother, who had escaped from the camp, and his younger brother, Mula, who had been smuggled to safety disguised as a girl. For a while they lived in the family’s house in Kaunas with Soviet officers; the Red Army had by then taken control of Lithuania.

But fearing that the Communists would seal the country’s borders after the war, Schaja left with his mother and brother on a 2,000-mile trek by foot, wagon and train through Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary before settling in Furth, Germany, near Nuremberg, in the fall of 1945. His father, who had been fighting the Germans with partisans, rejoined them, and they charted a path to the United States.

Maj. Gen. Sidney Shachnow in an undated photo. As a commander in Berlin, he was confronted with a delicious irony as a Holocaust survivor: His headquarters had been those of Hermann Göring, and his residence had once belonged to Fritz Reinhardt, a finance minister under Hitler.CreditU.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, via Associated Press

In 1950 the family left Germany on a Navy transport ship and arrived in Boston. Schaja, his parents and brother settled in Salem, Mass., where relatives had preceded them to America. As they sought to assimilate — he did not speak English at first — Schaja became known as Sidney and his brother as Stanley.

Sidney attended high school but dropped out in 1955 and joined the Army. He married Arlene Armstrong — a Jewish-Catholic union that his parents opposed.

“Join the new world,” he recalled telling his parents. “America, the melting pot. Have you even taken a step into this world? You both live in the past!”

Starting as an infantry private, he rose to captain in the Special Forces, or Green Berets, in 1962 and fought in Vietnam, twice receiving the Silver Star for valor.

Transferred to West Berlin in 1970, he was given command of Detachment (A), an elite Special Forces unit that conducted clandestine intelligence missions in Eastern Europe. He led it for four years.

“They served on the front lines of the Cold War and never fired a shot in anger,” General Shachnow told Task & Purpose, a national security news website, last year. “No force of its size in history has contributed more to peace, stability and freedom.”

After other postings, including as director of the United States Special Operations Command in Washington, he returned to West Berlin as the Army’s commanding officer in 1989, when events were unfolding that would lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany.

As a German-speaking combat veteran, General Shachnow was well suited to serve in Berlin. But as a Holocaust survivor, he was confronted with what he felt was delicious irony: His headquarters had been those of the powerful Nazi official Hermann Göring, and his residence had once belonged to Fritz Reinhardt, a finance minister under Hitler.

“Here it is, the very capital of fascism and the Third Reich,” General Shachnow once told The Fayetteville Observer in North Carolina. “The very buildings and streets where they were goose-stepping and Heil-Hitlering, and the very system that put me in the camp and killed many people.”

After leaving Berlin, he was appointed commander of the Special Forces and commanding general of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, N.C. While in the service he received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska and a master’s degree in public administration from Shippensburg State College (now Shippensburg University) in Pennsylvania.

He retired from the Army in 1994.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, General Shachnow helped organize an endorsement of Donald J. Trump by 88 retired military leaders. They said they believed that Mr. Trump would make a “long overdue course correction in our national security posture.”

In addition to his wife and his daughter LeeAnne, he is survived by three other daughters, Sheree Gillette, Michelle Batiste and Denise Smith; 14 grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren; and his brother.

General Shachnow said that flexibility, tenacity and assertiveness were among the qualities that had helped him survive the Holocaust.

“Unavoidable suffering can give you meaning in life,” he said in the Elon University speech. “For me, my military experience, my experience in a concentration camp and my relationship with my wife gave me meaning.”

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shakeel786blog · 6 years

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Profile: Billionaire philanthropist George Soros

Image copyright EPA

Image caption The billionaire financier has become a divisive figure in global politics in recent years

Hungarian-American businessman George Soros is one of the world’s most renowned, and philanthropic, financial investors.

Earning his fortune through shrewd financial speculation, he has spent billions of his own money funding human rights projects and liberal democratic ventures around the world.

In recent years, that funding has made him a target of the world’s nationalists and populists, who have painted him as a master-manipulator of democracy.

Much of the criticism aimed toward the 87-year-old has been criticised as having anti-Semitic undertones.

Early years

Born in 1930 in Budapest to a Jewish lawyer father, he and his family survived Hungarian Nazi-occupation by splitting up and acquiring forged papers that disguised their religion.

He emigrated to England aged 17, achieving an undergraduate degree and PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE) while working part-time as a railway porter and nightclub waiter.

Soros warns EU faces ‘existential crisis’

Facebook and Google criticised by George Soros

While there, he studied under philosopher Karl Popper, who is best known for his rallying cry for Western liberal democracy in the post-war years. His concept of “open society” would be deeply influential on Mr Soros’s ideology and financial career.

