Chatting with Eric

Sometimes it feels like a former life. The days I was riding city buses to and from my years as a professor. The time later in that career when I was living all alone – my daughter off to graduate study in Scotland, single-parenting a thing of the past, and my new husband not yet a person I knew. During those days – those years – I got my social sustenance in… Read More

The justice possible with knowing we (white people) do not know as much as we think we do.

We know Roy Moore is a monster, a total embarrassment to our state. But in the eyes of black voters, what makes him more of a monster than the parade of sleazy politicians who have stood against black interests for generations? So yes, I’m voting for Doug Jones but only because it’s a vote against Roy Moore. And that’s not good enough to rally a base of voters who are already stricken… Read More

Testing 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

“QE2 May Legally Gore a US President with a Sword”

Yep. This just out from the British Monarch in response to questions for clarification on her legal authority (satire – see NOTE below). The limitation: This may only occur if Mr. Trump sets foot on UK soil. The refinement: Only she may do it, and no one may interfere. WOW. Depending on where you tend to find your emotions relative to the early days of Mr. Trump’s administration, this news may horrify… 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