I went to 3 talks in just 4 hours (amazing) and heard historian Douglas Brinkley (“The Great Deluge”) talk about failed politics and economic recovery in New Orleans. He also said that “inaction was the policy” in Louisiana. He had a conversation at this talk with State Democratic Party Chair Andrei Cherny, also an author (“The Next Deal: the Future of Public Life in the Information Age”). I especially appreciated how Brinkley said that we all needed to “preserve Wild America” and save our state parks for our grandchildren, to carry on the vision of President Teddy Roosevelt.

Then I listened to two very powerful women/feminists. The first was Dr. Connie Mariano (“White House Doctor: My Patients were Presidents”) who spoke of being a Filipina-American in the U.S. Navy and then becoming the White House doctor, advocating for change in their policies. She said that always striving to be better was one of her life’s goals. Along with her in that talk was Gloria Feldt (“No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think about Power”), who has been a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood. She said that women had the “power to choose, and should choose power”, and were capable of doing anything.

Finally, I listened to hilarious author/blogger Amy Alkon speak about civility (or the lack thereof) in modern society. Her book is entitled “I see Rude People: The Collapse of Civility and What We Want To Do About it”. She related very humorous stories of how she embarrasses people who are rude, and how she makes a “hobby of righteous indignation” when confronted by uncivil individuals in our so-called “strangerhoods”. She attributed today’s rudeness to mobility and not knowing your community and neighbors, like in the past. But she also advocated “paying it forward” when someone was rude to you, to try to be nicer to the next person.

Amy also mentioned the lack of civliity & name calling from anonymous readers– and I could identify with that right here online.

Check out the schedule for tomorrow Sunday March 13 at www.tucsonfestivalofbooks.org.
And drop by our Tucsoncitizen.com booth (click here for Editor Mark Evan’s blog). We’re on the West mall area, just north of the Star Pavilion.

There’s even a free strawberry/banana real fruit smoothie sample at the McDonald’s wagon.

Enjoy reading!