Investment career

After initially working in investment banking in London, he emigrated to the United States in 1956.

He spent time at several firms in New York, before founding his own hedge fund in 1970.

Soros Fund Management, which would eventually become the Quantum Fund, was known for its aggressive investment and high returns for investors.

The firm gained notoriety for its short-term and flexible speculation on global financial markets. This success made Mr Soros one of the world’s wealthiest men and cemented him as a legend within the investment market.

He became known “the man who broke the Bank of England” in September 1992, when he made about £1bn betting against or “shorting” the UK’s currency, the pound.

On 16 September, a day dubbed “Black Wednesday”, the Treasury rapidly lost billions in reserves, forcing the pound out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM).

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionPeter Jay reports on the day that became know as Black Wednesday

This investment gamble is probably Mr Soros’s best known, consolidating his reputation as the world’s premier currency investor.

His financial single-mindedness later led to accusations that he had helped to engineer the Asian financial crisis of 1997 when the Thai baht collapsed, triggering widespread financial contagion across the region.

At the time, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad hit out at “unscrupulous profiteers” and called for “immoral” currency trading to be banned.

Mr Soros drew his ire in particular, but other investors had made even heavier bets against the Thai currency than his firm had.

Philanthropic work

The hedge fund manager began to ease away from the day-to-day control of his firm during the 1980s and 1990s, paying more and more attention to philanthropic ventures instead.

Since starting out offering scholarships to black students during the apartheid era in South Africa, he has spent billions supporting progressive free-market projects around the world.

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption His foundation is now the second-largest philanthropic organisation in the US – behind that of Microsoft founder Bill Gates

He focused on opening up cultural exchange with Eastern Europe during the collapse of communism, before widening investment to other regions around the world.

Mr Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF) now has programmes in more than 100 countries around the world, and 37 regional offices.

The organisation says its focus is to build “vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable and open to the participation of all people”.

In 2017, while he was ranked as the 29th wealthiest person in the world by Forbes magazine, it emerged that he had transferred $18bn (£13.5bn) or an estimated 80% of his personal wealth into the organisation.

According to his website, his goal is to use his financial independence to fight some of the world’s “most intractable problems”.

The OSF continues to support a number of human-rights initiatives around the world, including campaigns in favour of LGBT and Roma rights.

Politics and criticism

Mr Soros has remained extremely vocal about world economics and global politics. This has drawn flak from 21st Century nationalist politicians, who have depicted him as a left-wing bogeyman of sorts.

In Europe, he openly criticised the handling of the euro debt crisis, while during the peak of the region’s refugee crisis he pledged generous backing for aid groups supporting migrants.

This policy in particular has set him on a collision course with Prime Minister Viktor Orban in his native country.

The Hungarian government even funded the distribution of giant posters vilifying the financier in 2017.

Hungary: country profile

Long read: the man who thinks Europe has been invaded

Mr Soros’ foundation eventually decided to withdraw its offices from Hungary, blaming an “increasingly repressive” environment.

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption Hungary’s largest Jewish organisation labelled the propaganda campaign as “poisonous”

His foundation has also donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Best for Britain group, which aims to halt the UK’s departure from the EU. This support has made him a focus of criticism for pro-Brexit supporters, campaigners and newspapers within the country.

In 2015, the foundation was banned in Russia, which labelled it as “undesirable” because of its perceived risk to Russian security and constitutional order.

Attacks and conspiracies

Mr Soros has been a large donor to the US Democratic Party. He backed the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and has also labelled US President Donald Trump “an imposter”.

US-based right-wing conspiracy theorists and websites have accused Mr Soros of secretly engineering a range of recent events in US and global politics.

They have alleged that he was involved in recruiting crowds for the anti-Trump Women’s March and even organising violence in Charlottesville to undermine the country’s political right-wing.

Such conspiracies, and negative coverage of his foundation’s work, are often accused of being anti-Semitic, echoing Nazi-era conspiracy theories about Jewish bankers plotting to create a “new world order”.

Personal life

George Soros has been married three times.

He had two sons and a daughter with his first wife, German-born Annaliese Witschak, whom he married in 1960.

The pair divorced in 1983, when he then wed second wife Susan Weber. The pair stayed together until 2005, having two sons during their marriage.

He married third wife Tamiko Bolton – 42 years his junior – in 2013.

Away from hedge funds and philanthropy, Mr Soros has also dabbled with investing in sports teams around the world.

