Sanibel Journal

The removal of Confederate statues and memorials is nothing new.  This has been going on for decades.  According to Jane Dailey , associate professor of history at the University of Chicago, “Most of the people who were involved in erecting the monuments were not necessarily erecting a monument to the past.  But were rather, erecting them toward a white supremacist future."  A white supremacist future goes against core American values such as liberty, equal rights, and justice.   When we decide to take down these monuments and statues, relegating them often to museums, we are deciding to uphold these core American values.   We are not erasing history; we are accurately portraying who we are as a country. Statue of Liberty, photo by Matthis Volquardsen  In America, we have a strong union, unlike the sometimes seemingly tenuous union in Europe.   Our union was forged by the Civil War – the deadliest war in our history.   Whe...

Systemic racism can be difficult to detect and destroy, because it is so insidious.  People can say things without thinking, but they say them because the words seem to make them sound like caring, concerned folks.  The words protect them from being seen as callous, compassionless people.  Good people say these things, but if they think about the meaning of the words, and apply logic and common sense, they can see what is hiding underneath those words. I was having a phone conversation with a friend along the lines of my commentary last week, “Work for white people,”   when she said that she thought black people had some work to do, too, because “most black people who are killed are killed by other black people.” Bingo!   There are some of those words covering up hidden, systemic racism. Think about it.   Most white people are killed by other white people because most people who are killed are killed by someone they know.   Why apply this...

White people will have to do the heavy lifting to end institutionalized racism.  Several incidents in my life have taught me that lesson.  Here’s the story about one of those times. Photo by Jumana Khaled Dakkur Many years ago, when I began to serve on a board of a nonprofit organization that promoted historic preservation in a city in Ohio, I heard my fellow board members (all white people) voice concern about the fact that the vast majority of the membership and all of the directors of the organization did not include people of color.   My colleagues on that board were wondering if the black community did not care about historic preservation. Nonsense, I thought.   I called my friend CD who was interested in restoring and preserving a music hall/theatre that was much like Fort Myers’ McCollum Hall , only larger. (Duke Ellington had performed in both of these places.)    I knew CD because my husband and I are jazz fans, and we liked to...

My dad’s business was vandalized and looted in the Cincinnati riots of 1967-68, yet what concerned him was not his losses, but the injustices and racism that sparked the riots.  He empathized with the people who were suffering so much.  I don’t know if he had heard the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., say that the riot is the language of the unheard, [1] but my dad certainly understood that truth.  I was just an adolescent at the time, but my dad’s words and sentiment about the people who were protesting, and his valuing these people’s yearning for basic human rights and fairness made an impression on me.  I will never forget it. My dad, Winfield Wayne "Whit" White, 1923-2011 So after I listened to the audio stream of the Sanibel City Council meeting on June 2, I had to write these words in Facebook: “It troubles me that the discussion at the beginning of today's Sanibel city council meeting seemed to focus on the council members' concerns about t...

The beautiful place called Dinkins Bayou is named for a little man who lived a big life.  Josiah Jackson Dinkins was born in 1849 and grew up in the “Magnolia Midlands” region, in Tattnall County, Georgia, the son of Martha and Joshia Jenkins.   As a teenager, Josiah worked as a machinist – most likely, an apprentice -- on the Central of Georgia Railroad during the Civil War.   In that job, his small stature may have served him well.   After the war, in 1868, he moved to Florida and became a steamboat engineer, licensed in Apalachicola.   He was then addressed as Captain Josiah Dinkins. By 1870, he’d moved on down to Tampa, and then on to Fort Myers in 1873.   He eventually met a charming young woman who was said to have worked as a “Fat Lady” in the circus.   Her name was Susan Roxann Jeffries Langford.   She was 9 years younger than Josiah.   Although a couple of Sanibel historical accounts say that Captain Dinkins’ wife...

Uncontrolled infectious diseases – including epidemics – killed two thirds of the 660,000 soldiers who died during the American Civil War. [1]   Two thirds!  I was astounded by this number until I read the Civil War letters written by my great-great-grandfather, William McAdams. [2] Just as the novel coronavirus epidemic has cancelled and delayed many events, these Civil War-era epidemics stopped or delayed a number of major campaigns, thus making the Civil War last perhaps two years longer than it would have otherwise.   Pneumonia, typhoid, dysentery, yellow fever, and malaria were the predominant diseases that plagued the soldiers.   Historians sometimes call this collection of Civil War era diseases “the third army.” William McAdams, a 25-year-old farmer and leader of his community near the town of Kansas, Illinois, was bright and optimistic as he enlisted in the 59 th Illinois Volunteer Infantry of the Union Army in late 1861.   He was elected b...

In the summer, I am accustomed to having really good, simple bread from the bakery around the corner.  We’ve spent summer in Paris since 1998, but my husband Tom and I will not be going to Paris this year because of the pandemic.  We are self-isolating at home due to his underlying medical condition. So now I bake bread – a fresh loaf every other day.   I use Jim Lahey’s No Knead Bread recipe , which gives us a simple bread with a taste, a crunchy crust, and a chew like the breads made in the best bakeries in Paris.   Even though the very first loaf I made weeks ago was really fine, I experiment with different flours in different proportions, trying to achieve even more bread perfection.    Try 2 cups of bread flour and one cup of spelt flour if you like a light, country-style bread. To make a loaf of Lahey’s No Knead bread, you need approximately 3 cups, 385 grams, or almost 1 pound of flour.  I say “approximately” because, as I have l...