Just received the most recent Penzey's Spices catalogue. Since we're blessed to have a Penzey's brick & mortar store within easy ramble distance - in uber charming Chestnut Hill! - there's no need to order from the catalogue or online, but I always hunker down with each new catalogue to check out the articles it features & the recipes they always include.
Last night, when I received the newest, my face was challenged by my jaw dropping & my mouth breaking into a HUGE grin. That Bill Penzey, he is bold!
Bill Penzey is the sort of fellow that epitomizes what we USED to expect from folks in Wisconsin - socially active, proudly progressive, unabashedly LIBERAL. This past spring, he clearly raised a lot of hackles with his views, especially his proclivity to flogging some Wisconsites & Cheesehead institutions over issues dear to his heart. Instead of tamping down his passionate pronouncements, he amped it up - A LOT.
The current Penzey's catalogue CELEBRATES the 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Bill models for all of us qualities that made the VRA a reality in the first place - a deep passion for social justice, a lot of guts & a willingness to put fighting for basic rights denied others, not him, over profits.
Whether it riles folks or sets them rejoicing, from the first story to the last, one thing is clear - it will educate anyone who bothers to read it. And if they don't... well, that says something about them.
We've lived under the protections of the Voting Rights Act, we've forgotten that they shielded people from folks who wanted to cherry pick the votes to exclude as many African-Americans as they could. Today's onslaught against the vote casts a far broader net, including students, the poor, the elderly of any race.
Honey Badger might think of Bill Penzey as "Wisconsin's crazy uncle" - the state is darn lucky to have him. Long may he rave!
Bill can take me to court, but I'm sharing these stories of real people with stories to tell that we all need to learn or - in my case - remember.
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