Am I really going to Morocco?

I am. I am flying to London at 9 o'clock tonight and then taking a flight to Rabat, the capital, tomorrow morning.

I might not be able to blog until I get back on December 6th.

Why am I going to Morocco?

For fun of course. But the real reason is that i am an editor for a stunning new Pittsburgh-based magazine called

iGeneration Youth. (Be patient, the link can take a few seconds to load.)

The magazine, a print version of which was distributed this month to 50,000 teens, is the brainchild of a brilliant writer, editor and teacher named Lori Cullen, who is a friend and former student of mine. She pulled off this 64-page magazine with the help of a gang of energetic and very talented young people.

I will let Co-Editor-in-Chief Caroline Molin explain why a new magazine for young people is so crucially important:

"Every time I pick up an edition of Seventeen or a Teen Vogue, I see articles written by journalists working for large companies. It's clear when an article is written by someone who hasn't had the experience of being young in 2017. The teenagers I know are not thinking about the latest Kardashian news. Instead, they're going to protests and meetings to improve the state of the world. They're speaking out against gentrification and transphobia, voicing their opinions and striving to advance their education...What I want the most in a magazine is to hear the stories that I don't hear every day. I want youth magazines to represent the diversity of our generation."

Well, so, what Molin and her young colleagues have produced is chock full of diversity. The piece I edited was by a fabulous writer named Samikchya Rai, who was a Bhutanese refugee born in 1999 at Khuduabari, one of seven refugee camps in southern Nepal. Here is her opening:

"When the rays of the sun passed through the bamboo wall and hit my face, I knew the day had begun. A rooster crowed and -- so annoying -- wouldn't stop. Old people listened to morning religious music on a radio station, which lost its signal now and then."

So why Morocco?

iGeneration Youth -- their motto is "the future of storytelling" -- included a special section devoted to Islam; the section featured stories by students who either are Muslim, or who are visiting Muslim countries.

On Wednesday, Lori and I will be meeting with a Morocco-based cultural exchange organization in Rabat.

Called AMIDeast, the group is participating in the production of the new magazine.

So. Here we go. I will celebrate my 65th birthday in Morocco. I only know what I know about Rabat from the travel guide. I know only a few words, including "Atini noos noos" (that means "I would like half coffee, half milk." Hey what's important?)

I am hoping to ride a camel on my birthday.

Meanwhile, I hope you will check out iGeneration Youth. It's a fabulous endeavor.

"Ooh, gross, he just put his hand up my skirt...That was Donald Trump"

WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW TO READ THIS POST! Keep Thanksgiving Day Dump free!

I thought I had heard it all. Somehow I thought I knew most all of the disgusting details of Donald Dump's outrageous behavior toward women.

But no.

In the video below, a woman named Kristin Anderson describes in graphic detail how Dump groped her in 2005. She didn't know him when he sat down next to her at a bar and stuck his hand up  her skirt and touched her vagina.

UNBELIEVABLE...or maybe not. It's all too believable!

So watch it.

(But don't do it today. I really mean it when I say you should focus on your family today, as I intend to do as soon as I finish this post!)

The video appears as part of The Washington Post's story on the "complete list" of Dump's abominable behavior towards women.

After you read it, share with as many people as you can. How can we possibly keep our mouths shut about this creep who absolutely does NOT belong in or deserve the dignity of the White House!!

Appalled by the Roy Moore Scandal? Read this...

An LA Times op ed suggests that certain evangelical circles encourage older men to "court" and marry teenage girls!

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-brightbill-roy-moore-evangelical-culture-20171110-story.html

Just when I think I have heard it all...

BEHOLD BEHOLD WE ARE ALL THE DREAMERS!!!!!

Note: This piece appears in today's Huffington Post.

We are the dreamers

We are all the dreamers

We are all the women

the men the children

all of whom are dying to dream

BIG

all of whom are yearning to live

in freedom and

dignity.

No matter our races

Our sexes

colors and 

faces

We are the all the dreamers

BEHOLD US!

Let us who share the USA 

have OUR way

AS IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN!

See the STATUE IN THE HARBOR

THE LADY IN A SHADE OF GREEN

HOLDING FORTH THE LIGHT

My grandparents 100 years ago

came through that Harbor

that Ellis Isle

To make a new life for

MY GRANDFATHER 

Claude Rotondo,

was 16 years old when he came
to America

He never returned to ITALIA

He never saw his mother 

again in that tiny

town of Costello in a region called Aquila

(in the GRAN SASSO, gorgeous landscape!)

If my family came,

why not all those others

millions of families

who beg plead

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

LET US IN!

LET US STAY!

ALL THEY ARE ASKING FOR

these immigrants

is a way forward

a ray 

a path 

a carnival of hope

What happened to our melting pot? WHO THE FUCK ARE WE IF WE AREN'T WELCOMING THE NEWEST WAVE OF LIFE SEEKERS!

