Stacy Horn

I just read a review about another book, The Righteous Mind, which seeks to explain why so many Americans vote for people who do not act in their interest. I have yet to read a convincing explanation for this, and I didn’t really find it here either, but there were grains of truth, the beginning of an answer. Maybe my problem is I’m looking for a simple answer.

But I did like what this reviewer said about the author’s solutions to the problem.

“First, we need to help citizens develop sympathetic relationships so that they seek to understand one another instead of using reason to parry opposing views.”

I’ve learned it time and again my whole life, a lot of people do not listen to reason. I also personally have another problem, when I am faced with someone who is very conservative, (is against gay marriage, a better healthcare system, anti-Moslem, anti-atheist, etc.) I get so upset I can’t even reason myself!

I’ve also tried the above approach, by the way. Instead of trying to convince people I’ve tried to understand. “Okay, why is [fill in the blank] a bad thing?” Each time, this got the person even angrier. They either can’t come up with an answer (and get mad at me for it) or they come up with some version of “it’s tradition,” “we’ve always done it this way,” etc. Which brings me back to reason (“well, slavery was traditional, women not being able to vote was traditional”) and this never resonates for them.

I liked this suggestion. “Haidt also wants members of Congress to go back to the old practice of moving their families to Washington, so that they socialize with one another and build a friendly basis on which to cooperate.”

When I wrote my book about the NYPD I spent a lot of time with people with very conservative views, and likewise, they spent a lot of time with someone with very liberal views. No one’s position was changed, but we grew to like and trust each other, and to respect each other, and in this atmosphere, cooperation did occur. I could see how in a political arena, given similar repeated contact among families, compromise would be possible.
—

Because I was inside so much finishing up my book, and recuperating from the bone graft I’ve been missing spring. I took these pictures to and from the dentist last week.

This guy isn’t one of them, apparently. When I left Grace Church after choir practice a protest was making its way up Broadway. The protestors were peaceful, and it looked like the focus was Trayvon Martin, but there was also a prominent sign calling for Ray Kelly (the NYPD Police Commissioner) to resign and others about police brutality.

I followed them to Union Square and stood off to the side watching and taking pictures. The cop in this picture told me I had to move on. So I started to around look for another place to go and he shouted, “Join them, leave, or cuffs, your choice!” I looked at him in shock. I couldn’t believe how quickly he started yelling at me. I was just standing there quietly and I was actually trying to comply, but there was a mass of cops behind me, and a mass of protestors in front of me, and it wasn’t immediately clear to me where he expected me to go. When I looked at him he instantly and weirdly escalated the situation. I forget how he worded it, something along the lines of, “Don’t even start with me missy, I’ll cuff you.”

He’s talking like this to a middle aged choir lady standing quietly on the sidelines. It was just so bizarre and unnecessary. I always suspect people like this must have been picked on in the playground when they were children. They then spend the rest of their lives trying to prove that no one can ever pick on them again.

So to the cop in the picture: I don’t know if you were just having a bad day, or recently lost someone close to you, or maybe someone was a jerk to you at this protest, but if this is any indication of the way you normally behave, you’ve been in the job too long. It’s time to retire. You didn’t act like a cop, you acted like a thug, and today you were an embarrassment to the badge.

Worse, your behavior makes it harder for decent cops to do their job. It creates an adversarial relationship between the police and the citizens of New York, which isn’t useful in any situation, and it puts a lot of good cops in line to one day become as bitter and miserable as you.

Maybe you just need a vacation, and a therapist. But if you hate us, and your job, retire.

In January I submitted a video of myself singing for Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir 3. They got 3,746 submissions from 2,945 people in 73 countries, and I was one of them!

Believe it or not, I actually went through the picture below and tried to find myself (I failed). But I’m in the credits so I’m in there somewhere.

The Choir will premiere on April 2nd at Lincoln Center. I’m trying to get tickets, but they say there will be a live webcast for people who can’t be there. I’ll post details when I have them.

I was able to pick up a copy of Robert Nathan’s Portrait of Jennie and start reading it. This was a new-ish edition brought out by a publisher called Tachyon Publishing. Sean Stewart wrote the introduction, and in it he talks about how the artist’s job (or compulsion) is to bear witness.

I thought about that. If I were to sum up my own compulsion, it would be to recover. I always want to bring back what was lost or forgotten.

The lobby of the former Western Union building.

Everyone is talking about it, and with good reason. On March 15, a Prince George’s Community College student named Stephon, who was born deaf, went to an energy policy event in Maryland where the President gave a speech. Afterwards, while waiting to try to shake his hand, Stephon signed, “I’m proud of you.” And Obama signed back, “Thank you.”

You can see it here. Another sweet, sweet moment brought to you by our president (and Stephon).

Dental News: I panicked this morning because I still need pain killers around the clock and when I googled to see how long this might last, almost everyone I read who had this kind of bone graft said their pain lasted three days. The ones whose pain lasted longer had infections and their bone grafts failed! I called my dentist and saw him right away. He said I was actually healing very nicely, and that my bone graft was a much bigger deal than the three-days-painfree people, and mine was very invasive involving a big and sensitive area, etc. So I feel better about it all.

I went to choir rehearsal last night even though I’m having a little trouble smiling and talking and singing. It was the right decision, it improved my mood enormously. A picture of my walk along the way. This is 11th Street. New York City is so pretty!

I describe this very block in my book about singing, and what it will look like in a few weeks (or month) when those petals begin to fall.