Clare Consultation, LLCThen Ernie Leans on Bert’s Shoulder while They Watch the News
So, I want to go back to last week’s Supreme Court decisions –back to the cover of the New Yorker and the mixed reaction – from effusion to raging – it received. We all know the controversy is less about Bert and Ernie than about the decision of the Supreme Court (or at least 5/9ths of it) to affirm and obviate the unconstitutional nature of that law passed in California amending that… Read More
The VRA and Racism “the country’s original sin”
What a week. With a 68-32 margin, the U.S. Senate passed immigration reform – a heartening step even in the face of the subsequent response by the usual suspects in the House of Representatives rolling their eyes and offering sound bites that essentially communicate (again…), “in your dreams.” In what likely stands as a more inspiring demonstration (and interpretation) of democratic action, Texas Senator, Wendy Davis together with thousands of citizens of… Read More
Violence May Thwart Public Voice, but the Ideas Won’t Go Away
My sister in Gainesville, Florida is recently back from Turkey — Istanbul and a rural city where she and her daughter worked a while on an organic olive farm. The olive work was only perfect for getting to know the culture of rural Turkey a bit, but it was also the only way for these two women to travel together. The younger is a college student, the older (celebrating her 50th with… Read More
Native – nonNative Partnerships: One Step in Making it Real
Yay! A publication. Lots of you know that I write pretty regularly for scholarly outlets. I don’t mention that stuff often here, but word just came in from the Teachers College Register (TCR) of Columbia University that a very cool commentary just went live on the TCR webpage for this week. It’s title — PARTNERSHIP WITH NATIVE AMERICAN COMMUNITIES: CAN HIGHER EDUCATION SHOW UP? It’s only free for a week, then TCR charges for… Read More
Human Parades: A Sampling (…read to the bottom)
Last Saturday, Portland Oregon had a clustering of human processions. Every year this time the Rose Festival hits its climax with the Grand Floral Parade — the second largest floral parade in the nation next to Pasadena’s Rose Parade on January 1. Typical to Oregon’s modesty and as true to its chutzpah, the Rose Festival was established a mere 17 years after the first parade in Pasadena way back in the first… Read More
Social Class and Knowing
One of the things I do in my work is to serve as a reviewer for scholarly manuscripts that social science researchers submit to academic journals – vying for one of the coveted publication spots so necessary for advancing in higher education professions. Hmmm. Well first, let’s go back and take a look at that sentence. The one I just wrote and you just read. Its message could easily invoke a yawn. … Read More
Day after Memorial Day in Montana
The past few days have, for me, been filled again with Montana. Specifically the valleys just northeast of the Beartooth/Absaroka range of the Rockies. Yesterday our country gave an entire day to a remembrance many of us make far more often during the year in honor of the people who have given their lives in service to this country. On that day I stood in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone, the country’s… Read More
What are the Barriers to Social Justice?
On Friday I had the opportunity to speak briefly with a small group of friends and colleagues about social justice. It was a time that qualifies for sure as a moment in the story of my life. And the particular narrative of that time is transition – big transition – so big that I’m not yet prepared to write about it here. Odd, since this is the place I write and… Read More
Paying Attention to What’s Working
The other day, I was at the Quest Integrative Health Center in Portland. I was co-facilitating a discussion on the neurobiology of happiness based on the work of researcher and clinician, Rick Hanson. I’ve written about Quest Center before in this blog (EX:C blogs November 26, 2012; December 10, 2012) and have to say it’s great to be volunteering my time as part of this monthly neuroscience series. The group gathered… Read More
DIY Fashion Statement
So, one of the features of being human is having a body. You may have noticed. Related to that is necessity, both climactic and social, of finding ways to cover, to clothe. The practical act of clothing keeps people from freezing in winter and can provide a bit of cooling in the heat of summer. The social act if covering the body may most joyously take on artistry with adornment being a… Read More