In 2012, it was reported that he had purchased a significant minority stake in UK-based football team Manchester United.

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bethevenyc · 7 years

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March for Our Lives and gay activism: 'They're definitely linked for me,' says Emma Gonzalez

Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Emma Gonzalez weeps as she speaks to the crowd during March for Our Lives to demand stricter gun control laws on Saturday, March 24, 2018, in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Getty Images)

As thousands of protestors funneled along Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington D.C. for the March for Our Lives on Saturday, carrying signs and children and the weight of fear and grief over gun violence, there was another, small revolution taking place at the edge of the march route, in tiny Pershing Park. That’s where about 100 activists from the New York City–based group Gays Against Guns (GAG) had set up camp for the day, transforming the bleak concrete corner with a huge rainbow banner and pink Mylar strips that billowed in the breeze.

Also part of the staging was some much-needed levity: a pink-carpeted runway, with folks in drag encouraging passersby to show the NRA, in RuPaul parlance, how to “sashy away.” Later, a large group struck a more somber tone by wearing all white, having their faces covered with veils, and each carrying the photo, name, and short bio of a person who had lost their life to gun violence. The silent procession of “human beings” stopped march-goers in their tracks.

Gays Against Guns reclaimed this politician’s swipe. (Photo: Beth Greenfield for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Surrounding the activists throughout the day were colorfully spray-painted signs, declaring “Not in my school,” “Stop trans murder,” “NRA be gone, before we drop the House on you” (a pitch-perfect Wizard of Oz reference), and the piece de resistance: “Skinhead lesbian.”

It was, of course, the reclamation of an insult hurled by a Maine legislative candidate towards the magnetic leader of this movement: Emma Gonzalez, the buzzed-headed student who emerged onto the national stage just three days after the deadly Feb. 14 shooting at her Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

That’s when Gonzalez’s riveting, 11-minute “we call BS” speech went viral, energizing a segment of the nation that’d had enough of gun violence, and catapulting a crew of similarly smart, tenacious Parkland students into an instant media spotlight.

People soon tweeted that Gonzalez should run for president. The 18-year-old noted that she already is president — of her school’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA). She then told the Washington Post that she identifies as bisexual, and suddenly her fierce badassery just made that much more sense for a whole lot of people, particularly fellow LGBTQ folks and queer activists for whom self-identity and a willingness to stand up for justice has long been inextricably linked.

“We have always been on the defensive as a community. So, it’s a natural fit. We have been fighting for our rights for decades, likely eons,” Cathy Marino-Thomas, a GAG organizer and longtime activist in the fight for Marriage Equality, tells Yahoo Lifestyle, referring to battles over AIDS funding, marriage equality, the right to adopt, the right to not be fired from work, and a range of other hard-won civil rights. “I think that we are a community less afraid to stand up because, in many ways, we have less to lose and everything to gain. Historically, no one has ever stood up for the gays. We’ve had to stand up for ourselves, often against extraordinary opposition.”

Of course no one would deem this current anti-gun movement a singly gay issue — not even GAG, for whom the two narratives are tightly entwined. But there are deep and undeniable connections, made both collectively — such as by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest national LGBTQ-rights organization, which had a massive presence at the D.C. march led in party by Queer Eye co-host Karame Brown, himself a graduate of Parkland’s Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School — and also made individually.

That goes for Gonzalez, who tells Yahoo Lifestyle in the days leading up to Saturday’s march that she indeed sees a connection between her sexuality and her drive to lead the movement. “They’re definitely linked for me personally. If I wasn’t so open about who I was I never would’ve been able to do this,” she says. “In ninth grade, I was in a creative writing class where I could actually really effectively communicate what I was feeling, and it especially helped me come to terms with who I was. That definitely was when I really understood who I am, and when I came to terms with it, and when I told most people.”

Being open, Gonzalez says, “Helped me understand that everybody, no matter who they are and what they look like, is going through a lot of different things.” And being her school’s GSA president for three years has fostered her activist skills.

“It’s really helped me get used to shifting plans very quickly, planning in advance, and also being flexible… understanding that maybe you organize a club meeting with this one person in mind and they just don’t come because they aren’t coming to school, and you can’t get upset,” she says. “Because most of the kids in GSA either have depression or they’re dealing with a lot of stuff at home, and it’s like, I can understand that. And there are so many people in the country who are dealing with that, in relation to gun violence. You have no idea. You don’t know how many people you talk to on a daily basis that have actually been shot before, or have lost someone through gun violence. With GSA it’s the same. Everything’s incredibly far-reaching and widespread.”

