Erasure, Erase Her, and Erase Him Too
Throwaway books and other adventures in the Mission
About 7-8 years ago, I worked as a local reporter for Ripple News (now Hoodline). After a few months I became their most viewed correspondent with written or audio-visual (aka video) stories about hyperlocal happenings in the Mission, with a handful of the stories going close to viral1. I’d often include personal vignettes such as the one about how it was impossible for me to walk past the “FREE” box at Dog-Eared Books without peeking inside. And how, 99 times out of a 100, that would inevitably lead me to carrying more than a couple of books home.
I had said then that I was a book addict and that, like with most addictions, it was becoming a problem…
(Here’s what happens: I will notice a book or books on the street; sometimes in a bag, sometimes on the sidewalk, sometimes in a “FREE” box. I am called to examine them. I pick them up and read the blurb. If the description appeals, I will decide to take the books home and add ‘em to my shelves. At the moment of decision, I’m well aware that it’s already tough to find the time to read 96% of the books in my home. However the future regret I might have for this beautiful object that contains information which might get lost if I — Jet Aime (Moi Non Plus) — don’t salvage it overrides any practical considerations. I basically don’t want the book to be discarded. And perhaps I can give the book to someone who was looking for precisely that very title. I then go on to entertain the “One day I will have a café and a bookstore” fantasy, followed by bathing my mind in the image of the most possible yet seemingly impossible daydream: “Just buy a hammock and throw all your gadgets away!”
… and I’m reporting today that it still is.
Last Thursday, RFB (a good friend and fellow Saner) and I were on our way to Mission Community Market for our weekly shop for produce at the farmer’s market.
“Oh, hang on,” I said as we approached the Dog-Eared box, “Can we stop for a minute?”
As usual, RFB kindly indulged me. We looked inside and saw a pile of books, perhaps about 20 or so.
I picked one out. The book was titled: “Neither Safe Nor Effective. The Evidence Against The COVID Vaccines” by Dr. Colleen Huber.
“Ha,” I said, “well, I’m definitely taking that for my Scamdemic collection.”
Surprisingly, I had never heard of the author but it had 69 reviews on Amazon with an average of 4.5 stars. One 5 star reviewer on Amazon wrote:
“Solid, to the point, specifics, quotes, studies, all linked. No fluff, just facts, documented, one after another. Thank you to the author, for this work represents a lot of critical research.”
Do check out the very predictable, generic, one-star reviews from anonymous “fact checker” types (hilarious!)
The next book I plucked out was “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center” by Tyler O’Neil.
Learning as much as I did in the last 2.5 years about engineered divisiveness, I was glad to see it also had a decent number of 4 and 5 star reviews in our beloved virtual rainforest store.
The next one was: “Pardongate: How Bill & Hillary Clinton and Their Brothers Profited from Pardons.” Oh, pardon me for Ell Oh Ell-ing at the thought of these Professional Profiteers ever being called to justice!
I picked up a fourth. It was titled, “The American Experiment: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Will it Survive or Fizzle Out into the Dustbin of History?” The subject of the book, the back cover told me, is the history of self-government focusing on its original legal documents, The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution.
(I know somebody who would love this book… definite score!)
After picking up a fifth and reading the back cover, I turned to RFB and said: “I think I’m noticing a theme.”
The outside back cover says:
There were about 10-12 copies of this particular book left in the “Free” box. And every copy had inside it this bookmark which on one side had the title of the book, and on the other, three words that have come to have much significance in the last 2.5 years
I opened up the book and found it was dedicated to that lovely lady, Liberty
And then the next page. Please be sure to read the warning at the bottom!
I couldn’t find this book on Amazon. And, again, here is how many copies of the book were left in the box:
I get it. Some books don’t sell and Dog-Eared Books — like all bookstores (of which there are fewer and fewer these days) — has a limited amount of physical space and has to get rid of their overstock from time to time. But this was the conjecture I shared with RFB:
I can just picture how, today, one of the book store employees was looking through a large stash of books and said to him/her/they-self: “What?! A book saying the Covid Vax is unsafe and ineffective? Nah, can’t have this rubbish! And hang on… a book on the importance of the Constitution? How did this even get on our shelves? And what’s this, a book saying the Clintons are corrupt?! No way, that’s not even possible, this must be written by a Trump supporter! Out you go, silly publications!”
