Donald, The Anti-racism Daily newsletter that pops into my inbox every morning around 3am provided excerpts from and links to five of Dr. King’s speeches: Letters from a Birmingham Jail (April 16, 1963)Beyond Vietnam (April 4, 1967)The Role of the Behavioral Scientist in the Civil Rights Movement (September 1, 1967)The Other America (March 14, 1968)I’ve … Continue reading On this MLK Day most Whites are still only scratching the surface of racism
Racism
May we stop accepting half-measures
Donald, One of the things I’ve learned to do since Laura and I’ve both been working from home is to listen to music using my ear buds when she’s either teaching her class or in zoom meetings. Previously I wasn’t one to listen to music while working, but it turns out that it’s really helpful … Continue reading May we stop accepting half-measures
Weaponizing the scaffolding
Donald, Thanks to Mitch McConnell you have five more days, or a little over 120 hours, left in office. It should bring some measure of comfort that the time left is so minimal, but honestly, it really doesn’t. I’m picturing a graph where the time countdown is plotted against the desperation ramp up, the former … Continue reading Weaponizing the scaffolding
America minus two…. Vladimir plus two….
Donald, Racking up two impeachments is obviously not something most of us would want on our resumes and so I suppose you aren’t in a very good mood tonight. So sad. But you know who probably is in a very, very good mood today? Your old buddy Vladimir – I bet he’s tickled pink by … Continue reading America minus two…. Vladimir plus two….
There’s always room for a modicum of doubt and that’s enough if you want it to be
Donald, Kate Woodsome (WP) put our current situation well when she said: “Fact-checking delusion is not effective when the president is promoting conspiracy theories” in her piece describing the terrifying day at the Capitol she and her camera person endured last Wednesday. Honestly though, fact-checking delusions is never a winning proposition whether the guy with … Continue reading There’s always room for a modicum of doubt and that’s enough if you want it to be
The unity panacea won’t cut it this time
Donald, I toyed with starting this letter with just “XXXX” and dispensing with your name or any clever, mocking labels but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I actually wrote it out and started to say something about the choice, but I decided it would be too similar to what you’ve done to so … Continue reading The unity panacea won’t cut it this time
Angry about our anger double standard
Donald, Again, I’m retracing old ground, but given how little we have learned, I think it’s warranted. This morning I read an interview with Congresswoman Jayapal by Rebecca Traister for The Cut about Jayapal’s experiences on Wednesday during the Capitol siege. Jayapal recounts how there’d been talk days ahead of time that a large protest … Continue reading Angry about our anger double standard
We likely haven’t seen the half of it yet
Donald, I know this risks seeming trite and as though I’m re-tracing already well established lines, but I’m guessing that like me, when you were a young child you were taught to respect and even revere policemen (they were virtually all men then) and firemen (ditto re the gender deal). You were probably encouraged to … Continue reading We likely haven’t seen the half of it yet
Yesterday morning, before
Donald, I imagine things were quiet there in DC first thing this morning, that the stink of the tear gas has cleared, that the spent shells were swept away overnight, and that all the Confederate and MAGA paraphernalia littering the Capitol was relegated to the dustbin (though I’m sure a few sympathizers pocketed some bits … Continue reading Yesterday morning, before
Our hearts were broken into even smaller pieces today
Donald, What to say? I don’t know. The in our faces events of the day have been scrutinized and parsed every which way from Sunday and there are still countless declarations swirling about the necessity for more scrutiny and parsing about how it was that the mob breached the Capitol, how it was that we … Continue reading Our hearts were broken into even smaller pieces today