Clare Consultation, LLCTesting Limits
UPDATE: 6/7/17 Accounts from people present on Sunday must come into play. Late in this blog, I suggest that the “protesters should not be dismissed as childish.” The photo above also implies these officials as proxy for the balance I describe. The new information indicates that undue force was used by the police – physical force, tear gas, rubber bullets. It indicates that once again, people of color among the counter-protesters were… Read More
My Nephew’s Body will be Buried Today
“It will always be important to have a community of people who support each other and work together for the struggle. Yes, for the struggle for all people.” Bruce McQuakay Saturday Memorial Day weekend, 2017 Seven years ago, on Fathers’ Day, Bruce McQuakay and I saw one another at the annual Delta Park pow wow. Bruce, who described himself as Tlingit and Apache, was not a father yet – that was still… Read More
Duck – Duck – Eagle
Remember the game we played when we were little? The one who was “it” walked around the outside of a kiddo-circle tapping every next person on the head. “Duck.” “Duck.” “Duck.” “Duck.” “Duck.” “GOOSE!” Then the running commences. The “it” child takes off like a shot – running around the circle. The “goose” child tries to catch them. If caught, “it” stays “it” – if not, the new “it” starts making the duck/goose… Read More
Why Bother with Peace & Quiet?
It’s loud. Have you noticed? If not crashing into your ears, then careening around in your thoughts – in your dreams. If you live urban, maybe you’ve noticed the sirens on emergency vehicles being given more volume to break through earbuds and .. well .. all the other competition. Birds are calling out to each other with more volume, too. There’s a lot out there demanding adaptation. Some of it is… Read More
Bring Your Best or Forfeit Your Country
In the January/February 1996 Harvard Business Review, 21 years ago, economist Paul Krugman ran out the ways countries are not businesses. The ways successful business people cannot automatically apply their skill sets to steering a nation and its economy. At the same time, he admitted that economists could not, without considerable extra expertise, run successful businesses. Krugman writes, “Let me begin with two examples of economic issues that I have found business executives… Read More
Do Not Forget: This Morning Too, Has a Pulse
On this day – at the time of inauguration of our country’s 45th President, we are no less in and of the reliable weave of relationship. Within the natural world. Within the social world – itself entirely an expression of nature. On this day – like all other days, a pulse. And wisdom – like Dr. Angelou’s in 1993 – it’s truth everpresent, whether seen and lived from or not. May… Read More
Eight Years Ago – Listening to American Voices
Today, eight years ago, I was just across the threshold into a giant project. A listening project. Only 16 days earlier, on New Year’s Eve, I’d decided to take time off from work so I could drive around the country with a flip camera to record the voices of everyday Americans. I would start the day after the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States – Barack Obama. I would… Read More
#NoDAPL – A Closer View from a Young Anishinaabe Woman
More helpful words from another clear thinker. This time, a young woman. Kayla DeVault is an Anishinaabe, enrolled Shawnee. She lives on the Navajo nation where she is studying Diné studies at Diné College and working as a civil engineer for the Navajo Nation Division of Transportation. She is also a youth ambassador for Generation Indigenous who has attended meetings at the White House. Several weeks ago, she spoke before the leadership… Read More
Three Quotes for Weary Citizens
In days when helpful words don’t come easily, these Elders are, for me, clearings in the fog. George Takei wrote this in the past week – [you may know him for his role as Sulu in Star Trek.] Just a few weeks after my fifth birthday, in the spring of 1942, my parents got my younger brother, my baby sister, and me up very early, hurriedly dressed us, and quickly started to pack…. Read More
A Protest Vote Decades in the Making
“White people elected Trump.” Over these last 10 days, these words are showing up everywhere. Mostly because they’re true. And white progressives actually helped. Among most white people I know who think of themselves as social progressives and who, like I, have had loads of access to privilege – aka education, careers, financial literacy, problems of identity that way outnumber problems of monetary survival – reactions to the election of Donald Trump… Read More