The pink runway was a draw. (Photo: Beth Greenfield for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Gonzalez recalls meeting Gays Against Guns representatives who had come to Parkland to show their support on the day her high school reopened after the shooting. “Yaass!” she says at the mention of the group, noting that she’d felt lucky for the haul of signs and fliers and buttons they gave her that day. But she reaches back further through gay history when she names her latest inspiration: transgender activist Sylvia Rivera, a veteran of the 1969 Stonewall uprising, which is widely known as the start of the gay-rights movement.

“There’s this clip of her getting up onstage at one of the Stonewall Pride Rallies, a couple years [after the uprising], and she gets up there and everybody boos her because she’s trans. But she’s like, ‘Are you kidding me? You’re gay. I’m trans. We’re part of this. Like, I got you here. How many times have a had to fight for you? And you’re booing me because I’m trans?’” the teen says. “First of all, it was so unfair, unjustified, undignified, like, I was so infuriated by seeing that. But then there’s just knowing that there will always be people that hate you, and that they’re always going to be wrong. So it’s good to use that, and remember that whatever you’re doing, if it’s making people that mad, then it’s probably a good thing.”

***

Gonzalez, of course, is far from the only power behind the youth-led anti-gun movement and March for Our Lives; in the week leading up to the marches, she and the rest of the Parkland crew did a whirlwind media tour, landing, among other places, on the cover of Time, in the studio of The Rachel Maddow Show, and in a Teen Vogue series that included a story in its sister LGBTQ publication, Them, which announced in its headline, “Queer Teenage Girls are Leading the Gun Control Movement.”

Though it may have been a slight exaggeration (only Gonzalez and classmate Sarah Chadwick have identified themselves as being part of the LGBTQ family), there is certainly a shared ethos within the youth-led resistance that makes it ring true. And as non-queer Parkland student Jaclyn Corin noted in that story, “As things get more acceptable in society, like legalizing gay marriage and stuff like that, it shows us that a change from the beginning that seemed so far away can actually happen in the same lifetime. So that gives us hope. We’re kind of modeling this like the LGBT movement because in retrospect, it’s the same. We’re working towards a common goal as a lot [of] people and it’s not party-oriented. That’s marriage, and this is lives.”

One of Gays Against Guns clever signs in D.C. (Photo: Beth Greenfield for Yahoo Lifestyle)

To longtime activist Evan Wolfson, whose Freedom to Marry campaign won the fight for national marriage equality in 2015 after a decades-long effort, that’s an apt parallel.

“It’s all taken from the Freedom to Marry playbook, where despite people saying that gay people can’t marry — the courts saying that, the culture saying that, even gay people saying that to ourselves — we didn’t take that no for an answer, and by not taking no for an answer we turned the answer into yes,” Wolfson tells Yahoo Lifestyle the day before the March for Our Lives, which he had planned to join in New York City. “It’s what’s so inspiring about these young people and what they’re doing… They believe they can create change, and are inspiring millions more with that belief.”

Wolfson now travels around the world to consult with activists on issues from anti-violence and immigration reform to environmental protection and animal rights. He notes that, when it comes to activists finding the fire in their bellies, “You can’t reduce something to just one identity, whether it be black or white or gay or non-gay or Jewish or Christian. Minorities have had an experience of exclusion, oppression, having to form solidarity and work for change… but we all have our something, and we have to draw on that something to make the world better.”

For Gays Against Guns, that something is two-fold: queerness and, not unrelatedly, being on the defensive when it comes to violence. As the group states on its website and in literature it passes out at protests, the LGBT community is disproportionately affected by gun violence: firstly, because most gun deaths in the U.S. are suicides and LGBTQ people are overrepresented among suicide victims (92 percent of transgender adults have attempted suicide by age 25); secondly, because LGBTQ people are the most likely minority to be the victim of a hate crime.

That really hit home with everyone on June 12, 2016, when the Pulse gay nightclub massacre in Orlando left 49 people dead in what was the most lethal mass shooting ever in America (though it was later surpassed by that of Las Vegas).

Gays Against Guns formed in response to that tragedy, with individuals from a newly outraged generation joining with seasoned activists, some of whom were ACT UP organizers in the early days of the AIDS crisis, and who brought to the group their attention-grabbing direct-action skills — “die-ins,” chillingly clever chants, and sit-in-the streets civil-disobedience moves that often came with the goal of getting arrested. A week after its formation, GAG had a huge and heart-stopping presence in the New York City Pride March, with a contingent more than 750 strong changing “Stop the NRA!” and staging die-ins all along Fifth Avenue; since then it has held direct-action protests and had a continued, education-based presence at gun shows around the country.

