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
Education
2020 may not have been THE worst year ever, but it sure won’t be missed
To: Mr. Doom Somehow I don’t think I’m going to have as much trouble as usual remembering to write “2021” instead of “2020” when the calendar flips tonight. In a typical new year it can take me a good month or month and a half to shed the muscle memory of the old year and … Continue reading 2020 may not have been THE worst year ever, but it sure won’t be missed
All children are deserving — not just the sweet-tempered ones
To: His Highness Who Simply Can’t be Bothered with US I so wish I could genuinely say that I hope that you and your family had a good Christmas, that you enjoyed one another’s company and had fun teasing each other about silly old family stories featuring one or another of you doing something goofy. … Continue reading All children are deserving — not just the sweet-tempered ones
Lessons from lemmings
To: The One Who's Forcing the GOPP's Implosion I was inspired to read about lemmings this morning by the fantastically moronic stuff being reported about certain members of the GOPP (Grand Old Pathetic Party) and their fanatical devotion to you. Before musing about what political calculations may be driving their apparent idiocy, I want to … Continue reading Lessons from lemmings
The MAGA-merica fever dream is breaking
To: The Disgraced Leader of US Well, of course the jury will be out for quite some time on whether the bones of this place, this pseudo democracy (messed up as it is by mega-money and abuses of power) are good and strong enough to bother rehabilitating around. The answer to that overwhelming question almost … Continue reading The MAGA-merica fever dream is breaking
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it still doesn’t lead to just indictments of killer cops
To: The Race Baiter I’m still reading Jill Lepore’s tome “These Truths: A History of The United States.” I’m all of 24% through it and have about 31 hours left to go. It’s fascinating and devastating, in equal measure. I keep coming across quotes and circumstances from 150 or 200 years ago that feel like … Continue reading A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it still doesn’t lead to just indictments of killer cops
May we not squander our moral courage this time
To: He Whose Moral Compass is Kaput Yesterday the Twitter-verse had a scare because Dionne Warwick was trending so people thought she must have died. She very much has not died and the reason she was trending was that she reached out to Chance The Rapper and teased him about including “The Rapper” in his … Continue reading May we not squander our moral courage this time
Anti-historical America
To: The Anti-historian Supreme Since the calendar has finally turned to December, does that mean you only have 14 more days to cash in on your peeps, what with the final Electoral College votes set to be cast on the 14th? Or are you going to somehow keep the charade going up to 1/20/21? Or … Continue reading Anti-historical America
Beyond redemption
To: Mr. Bone spurs Happy Veterans’ Day! Looks like you devoted all of 20 minutes to going through the motions of honoring veterans today – from 11am to 11:20am EST. Maybe your published public calendar is missing all the heartfelt phone calls you made to veterans and their families today, thanking them for their sacrifice … Continue reading Beyond redemption
The imperative of acing Electoral College 101
President* Trump, I know this is something of a theme by now, but I need to credit you with pushing me to learn all sorts of things that never would’ve occurred to me to learn pre-you. To be sure, I was probably exposed to much of it in a long-ago high school civics class, but … Continue reading The imperative of acing Electoral College 101