2019. I look back at photos from that time with a bit of wonder. My 50th birthday celebration at a Chicago restaurant with friends who’d traveled from other cities. Our spring break trip to Korea with my mother. The kids’ birthday parties at one venue or another. Our then-6th grader’s first middle school dance. One … Continue reading #17 – february 8: the tyranny of normal
Category: politics
The myth of white innocence
The system is working as it was designed. What does that mean? As far as I can tell, it means the system is designed to protect the myth of white innocence at all costs. The finger is ever pointed outward, never inward. There is always an other to blame who somehow forced white men’s hands. … Continue reading The myth of white innocence
#16 – september 18: are we “post”?
Clearly not. There was a moment this summer, sometime in June or July when the vaccine became available for kids 12 and over, when there seemed to be a collective unclenching, a sigh of relief as we returned to some limited gatherings indoors and looked forward to a much better school year. People traveled and … Continue reading #16 – september 18: are we “post”?
#8 – july 26: schooling in a pandemic
Back in May, as we approached the date for “phase 3”of “Restore Illinois,” I started a post about reopening, but never finished it. One of the questions I asked in trying to wrap my mind around what a reopening might look and feel like was: Will there actually be an “after”? Well, here we are … Continue reading #8 – july 26: schooling in a pandemic
#6- april 15: this is not a war
It’s as if the war metaphors just write themselves, as if they are inevitable, the most obvious thing in the world. It’s as if we have no other language to describe what is happening than the language of war. We have workers on the frontlines, the virus is an invisible enemy we’re all fighting, battling … Continue reading #6- april 15: this is not a war
#4 – march 29: all the feelings
In the early days of the pandemic, when we all started cancelling plans, a therapist friend posted about having learned the importance of honoring all the feelings one is feeling about a thing, rather than judging them, or comparing them to others or to some abstract standard of how we should be reacting. Oh, so … Continue reading #4 – march 29: all the feelings
#2 – march 18: flattening the curve
“To live entirely for oneself in private is a huge luxury, a luxury countless aspects of this society encourage, but like a diet of pure foie gras it clogs and narrows the arteries of the heart. This is what we’re encouraged to crave in this country, but most of us crave more deeply something with … Continue reading #2 – march 18: flattening the curve
Why I’m Team Warren
Just so you know where I’m coming from right off the bat, I don’t think “socialism,” “liberal,” or “progressive” are dirty words. A functioning society has a strong social safety net and funds education, research, and the arts. Any truly progressive policy has to be anti-racist and anti-sexist. Government should regulate industry for the greater … Continue reading Why I’m Team Warren
Contrary Frog 