F: First Ladies
G: Ghana
H: Haitian American
I: India
J: Justice
Stay tuned for the next installment in this history series! In the meantime, catch up on previous rounds of Comics A-Z. While they often stand in their husbands’ shadows (at least that’s the way it’s gone thus far), many presidential wives made waves: Dolley Madison saved papers of state and a treasured portrait of George Washington when the British burned Washington in 1812; Jackie Kennedy restored the White House’s structure and grounds and sparked a resurgence in funding for the arts; and Michelle Obama changed entrenched thinking on public nutrition. And those are only three of the most prominent examples. Let’s not forget Hillary Rodham Clinton who worked to bring health care to all Americans while Bill Clinton was president and was, once he left office, elected a Senator, appointed Secretary of State, and ran as the Democratic nominee for President in 2016. As times continue to change, the office will continue to evolve; understanding where it all began will always be essential. Winner of the 2018 NOMMO Award for Best Graphic Novel, Lake of Tears exposes the truth of Ghana’s dangerous inland fishing industry and the 21,0000 children enslaved on the boats and in the precarious, and often deadly, occupation. In Ofei and Fiadzugbey’s graphic novel, three teens who have been forced to live such a life band together to put one of the slave masters out of business for good, but can they succeed against such an entrenched and cruel institution? In an interview originally published on Squid Mag, editor and publisher John Schaidler remarked, “… the horrible truth is this: often slave masters can buy a child for less than the cost of the net. Everyone should know and understand the brutal reality of these harsh economic conditions.” Artist Fiadzugbey adds, “Young people tend to gravitate toward action-adventure stories … our goal was to take the reader on an unforgettable ride, while also underscoring the persistent … tragedy of modern child slavery.” Jean said in an interview with The BlerdGurl that her intention in creating Spirit’s Destiny was to “create a Haitian-American superhero that was not associated with negative Haitian stereotypes.” One day, Pri finds a pashmina in a forgotten suitcase and when she puts it on she’s transported to a magical world, a world that is so much like the magnificent India she’s always imagined. But as she spends more and more time there, she begins to wonder if the place to which she’s traveling is really the place she wants to go, or simply a magnificent illusion filling in the gaps in Pri’s past. But how will she ever know for certain if her mother won’t tell her? Will she ever find the pieces of her past? Will she ever find herself? People wrote the Constitution and, as Captain America so adeptly reminds us in Civil War, people have agendas. They’re also, no matter how brilliant, imperfect, which means the documents they produce are bound to have pitfalls, missed opportunities, and, as Levinson so appropriately dubs them, fault lines along which they can fracture. Those fractures can widen into partisan confrontations and political confrontations that stand between the branches of government and the fulfillment of their primary responsibilities. How do we suture the lacerations? How do we bridge the canyons? Constitutional scholar Sanford Levinson has some ideas, all of which have their origins in the same document that created the fault lines in the first place. Maybe we should send some copies to Capitol Hill…