“I think an intrinsic part of queerness is to have a certain feeling of being outside, and when you harness that, it’s very powerful,” says Kevin Herzog, a founding member of GAG, which now has local chapters in a growing number of cities and towns across the country, and someone who lived through the early AIDS crisis, losing many friends in the process. “When you’re dying, you’ll do anything,” he says on Saturday in D.C., referring to the basic connection between the early days of AIDS activism and the urgency behind today’s anti-gun movement. “It became apparent that no one was going to help us, so we had to help ourselves.”

Karamo Brown, center, and Brandon Wolf, left, march with the Human Rights Campaign on Saturday at the March for Our Lives. (Photo: Human Rights Campaign/Facebook)

As for Gonzalez’s being queer, “It’s not incidental,” he says. “Some people are astonished that these kids were able to start this movement. But when you place it in a queer context? I’m not astonished at all.”

GAG co-founder Hal Moskowitz, who was a co-founder of the early AIDS organization Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), says, “I see some of me in [the Parkland activists]. I see that drive that says, ‘F**k you, you’re going to listen to me, and I’m going to say it until you do.” Student David Hogg, who continuously acknowledges his place of privilege and speaks about the “children and people of color whose voices are not being heard,” has been particularly impressive, he adds.

Gays Against Guns’ procession of “human beings,” representing lives that have been lost to gun violence. (Photo: Beth Greenfield for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Indeed, with Parkland, a largely white, affluent community known for its safety, the teens leading this cause have been particularly mindful of doing everything in their power to shift the narrative, from interview talking points to including students of color and from poorer communities in various ways. Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, a gay-rights group, took note of that effort recently.

“I applaud the students for using the enormous platform they have to call out how racism and homophobia impact the response to gun violence. They see clearly the enormous difference in how Tallahassee responded to Parkland compared to Pulse,” Smith noted in a statement. “Legislators who had to be shamed into permitting a moment of silence for the 49 killed in Orlando quickly allocated funds for a memorial and passed legislation, flawed and incomplete though it is. When the GSA students including Emma spoke at our Gala in Miami, she made sure to lift up Pulse. [And] the students have gone to Chicago to meet with other students who have been organizing against gun violence for years to combine efforts.”

Brandon Wolf, who led the HRC contingent along with Queer Eye’s Brown in D.C. on Saturday, was at Pulse when the shots rang out; his two friends Drew Leinonen and Juan Guerrero, were killed. The experience, he says, turned him into an activist overnight. “I think the reason there’s this natural marriage of the LGBTQ community and a fight against this epidemic of gun violence is because there’s a very real fear from a young age as a gay person and specifically gay people of color that you will be targeted, harmed or even worse because of who you are,” Wolfe, 29, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “So there’s this natural sense of, we’ve got to protect ourselves and each other from that violence, and I think gay people know it better than anyone else what it feels like to live in fear all the time.”

He adds, “I think as a young person, I went through so much, dealing with family and community and the process of coming out and all of that. And I think makes you an advocate, because you’ve been fighting for your own health and wellbeing since you were young.”

Emma Gonzalez addresses the March for Our Lives rally on on March 24, 2018 in Washington, DC. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, including students, teachers and parents gathered in Washington for the anti-gun violence rally organized by survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School school shooting on February 14 that left 17 dead and 17 others wounded. More than 800 related events are taking place around the world to call for legislative action to address school safety and gun violence. (Photo: Getty Images)

Now, as a whole new generation of young people grows up having to fight for their health and wellbeing in regards to gun violence, they are finding their own ways to get their voices hear and their demands met — with techniques both learned and instinctual.

“I think one thing we can learn from older generations of activists, which I’ve shared with the Parkland students, is the power of patience,” Wolf says. “We can let the older generation be a testament to the fact that hard work means we may not get it the first time around, but eventually we’ll get it. So to not get discouraged that the Florida legislature doesn’t care today, because the real change will be made when we vote them out for people who will make a change.”

On the other side, says Gonzalez, is what her generation might teach the older ones (in addition to the power of social media, of course).

“One of the main things to be learned is that a lot of people kind of get pushed into an agenda, like Republican or Democrat. But the best way to get things done is to appeal to both sides, and listen, which is what we’ve been doing,” she says. “And this is not to knock anyone else, but what we’ve been really focused on is inclusion, and trying to really combine these communities spread around the United States. We’ve been trying to get everyone on the same page, to figure out what everybody’s asking for, and see if we can, as a giant movement, ask for that together.”