The NFL

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jets protest copy

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...]

A speech from the White House: hurricanes and earthquakes

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white house podium copy

Before we all become numb to the nonsense of this president and his administration, let’s imagine what should be happening and how the leader of this country should sound when speaking to or about anyone. (Oh, and fuck the tweets. Just stop.) Let’s also pretend that Trump is someone else. I was going to suggest we dream that he’s asked our forgiveness for past sins (too many to list but among them, misspelled words and poor grammar damage my senses) but fuck that too. I’d forgive nothing … [Read more...]

Harvey and DACA, unlikely bedfellows

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harvey pic copy

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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sad face copy

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...]

Day 3: surviving our new reality

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I started writing this on Day 2. New ideas come up and I tweak the post. I realize I work at a school and so bad words are now ****. It’s so very stupid but nothing about this week makes sense to me. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross needs to come back from the grave and give us the five stages of post-election insanity. Recovery must include puppies. Anyhow, here’s what I have today: If you’re a Facebook friend of mine, you know that for me, the hardest part of Tuesday night was being a parent. I felt … [Read more...]

My case for Hillary

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Hill yes!

She reminds me of my mom. Joan Egan was described in her senior college yearbook as “Gracious, Gregarious, Grand.” And she was. She was also smart, and unsentimental. I can recall only a handful of times seeing her cry. Her pragmatism was ill suited for messy emotions. Feelings never got in the way of completing the task. And yet she was compassionate. If you were really sick, she’d visit regularly. If you needed a meal, she’d cook you one or pick up ribs at Costco. She was a hospital … [Read more...]