Had a great evening tonight hanging out with some girlfriends who are also politically-minded. We had a wide-ranging discussion about local, state and national politics, focused mostly on what we're doing to stand up, keep fighting in 2017.
One friend asked if pulling together a "Women for [candidate]" group made sense for a current race. I said absolutely - women's issues and women's collectivism are still a thing!
Hillary lost. It is what it is. What we do next is continue to work hard to ensure that women's voices are heard at all levels of decision-making, and that women are in positions to be decision-makers.
This we can do!
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Holiday Detox
There is a lot that I love about the Christmas holiday season - the lights are at the top of the list, for sure - but I don't revel in the over-abundance of it. It truly can be too dang much.
So it felt like a fine time for me to give up sugar, caffeine, alcohol, & dairy. I decided to do this during our 2-week winter break from school. Two weeks seems like a reasonable amount of time - long enough to be meaningful and short enough to be doable. So far, so good. We'll see if & how long it lasts after the two weeks are up.
I think detoxing is a good way to honor Christ. Going all-out at Christmas never felt right to me. It's certainly not what Jesus asked of us or wanted for us. I can't imagine he would smile at all the STUFF under our tree! (Maybe we should treat Advent a little more like Lent - scale back for a month before the big day?)
Detoxing over the holiday season actually feels pretty good. :)
So it felt like a fine time for me to give up sugar, caffeine, alcohol, & dairy. I decided to do this during our 2-week winter break from school. Two weeks seems like a reasonable amount of time - long enough to be meaningful and short enough to be doable. So far, so good. We'll see if & how long it lasts after the two weeks are up.
I think detoxing is a good way to honor Christ. Going all-out at Christmas never felt right to me. It's certainly not what Jesus asked of us or wanted for us. I can't imagine he would smile at all the STUFF under our tree! (Maybe we should treat Advent a little more like Lent - scale back for a month before the big day?)
Detoxing over the holiday season actually feels pretty good. :)
Monday, December 19, 2016
Integration = Gen X is Less Racist
Seems intuitive to assert that integration would lead to less racism, as it is clear that racism typically thrives in absence of knowledge. But apparently there is research to back it up. I was just looking around to see what's out there about Gen X right now, and came across this on Wikipedia:
In the US, Generation X was the first cohort to grow up post-integration. They were described in a marketing report by Specialty Retail as the kids who “lived the civil-rights movement." They were among the first children to be bused to attain integration in the public school system. In the 1990s, demographer William Strauss reported Gen Xers were “by any measure the least racist of today's generations.”
It doesn't surprise me, though we have to admit that the "integration" we experienced as kids wasn't always done well. Being in the same school is not the same as being in the same classes and actually working together. But nonetheless, it's interesting to see research showing that our exposure through integration has led to less racism among our cohort.
I absolutely believe that the best school for kids is one in which there is no racial majority. Where multiple races are represented in significant numbers, my own experience has been that it kind of takes race off the table for kids. If there's no racial majority, there's no racial culture in the school, and the school gets to create its own culture. I've spent the last 10 years in schools with this demographic mix, and I believe in it.
In the US, Generation X was the first cohort to grow up post-integration. They were described in a marketing report by Specialty Retail as the kids who “lived the civil-rights movement." They were among the first children to be bused to attain integration in the public school system. In the 1990s, demographer William Strauss reported Gen Xers were “by any measure the least racist of today's generations.”
It doesn't surprise me, though we have to admit that the "integration" we experienced as kids wasn't always done well. Being in the same school is not the same as being in the same classes and actually working together. But nonetheless, it's interesting to see research showing that our exposure through integration has led to less racism among our cohort.
I absolutely believe that the best school for kids is one in which there is no racial majority. Where multiple races are represented in significant numbers, my own experience has been that it kind of takes race off the table for kids. If there's no racial majority, there's no racial culture in the school, and the school gets to create its own culture. I've spent the last 10 years in schools with this demographic mix, and I believe in it.
Sunday, December 11, 2016
"How the Trump Stole Christmas"
I have some ambivalence about this poem where it gets mean, and certainly would not have written it the same way myself. But the fundamental nature of it is awesome. I love when folks take good literature & update it for humor and/or social commentary. This fits that bill.
