Thursday, March 26, 2009

Ohio





"A palavra Ohio, que significa na língua iroquesa "Algo Grande", "Grandes Águas", "Belo Rio", "Grande Rio" ou "Bom Rio", era utilizado por este grupo de nativos americanos para descrever o Rio Ohio. O cognome do Ohio é Buckeye State. O Buckeye é uma árvore do gênero Aesculus. Florestas compostas por árvores do gênero Aesculus cobriam anteriormente todo o Ohio, embora muito destas florestas tenham sido derrubadas para serem utilizadas como matérias-primas em diversas indústrias, bem como para dar espaço à agricultura."
da Wikipedia

Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth
The title story of the collection, Goodbye, Columbus, is told from the point of view of the narrator, Neil Klugman. Neil is an intelligent graduate of Rutgers University who works in a low paying position in a library. He lives with his Aunt Gladys and Uncle Max in a working class neighborhood of Newark. One summer, Neil meets and falls in love with Brenda Patimkin, a student at Radcliffe College who is from a wealthy family living in the affluent suburb of Short Hills. The novella explores the level of classism which afflicts the relationship, despite the fact that Brenda's father, Ben, is from the same environment as Neil. The issue of assimilation is intrinsic to the classism as well, since Brenda is much more assimilated than Neil. The title, Goodbye, Columbus refers to a record Brenda's brother listens to about his years as an athlete at The Ohio State University, further proof of the Patimkins' success at assimilation. As the book proceeds, Neil finds that their relationship is falling apart. It is finally realized that Neil and Brenda's relationship is not based on love but lust. Thus, the title may be seen as a metaphor for Neil saying goodbye to the affluent, assimilated world of the Patimkins.

Film
The title story of the novella was made into the 1969 film, Goodbye, Columbus, with Ali MacGraw and Richard Benjamin

Bleak Ohio
"The dirty tricks in Lucas County started long before election day. For instance, the Democratic headquarters was broken into and key voter data was stolen.
In the months before the election, when voting rights activists tried to challenge Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's partisan handling of provisional ballots in court, Tom Noe intervened on Blackwell's behalf. Blackwell also served as co-chair for the Ohio Bush-Cheney campaign,
While Tom handled the court business, Bernadette worked to reverse the Ohio tradition of allowing provisional ballots to be cast in precincts other than the one in which voters were registered and helped disenfranchise many inner city Toledo Democratic voters.
On November 2, 2004, during the election, inner city voting machines broke down and polls opened late. The Toledo Blade reported that the sole machine at the Birmingham polling site in east Toledo broke down at about 7am, and that per the order of Secretary Blackwell, there were no paper ballots available for backup.
At one school the voting machines were locked in the principal�s office, and the principal just happened to call in sick on election day. Another school in west Toledo temporarily ran out of ballots.
In precinct after precinct, African-American voters were disenfranchised as the waiting lines grew to three, four and five hours, and thousands were forced to leave without voting."

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