For me, hearing from readers is one of the most thrilling (and
educational) aspects of being a writer, and this week’s mailbag
included a request from Ronald Garcia, who surely must be one of
the hardest working men in America.
For me, hearing from readers is one of the most thrilling (and educational) aspects of being a writer, and this week’s mailbag included a request from Ronald Garcia, who surely must be one of the hardest working men in America. He wanted to use the Native Perspective on Virginia Tech column (4/19) for an assignment in his Written Analysis Class. “I am currently starting my third year at ITT-Tech.” he wrote. “I am going for my Bachelors in Information System Security. This class program is centered around securing computer networks, to prevent unauthorized users in going onto the system and possibly causing harm to the users, ie: computer crashing, loss of data, and denial of service.
“I am Native American,” Garcia told me. “My tribe is Tohono O’odham. We are a tribe in southern Arizona. I am employed full time as a case manager for Tribal Long Term Care, and also attend school full time.”
Not only is Garcia a full-time student and employee, but he is stepfather to one child and father to five others. “I travel to school three times a week,” he wrote. “I leave work at 3pm in order to make it to class at 6pm The school is approximately. 120 miles from work. I would not have gotten this far without the support from my wife. Most of all we have our family’s support, who provide help for babysitting for us till we get home.”
This week’s mail made me think about how it seems like mainstream movies, TV shows and news programs focus all too often on stories of women and children being abused, raped, or murdered by men. It can be easy to forget that while the majority of violent offenders in our society are male, they only represent the behavior of a very tiny percentage of the overall population of American men. Most men, like my husband, are busy pursuing far more peaceful hobbies and projects, taking care of their families, helping others, working their way through the tasks their wives have assigned them on their “honey do” lists – and easing the negative effects of wind turbulence at quilt shows.
A reader brought it to my attention that in my recent column on the American Association of University Women’s Quilt Show (6/7), a fund-raiser for women’s scholarships, I neglected to mention the important role that men played in the event. Richard and Bonnie Colbert, owners of the historic house where it was held, wrote to tell me more about what went on behind the scenes.
“The AAUW members, aka ‘worker bees’ worked so hard to get the event together. So many members were involved and all worked very hard … including several spouses of the AAUW members,” Bonnie wrote. We needed some STRONG and energetic men to do the really dirty work, i.e., assembling the quilt stands and securing them to the ground with tent stakes in case of ‘wind turbulence.’ And, they were available all day in case we needed assistance.”
Later in the afternoon, wind turbulence did kick up and knocked over one of the very tall quilt frames. I was surprised to see how quickly several men appeared and rushed over to stabilize the quilts. At the end of the day, the men could be seen carefully disassembling everything.
Bonnie also praised the “KC” aka the Kitchen Crew, for being so adept at working under the adverse conditions of a small and old kitchen. “As the owner of this fine home, I do love my funky old kitchen (circa 1950s perhaps) but the space limitations are challenging. That did not deter the KC from doing a fabulous job of assembling the luncheon items for the guests.”
“The money we raised will provide at least two scholarships for young and reentry women,” Bonnie reported. “Two weeks later we had our annual garage sale and added to the scholarship fund. Again, very labor intensive by a very devoted group of women and their spouses. We hope to encourage women with AA, AS, BS, BA and other college degrees to join our AAUW Gilroy Branch. It is a lot of fun and we have many creative and wonderful women to encourage pursuing educational goals and also help future generations of women to pursue their dreams.
For further info, contact Marianne Peoples, (408) 842-9022, qu******@****ic.com