How the Trump Stole Christmas
By John Pavlovitz
In a land where the states are united, they claim,
in a sky-scraping tower adorned with his name,
lived a terrible, horrible, devious chump,
the bright orange miscreant known as the Trump.
This Trump he was mean, such a mean little man,
with the tiniest heart and two tinier hands,
and a thin set of lips etched in permanent curl,
and a sneer and a scowl and contempt for the world.
He looked down from his perch and he grinned ear to ear,
and he thought, “I could steal the election this year!
It’d be rather simple, it’s so easily won,
I’ll just make them believe that their best days are done!
Yes, I’ll make them believe that it’s all gone to Hell,
and I’ll be Jerk Messiah and their souls they will sell.
And I’ll use lots of words disconnected from truth,
but I’ll say them with style so they won’t ask for proof.
I’ll toss out random platitudes, phrases, and such,
They’re so raised on fake news that it won’t matter much!
They won’t question the how to, the what, why, or when,
I will make their America great once again!”
The Trump told them to fear, they should fear he would say,
“They’ve all come for your jobs, they’ll all take them away.
You should fear every Muslim and Mexican too,
every brown, black, and tan one, everyone who votes blue.”
And he fooled all the Christians, he fooled them indeed,
He just trotted out Jesus, that’s all Jesus folk need.
And celebrity preachers they all crowned him as king,
Tripping over themselves just to kiss the Trump’s ring.
And he spoke only lies just as if they were true,
Until they believed all of those lies were true too.
He repeated and Tweeted and he blustered and spit,
And he mislead and fibbed — and he just made up sh*t.
And the media laughed but they printed each line,
thinking “He’ll never will win, in the end we’ll be fine.”
So they chased every headline, bold typed every claim,
‘Till the fake news and real news they looked just the same.
And the scared folk who listened, they devoured each word,
Yes, they ate it all up every word that they heard,
petrified that their freedom was under attack,
trusting Trump he would take their America back.
From the gays and from ISIS, he’d take it all back,
Take it back from the Democrats, fat cats, and blacks.
And so hook, line, and sinker they all took the bait,
all his lies about making America great.
Now the Pant-suited One she was smart and prepared,
she was brilliant and steady but none of them cared,
no they cared not to see all the work that she’d done,
or the fact they the Trump had not yet done thing one.
They could only shout “Emails!”, yes “Emails!” they’d shout,
because Fox News had told them — and Fox News had clout.
And the Pant-suited One she was slandered no end,
and a lie became truth she could never defend.
And the Trump watched it all go according to plan —
a strong woman eclipsed by an insecure man.
And November the 8th arrived, finally it came,
like a slow-moving storm but it came just the same.
And Tuesday became Wednesday as those days will do,
And the night turned to morning and the nightmare came true,
With millions of non-voters still in their beds,
Yes, the Trump he had done it, just like he had said.
And the Trumpers they trumped, how they trumped when he won,
All the racists and bigots; deplorable ones,
they crawled out from the woodwork, came out to raise Hell,
they came out to be hateful and hurtful as well.
With slurs and with road signs, with spray paint and Tweets,
with death threats to neighbors and taunts on the street.
And the grossest of grossness they hurled on their peers,
while the Trump he said zilch — for the first time in years.
But he Tweeted at Hamilton, he Tweeted the Times,
And he trolled Alec Baldwin a few hundred times,
and he pouted a pout like a petulant kid,
thinking this is what Presidents actually did,
thinking he could still be a perpetual jerk,
terrified to learn he had to actually work,
work for every American, not just for a few,
not just for the white ones — there was much more to do.
He now worked for the Muslims and Mexicans too,
for the brown, black, and tan ones, and the ones who vote blue.
They were all now his bosses, now they all had a say,
and those nasty pant-suited ones were here to stay.
And the Trump he soon realized that he didn’t win,
He had gotten the thing — and the thing now had him.
And it turned out the Trump was a little too late,
for America was already more than quite great,
not because of the sameness, the opposite’s true,
It’s greatness far more than just red, white, and blue,
It’s straight, gay, and female — it’s Gentile and Jew,
It’s Transgender and Christian and Atheist too.
It’s Asians, Caucasians of every kind,
The disabled and abled, the deaf and the blind,
It’s immigrants, Muslims, and brave refugees,
It’s Liberals with bleeding hearts fixed to their sleeves.
And we are all staying, we’re staying right here,
and we’ll be the great bane of the Trump for four years.
