‘When J.F.K. ran for President, a team of data scientists with powerful computers set out to model and manipulate American voters. Sound familiar?’ A ‘New Yorker’ piece by Jill Lepore. Here’s the link. I found it stimulating and familiar to read about that era again.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/03/how-the-simulmatics-corporation-invented-the-future

‘I remember back in the 1960s – late ’50s, really – reading a comic book called ‘Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Story.’ Fourteen pages. It sold for 10 cents. And this little book inspired me to attend non-violence workshops, to study about Gandhi, about Thoreau, to study Martin Luther King, Jr., to study civil disobedience.’
                                                                                                                   – John Lewis

‘The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country on Earth, with overincarceration a cruel and unjust reality of the American penal system. Disproportionately, people of color bear the brunt of systemic inequities in our conception and application of the law. The Million Book Project creates a rhetorical and functional response to this specifically American fact, and offers the book as both a resource and a symbol of freedom, restoring hope, dignity, meaning and purpose to those incarcerated.’ Here’s the link:
https://www.mellon.org/news-blog/articles/million-book-project-provide-libraries-curated-books-1000-prison-facilities-across-united-states/

The books people have sought out to read during the pandemic. It’s been a time for readers to binge on books: https://apple.news/AxorulHojR_ag1_x4A8SQ9Q

After yesterday’s post of the cafe window, here is an essay about writing in cafes. Will the habit return after the pandemic? I’ve always taken notes in cafes. I used bar napkins as notebooks when I used to drink. Nothing was finer than sitting in a quiet tavern in the afternoon scribbling notes that way. This is a good piece on writing and places some people go to do it: https://lithub.com/is-this-the-end-of-writing-in-cafes/

The coffee shop THiNK a block from where I live has good people working there and good coffee and food, and they try to do more. It just reopened for takeout. There are a few other shops of theirs in the city. Each one fits where they are. Regulars are waiting for it to fully open up again. It was a great place to read and write. Art students drew things in notebooks. 

This morning I was listening to WNYC the local NPR station. ‘On Being’ with Krista Tippett came on. It was a show from 2013, a conversation with John Lewis. You think you’ve heard all you need this week maybe. Well, this is better than that. Click on it below. He mentions the African proverb above:
https://onbeing.org/programs/john-lewis-love-in-action/