Why have we got a fucking racist misogynist homophobic jackass

(a snake of a con man) in the white house

Why would we let his despicable behavior rob us of

our SHARED DREAMS? 

SORRY FOR ALL THE SWEARING

ANYWAY,

BACK TO THE BOOK:

Give us the room

The food

(COCKROACHES?????)

The school

NENI: "I WANT TO BE A PHARMACIST YOU SHITHEAD DEAN!"

The job

JENDE CARRIED A BRIEFCASE AS HE DROVE CLARK EDWARDS around NYC

16 HOURS A DAY

(YES HE DROVE HIM TO VISIT HIS HOOKERS ONCE OR TWICE A WEEK!)

PLEASE

Take
a
Look

at

This

Magnificent

Book

READ IT READ IT READ IT YOU NEED TO READ IT

And see feel 

what it has done

what it can do

To you

Me

AND EVERYBODY who reads it

******

OH GOD, CINDY TOO WAS A DREAMER!!!

DESPERATELY SHE WANTED SHE SO DESPERATELY CRAVED THE LOVE SHE DID NOT HAVE

HER MOUTH CRUSTED WITH BLOOD AND SPITTLE SHE WAS A DESPERATE FOR THE LOVE OF

NONE

MOTHER SONS HUSBANDS FATHERS -- ANYONE?

YES, she TOO WAS a dreamer -- 

and how many of those millions of Americans who are today

OPIOID ADDICTS

lack what we all need so desperately:

A DREAM!!!!

A JOB!!!!

HOPE!!!!!

CINDY taught people how to eat well  to live better

Consider Vince, the sweet boy a lot like my son, finding his way his joy

His TRUTH HIS DREAM in India

HE SPOKE WORDS AND WORLDS ABOUT HIS BELOVED

MOTHER

*******

12:54 A.M

from somewhere comes the memory the momery

of such intense nausea I had for

NENI ACTUALLY HAD A PREGNANCY THAT WAS

SO MUCH FUCKING WORSE THAN MINE

Just one of the things I adore about this book is that it speaks

VOLUMES

In loud volumes

About WOMEN’S LOVES LIVES AND DREAMS

Separate from men!!!!!!

Jende for chrissake get a life

Going home is the stupidest idea

Well so I get it, he’s exhausted

BUT WHY THE FUCK DIDN’T HE LET NENI GO BACK TO WORK?

Why didn’t he choose to let the family use the cash

FOR CHRISSAKE NENI GOT THE MONEY ITS HER MONEY

THE ONLY THING I ABSOLUTELY HATE ABOUT THE BOOK

JENDE ARE YOU LISTENING, NENI SIT UP AND LISTEN:

I HATE THE ENDING, AND with my students, we will REWRITE IT

SWITCHING GEARS HERE HERE

HEAR THIS:

Do you realize that 15 Republican assholes got booted out in the Virginia elections

            ALL WERE REPUBLICAN WHITE MALES

And that they were replaced

BY WOMEN!!!!!!! YAHOOOOOOO!!!!!

This comes from MY OWN HEROINE RACHEL!

ON ANOTHER TOPIC SEXUAL HARRASSMENT

IT'S ALL OF A PIECE

HEAR: The “me too” campaign is 

HERE

HERE

HERE

WOMEN ARE COMING OUT OF THE WOODWORK

TO SPIT OUT THEIR MISERY WITH SO MUCH MYSOGY!!!

HEAR THIS MEN, if you can't treat a women with respect

FUCK YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

And that includes you Jende! You know very well why I write this your SOB

I thought I loved just loved your character

until page 341, virtually at the end of this fabulous book

YOU TOOK OVER YOU TOOK OVER

So here to stay

is ME TOO!

Say whatever you can to support

Women’s voices women’s power women’s subjugation

SSHOUT IT OUT LOUD

YOU  ARE A MIGHTY ASSHOLE TRUMP!!!!!!

You are going to get your ass kicked and dumped into the Potomac

by ROBERT MUELLER

and/or the voters thank God we are almost 2018

*******

what about the book?

Oh. I love it so much I am going to teach a class using just that book

A class that will read the book and use it for all kinds of writing

Would you want to read this book

You would want to take this class?

email me at claudiajricci@gmail.com

You need to read it to decide

Whether you want to take it.

12:59 a.m.

YAWN

I am finally getting sleepy

BUT I LEAVE YOU WITH THIS INCREDIBLY HOPEFUL THOUGHT;

AFTER SEEING THE VOTERS TROMP THE TRUMPITES LAST NIGHT

I AM SINGING OUR DEMOCRACY!

BEHOLD THE DREAMERS

WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY WHERE WE CAN IF WE STAND UP AND COME

TOGETHER IN PEACE AND LOVE AND SUPPORT FOR

BROTHERS AND SISTERS

EVERYWHERE

And vote their asses out of office.

Women won across the country

And we will continue to

Win and win and win and win and win.

“Behold the Dreamers,” won the prestigious PEN/Faulkner fiction award for 2017, and was an Oprah book club pick this year.