And we’ll be twice as loud as the loudness of hate,
be the greatness that makes our America great.
And the Trump’s loudest boasts they won’t ever obscure,
over two million more of us — voted for her.
###
How the Trump Stole Christmas
By John Pavlovitz
In a land where the states are united, they claim,
in a sky-scraping tower adorned with his name,
lived a terrible, horrible, devious chump,
the bright orange miscreant known as the Trump.
This Trump he was mean, such a mean little man,
with the tiniest heart and two tinier hands,
and a thin set of lips etched in permanent curl,
and a sneer and a scowl and contempt for the world.
He looked down from his perch and he grinned ear to ear,
and he thought, “I could steal the election this year!
It’d be rather simple, it’s so easily won,
I’ll just make them believe that their best days are done!
Yes, I’ll make them believe that it’s all gone to Hell,
and I’ll be Jerk Messiah and their souls they will sell.
And I’ll use lots of words disconnected from truth,
but I’ll say them with style so they won’t ask for proof.
I’ll toss out random platitudes, phrases, and such,
They’re so raised on fake news that it won’t matter much!
They won’t question the how to, the what, why, or when,
I will make their America great once again!”
The Trump told them to fear, they should fear he would say,
“They’ve all come for your jobs, they’ll all take them away.
You should fear every Muslim and Mexican too,
every brown, black, and tan one, everyone who votes blue.”
And he fooled all the Christians, he fooled them indeed,
He just trotted out Jesus, that’s all Jesus folk need.
And celebrity preachers they all crowned him as king,
Tripping over themselves just to kiss the Trump’s ring.
And he spoke only lies just as if they were true,
Until they believed all of those lies were true too.
He repeated and Tweeted and he blustered and spit,
And he mislead and fibbed — and he just made up sh*t.
And the media laughed but they printed each line,
thinking “He’ll never will win, in the end we’ll be fine.”
So they chased every headline, bold typed every claim,
‘Till the fake news and real news they looked just the same.
And the scared folk who listened, they devoured each word,
Yes, they ate it all up every word that they heard,
petrified that their freedom was under attack,
trusting Trump he would take their America back.
From the gays and from ISIS, he’d take it all back,
Take it back from the Democrats, fat cats, and blacks.
And so hook, line, and sinker they all took the bait,
all his lies about making America great.
Now the Pant-suited One she was smart and prepared,
she was brilliant and steady but none of them cared,
no they cared not to see all the work that she’d done,
or the fact they the Trump had not yet done thing one.
They could only shout “Emails!”, yes “Emails!” they’d shout,
because Fox News had told them — and Fox News had clout.
And the Pant-suited One she was slandered no end,
and a lie became truth she could never defend.
And the Trump watched it all go according to plan —
a strong woman eclipsed by an insecure man.
And November the 8th arrived, finally it came,
like a slow-moving storm but it came just the same.
And Tuesday became Wednesday as those days will do,
And the night turned to morning and the nightmare came true,
With millions of non-voters still in their beds,
Yes, the Trump he had done it, just like he had said.
And the Trumpers they trumped, how they trumped when he won,
All the racists and bigots; deplorable ones,
they crawled out from the woodwork, came out to raise Hell,
they came out to be hateful and hurtful as well.
With slurs and with road signs, with spray paint and Tweets,
with death threats to neighbors and taunts on the street.
And the grossest of grossness they hurled on their peers,
while the Trump he said zilch — for the first time in years.
But he Tweeted at Hamilton, he Tweeted the Times,
And he trolled Alec Baldwin a few hundred times,
and he pouted a pout like a petulant kid,
thinking this is what Presidents actually did,
thinking he could still be a perpetual jerk,
terrified to learn he had to actually work,
work for every American, not just for a few,
not just for the white ones — there was much more to do.
He now worked for the Muslims and Mexicans too,
for the brown, black, and tan ones, and the ones who vote blue.
They were all now his bosses, now they all had a say,
and those nasty pant-suited ones were here to stay.
And the Trump he soon realized that he didn’t win,
He had gotten the thing — and the thing now had him.
And it turned out the Trump was a little too late,
for America was already more than quite great,
not because of the sameness, the opposite’s true,
It’s greatness far more than just red, white, and blue,
It’s straight, gay, and female — it’s Gentile and Jew,
It’s Transgender and Christian and Atheist too.
