Clare Consultation, LLCWhy Write?
I’m sitting in a coffee shop. It’s high summer in Portland. There’s the usual backdrop: coffee beans surrendering their abundance to the grinder, barista utensils clattering into motion and that burst of steam that, today, sounds most like the explosive exhale of a kid who’s held her breath as long as she can. Threading through is the canned music. The current crooner observing: “Everyone is lonely.” I’ve just looked back on my… 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
#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
2016 – Heroes on the Threshold
This is in no way a complete list. It can’t be. One distinct generosity of my life is that it has brought so many brilliantly inspiring people of integrity and courage. So while these are the ones I’m thinking of right now, do know there are many many more – lots of you reading this, for example! Michelle Browder – Montgomery, Alabama – was and is tireless in her planning, belief, and… Read More
50 Years after Bloody Sunday – Where is Elderhood?
ANSWER: It’s in every one of us. Really. Even in the headliners criticized by the vast and varied media. Overt or latent, Elderhood ™ is in you and it’s in me. It’s in Obama. It’s in Boehner. It’s in Netanyahu. And, most surely, Elderhood ™ is in John Lewis and each of the original Selma foot soldiers gathered today to remember Bloody Sunday – the horror they survived 50 years ago… Read More
The Snipers Within
I haven’t seen American Sniper, but I know it’s in a theater-near-me. It won’t be surprising that I’m not really a fan of war movies. I’m also not a fan of war. But, at bottom, I imagine there are very few who prefer annihilation over peace. From the media buzz related to the Academy Award nominee, I understand that the film stands on the premise that, with armed conflict underway, there is… Read More
Dear 2015
Dear New Year – Thanks for showing up. Thanks for being so matter-of-fact about it. For doing nothing at all out of the ordinary, but still, being inspiring. No matter how tired and pessimistic – no matter how overwhelmed we are by circumstances close in or strewn across this planet of ours, so out-of-control and horrific. No matter any of that and because of all of it you give most of us… Read More
I AM MORE THAN – Leadership out of Montgomery
I want you to know about this! Thanks to the vision of my friend Michelle Browder, and her collaborators – the youth of Montgomery, Alabama – there will be a powerful commemoration of Bloody Sunday – The civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery March 6, 1965. Michelle and her colleagues are pulling out the stops. They’ve created an organization – I AM MORE THAN – and they are working steadily toward a… Read More
<500 words to honor our Elder, Nelson Mandela
This week I had the distinctly privileged new millennium opportunity to sit in a microbrewery with a web design specialist. “Websites are, at best, for linking good minds in support of human community and the planet we humans share.” I knew I liked her. Somewhere in the mix I asked about blog length (you who follow EX:Change know mine can be lloonngg). She said, “Max 500 words.” I was impressed. I’m giving… Read More
This Must Stop.
This is a photo of a Black Man. The photo was taken and posted in response to yesterday’s decision in the Trayvon Martin murder case – the jury-based decision finding the man who killed the unarmed teen not-guilty. Look at this man. Depending on your life experience – your own ethnicity and gender, your experience with people who are similar to and different from you, the extent to which you are willing… Read More