It’s almost as if, 1-2 years ago — or even earlier this year, given the autograph on one — it was still acceptable for bookstores like Dog-Eared Books to display books of this type: books that asked questions, books that showed that the science was not settled, books that did deep dives into corruption, books that reminded us of what this country was founded on...
But now, given that we live in a 1984 society, in our newspapers, on television, on radio, on social media, it is no longer permitted for us to do any of those things, our bookstores cannot possibly contain these books either. Fewer and fewer people are interested in such topics these days and therefore bookstores have no use for these non-essential manuscripts.
Or is it the other way around?
Hmm, definitely a chicken-and-egg scenario…
Two days later, I’m walking on Valencia with another good friend, SMG, after Analogue towards our favourite restaurant for the birthday celebration of two Saners. She was telling me about the now-cancelled Charlton Heston (he was vociferously pro Second Amendment; the right to bear arms).
“It’s insane,” she said. “The other night we started watching Ben Hur and I decided to Google ‘cast of Ben Hur’ and instead of him being right at the top — because he’s the main actor — he was towards the bottom of all named actors listed, as if he had a minor part in the film!”
(Try it, you’ll see his photo and name is listed 26 out of 32 actors!)
Together we lamented the erasure of people, of facts, of investigations, of knowledge and information, and — worst of all — the erasure of the actual meanings of words (you all might have noticed that last one is happening in spades! A post on that soon…). SMG said, “With all this erasure, I’ve been telling myself I’d better get a dictionary… a real one, a hard copy… I’d better do that soon!”
Right at that very moment, we just happened to be walking past the “FREE” box and I did my usual “Hey, do you mind if we look in here for a sec…?”
Um, guess what happened next? There inside were a few books, and one of them was this one:
SMG, who is clearly unlike me in the must-pick-up-things-that-have-significance department, almost didn’t take it home! But I insisted that she must, that it was obviously destined for her. She couldn’t help but agree and put it in her bag (and later on her bookshelf).
And I know you’re all dying to ask: “ja-MnP, did you take any books from the box that evening?”
You bet I did! One was totally 50 Shades of Beige related:
And the other had a distinct trans-humanist feel:
You guys, it takes a village, right? I’m counting on you to please help me bring my café-bookstore idea to life! Or buy me a hammock and take away all my gadgets.
Wait, why can’t both happen simultaneously?
And where are my Ripple News stories now, you ask? Well, I’m sad to report, they no longer exist in their original state on the interwebs. Yep, all my stories of 1.5 years, all my writing, all the many photos I took, all my videos, all my work… you could find them all on the Ripple News app for a short while after the company dissolved but soon after that when I went looking for it on my ‘phone, I learned that the app had been deleted.
I obviously wanted to keep all my stories for posterity and asked my ex-boss at the company where they were. He sent me a spreadsheet of links saying “[this] should contain everything.” But when I looked there were only a few of my stories linked to on Hoodline with no author attribution, and even then, only 1 image of the 3 or 4 photos I usually posted for each story was used, and it was cropped to fit their image template.
So all that work I did for a local news app got erased from the internet.
(Unfortunately, and I only have myself to blame for this, I cannot find the copies on any of my computers. Perhaps they’re on one of my hard drives? I’ll find out one day if I ever have the time to go looking).
However, I can point to the videos I produced which I uploaded to my own YouTube channel but that’s it.
Honestly, I’m the most sad about losing stories with headlines like, “Brown Woman Takes Photo of Black Woman Taking Photo of White Woman.” (Yes those events actually happened, and on my street to boot. And I was the Brown Woman, in case you couldn’t guess!)
Oh em gee, it just occurred to me that a real life Brown Woman — MOI! — was ERASED! How dare they?! My wrath will show no mercy… watch out, former employers, the now-defunct Ripple News App will be cancelled by myself, albeit retroactively (j/k Jason!)
But hey, can you cancel an app that’s been deleted? I guess — if you can cancel an actor who’s dead — why not?
If you wanna get the story you definitely have to sort through the dustbins of history...! (before they burn them) ... Thanks for the stroll through the old Mission. A few sparks remain!
The Color of Water is a great classic with unforgettable characterizations of the real people remembered. Furthermore, you'll fly through it because it's very hard to put down once you start. It would be better known but, you know....the usual reasons. It offends all the wrong people. But it's a good example of how reality is so totally more engrossing than fiction.