It’s Asians, Caucasians of every kind,
The disabled and abled, the deaf and the blind,
It’s immigrants, Muslims, and brave refugees,
It’s Liberals with bleeding hearts fixed to their sleeves.
And we are all staying, we’re staying right here,
and we’ll be the great bane of the Trump for four years.
And we’ll be twice as loud as the loudness of hate,
be the greatness that makes our America great.
And the Trump’s loudest boasts they won’t ever obscure,
over two million more of us — voted for her.
###
Friday, November 25, 2016
Thanksgiving in the 21st Century
I have several friends now who won't celebrate Thanksgiving, because they see it as a celebration of genocide.
I think gratitude in general is too important not to devote a holiday to, but I also believe we should look at the real history, not the mythology, as we celebrate each year. To that end, I was deeply grateful to find that the pastors of the Downtown Congregations who put on the Inter-Faith Thanksgiving Service in Minneapolis every year apparently agreed with me this year.
Yesterday's service was incredible and deeply moving. Rev. Bailey from the host church, Plymouth Congregational, named the issue in the welcome. She invited us to reflect not only on what the Wampanoag did for the Pilgrims, but also the centuries of colonialism and genocide that followed. And used those words. She even included a reference to the water protectors & #NoDAPL.
Rev Tim Hart-Anderson, of Westminster Presbyterian, gave the sermon, and invited Rev Jim Bear Jacobs of Church of all Nations to join him to bring the Native perspective front & center. Telling to Thanksgiving story from the Wampanoag perspective was cool. They talked about the story of Jesus healing the lepers in Samaria & all the reasons we don't stop to give thanks - too busy, too afraid, too entitled. Indeed.
Rev. Lebens-Englund from St. Mark's Episcopal read President Obama's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, and invited everyone to stand & hold hands for it. Seemed weird at first, but the proclamation was beautiful & worth it.
The service included scriptures from the Torah, the Qur'an, the Gospel and the Psalms. Passages were read in Hebrew and Arabic, in addition to English. The service also included Latin and Lenape. I loved it. The interfaith nature of the service has grown over 40 years from being Christian + Temple Israel, just sticking to the Old Testament, into a service that pulls in multiple faith traditions and finds the links among them all.
Most meaningful worship I've experienced in a while. I am thankful.
I think gratitude in general is too important not to devote a holiday to, but I also believe we should look at the real history, not the mythology, as we celebrate each year. To that end, I was deeply grateful to find that the pastors of the Downtown Congregations who put on the Inter-Faith Thanksgiving Service in Minneapolis every year apparently agreed with me this year.
Yesterday's service was incredible and deeply moving. Rev. Bailey from the host church, Plymouth Congregational, named the issue in the welcome. She invited us to reflect not only on what the Wampanoag did for the Pilgrims, but also the centuries of colonialism and genocide that followed. And used those words. She even included a reference to the water protectors & #NoDAPL.
Rev Tim Hart-Anderson, of Westminster Presbyterian, gave the sermon, and invited Rev Jim Bear Jacobs of Church of all Nations to join him to bring the Native perspective front & center. Telling to Thanksgiving story from the Wampanoag perspective was cool. They talked about the story of Jesus healing the lepers in Samaria & all the reasons we don't stop to give thanks - too busy, too afraid, too entitled. Indeed.
Rev. Lebens-Englund from St. Mark's Episcopal read President Obama's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, and invited everyone to stand & hold hands for it. Seemed weird at first, but the proclamation was beautiful & worth it.
The service included scriptures from the Torah, the Qur'an, the Gospel and the Psalms. Passages were read in Hebrew and Arabic, in addition to English. The service also included Latin and Lenape. I loved it. The interfaith nature of the service has grown over 40 years from being Christian + Temple Israel, just sticking to the Old Testament, into a service that pulls in multiple faith traditions and finds the links among them all.
Most meaningful worship I've experienced in a while. I am thankful.
Segregation & The City
My friend Kirsten is a local historian, and she often has cool projects happening. This one is interesting - mapping Minneapolis by "restrictive deed covenants" - meaning the real redlining that happened in our fair city. Not enough to just know that it happened - Kirsten's group is showing exactly where & when.
