marthawells

I've been having an LJ hiatus this weekend, and after this I think I may continue it for a bit longer. My offline life is very stressful at the moment, and restricting my online presence helps (it gives me less to worry about), even though I miss all the people I keep in touch with this way.

But I've debated this for a while and I do want to mention how I feel about the discussion about race in SF/F that's been going on for the past couple of months on Live Journal. (I've followed it in other SF/F venues since I first got active in fandom in the 80s.) I think it's a vitally important discussion, and I don't think I can contribute much to it except listening to the people with a far deeper understanding of it than I could have have. I also feel very strongly it's part of my job as a writer to take criticism.

I'm going to steal from naominovik's post, and suggest that people check out rydra_wong's links and summary, and to recommend a few LJers I've read on this: zvi_likes_tv, ciderpress, and ktempest.

***

Something I'm extremely worried about at the moment:

Texas House Bill #6: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/billtext/pdf/HB00006I.pdf

This is the bill which will supply funding for the UT Medical Branch in Galveston, which was terribly damaged in Hurricane Ike. For more info, here's an earlier post with links to articles about how important UTMB is:
For poor Texans considered "indigent," 160 of the state's 254 counties use the UTMB system for affordable health care.
...
"This is going to be devastating to every county, not just to our county," Alfred said.