Enough, Never Again, and MARCH FOR OUR LIVES

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It’s been five months since my last post about guns. It’s been five weeks since seventeen people were shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. It’s been three days since a gunman opened fire at a high school in Maryland. One of his two victims was taken off life support this afternoon. Today, nearly one hundred more Americans will die as a result of gun violence. Tomorrow, I’ll march. Because you see, this is urgent. But why did it take a bunch of … [Read more...]

Youth, Sports, and the Missing Adults

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My girls started playing soccer when they were five years old. My only goal for them was to have some easy fun. As the years flew by, volleyball and basketball were thrown into the mix. The purpose of their participation in sports expanded. It involved lessons in commitment, triumph over adversity, experience in losing gracefully and winning humbly. They improved their skills, knowing that the team depended on them playing their best. At no time then or now did I think a lesson learned … [Read more...]

Weinstein and gun control: we can talk about both

Horrible, spineless. Vote him out of office.

I think we set a record after Vegas. We stopped talking collectively about gun control after 3.5 days. Time to revisit: In the past year, two men from our community in the east San Fernando Valley killed themselves. Both were husbands and fathers and both, prior to committing suicide, had experienced financial difficulties. The depth of their despair was ostensibly deeper than their desire to live. It feels immoral to assign further insight into their state of mind. I didn't know either man … [Read more...]

The NFL

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I’ve been a football fan for as long as I can remember so even though there is nary a word left unsaid regarding yesterday’s NFL protests, here are eight hundred or so of mine: Black men and women disproportionately fill our prisons. “Black Americans are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers,” according to census data available from 2016 (from the Washington Post). We do not yet live in a post-racial society. Former NFL quarterback Colin Kapaernick … [Read more...]

Harvey and DACA, unlikely bedfellows

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Holy cow. If I lived near Houston, now Port Arthur and Beaumont, and had a boat, I’d have headed over to pick up as many stranded souls as I could. But I don’t, so I couldn’t. I’ve sent money to All Hands Volunteers, I’ve been in touch with friends from Texas in the thick of it, and I’m confident that what can be done there IS being done, at whatever pace is physically possible. Wondering why Houston wasn’t evacuated? Read this article from WaPo. In a nutshell, it’s numbers and lives. While … [Read more...]

Forgive me, this post is SAD!

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How best to explain my feelings this week? It’s not easy and I feel the president-elect has hijacked the word “sad” as in, “Sad!” But there it is, succinctly. I’m down in the dumps. I’m weepy. The girls and I and the husband were supposed to be on a plane right now, headed to the inauguration. We had planned to take a family trip to celebrate the first female president and the great country in which we live. Instead, I’m dealing with daughters who are also sad and angry and confused. They … [Read more...]