It's so easy for us to write off segregation in the 21st century as all about choice, but it's not. As Professor Ed Goetz of the U MN's Center for Urban & Regional Affairs put it: "It's important to understand how our cities came to look the way they are. We relegate them to natural market outcomes without reference to the very engineering and intrusive interventions that these things are."
Indeed.
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Wonder Woman
Recently found this fabulous Wonder Woman t-shirt:
It says so much in one image!
https://teechip.com/wwpnks#id=4&c=161616&sid=gildan-50-50-hoodie&s=front
It says so much in one image!
https://teechip.com/wwpnks#id=4&c=161616&sid=gildan-50-50-hoodie&s=front
20 Lessons from the 20th Century
Yale historian and Holocaust expert Timothy
Snyder wrote: "Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy
yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might
learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so." Snyder's a
member of the Council on Foreign Relations (which includes former Secretaries
of State), and consults on political situations around the globe.
1. Do not obey in advance. Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked. You've already done this, haven't you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.
2. Defend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not speak of "our institutions" unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don't protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning.
-->
He says, "Here are twenty lessons from the
twentieth century, adapted to the circumstances of today.
1. Do not obey in advance. Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked. You've already done this, haven't you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.
2. Defend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not speak of "our institutions" unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don't protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning.
3. Recall professional ethics. When the leaders
of state set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become
much more important. It is hard to break a rule-of-law state without lawyers,
and it is hard to have show trials without judges.
4. When listening to politicians, distinguish
certain words. Look out for the expansive use of "terrorism" and
"extremism." Be alive to the fatal notions of "exception"
and "emergency." Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic
vocabulary.
5. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. When
the terrorist attack comes, remember that all authoritarians at all times
either await or plan such events in order to consolidate power. Think of the
Reichstag fire. The sudden disaster that requires the end of the balance of
power, the end of opposition parties, and so on, is the oldest trick in the
Hitlerian book. Don't fall for it.
6. Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing
the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only
to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. (Don't use the internet
before bed. Charge your gadgets away from your bedroom, and read.) What to
read? Perhaps "The Power of the Powerless" by Václav Havel, 1984 by
George Orwell, The Captive Mind by Czesław Milosz, The Rebel by Albert Camus,
The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt, or Nothing is True and
Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev.
7. Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy, in
words and deeds, to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something
different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. And the moment you set
an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.
8. Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to
abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because
there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is
spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.
9. Investigate. Figure things out for yourself.
Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by
subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on your screen is
there to harm you. Bookmark PropOrNot or other sites that investigate foreign
propaganda pushes.
10. Practice corporeal politics. Power wants
your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen.
Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make
new friends and march with them.
11. Make eye contact and small talk. This is
not just polite. It is a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break
down unnecessary social barriers, and come to understand whom you should and
should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know
the psychological landscape of your daily life.
12. Take responsibility for the face of the
world. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away and do
not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do
so.
13. Hinder the one-party state. The parties
that took over states were once something else. They exploited a historical
moment to make political life impossible for their rivals. Vote in local and
state elections while you can.
14. Give regularly to good causes, if you can.
Pick a charity and set up autopay. Then you will know that you have made a free
choice that is supporting civil society helping others doing something good.
15. Establish a private life. Nastier rulers
will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of
malware. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of
the internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For
the same reason, resolve any legal trouble. Authoritarianism works as a
blackmail state, looking for the hook on which to hang you. Try not to have too
many hooks.
16. Learn from others in other countries. Keep
up your friendships abroad, or make new friends abroad. The present
difficulties here are an element of a general trend. And no country is going to
find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports.
17. Watch out for the paramilitaries. When the
men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing
uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is
nigh. When the pro-Leader paramilitary and the official police and military
intermingle, the game is over.
18. Be reflective if you must be armed. If you
carry a weapon in public service, God bless you and keep you. But know that
evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day,
doing irregular things. Be ready to say no. (If you do not know what this
means, contact the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and ask about
training in professional ethics.)
19. Be as courageous as you can. If none of us
is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die in unfreedom.
20. Be a patriot. The incoming president is
not. Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. They
will need it."
-->
I am reminded that the poet Maya Angelou said: "Courage is the most important virtue, because without it, it is impossible to practice any other virtue consistently."
Blogging in a new era
I let this blog go dormant a few years ago, but as we enter a new political era, I thought it made sense to have a place to store ideas more permanently than Facebook. So here we go!
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