37days of Activism
You wanted to know what role you would have played in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s? Now’s your time to find out. You were shocked by the outcome of the U.S. Presidential election, and the aftermath of racial violence. You didn’t know this kind of racism still existed …
A is for advocate
We fight for men and women whose poetry is not yet written. –Robert Gould Shaw, abolitionist In 2008, I will be a better advocate for those who need—and want—my advocacy. Long ago on a faraway planet, I once worked in an organization where I sat through a management meeting every …
H is for human rights
Most people, no doubt, when they espouse human rights, make their own mental reservations about the proper application of the word ‘human.’ –Suzanne LaFollette In 2008, I will fight for the rights of human beings I see being dismissed and excluded and not listened to. And killed for who they …
Fill up my thimble
This thimble is full–to the brim–I’d say it’s nigh onto overflowing–with the amount of knowledge I possess about the technology of blogging, websites, how email works, digital ethnography, what makes a refrigerator cold, how the telephone does its happy magic, you name it. That is all to say that I …
Teach fear to heel
“We invent what we love, and what we fear.” – John Irving A student of mine was murdered this week, on Wednesday. No, she was actually assassinated as she prayed at a Buddhist monastery in northern Thailand. The reports are that masked gunmen in black leapt from a van and …
Remember the green book
“Far away is only far away if you don’t go there.” -O. Povo When my friend Gay tells a story, it comes out like a hot knife through rich butter—all soft, fluid, full, with a drawl that makes you want to move to Mississippi and listen to a big bearded …
Do or do not do
"Do or do not do. There is no try." – Master Yoda Something floated to the surface of my consciousness recently, vying for frontal lobe space, squeezing into precious real estate needed for phone numbers, due dates for 8th grade science projects on water pollution, and the first verses of …
Break stride
"We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are." -Anais Nin Coming home from Chicago two weeks ago, I was struck irretrievably ill in the cab on the way to the airport, that kind of I’ve- eaten- an- alien- food- poisoning- I’m- unable- to- stop- shaking …
Fund your own revolution
“The American Revolution was not financed with matching grants from the Crown.” – David Bayles and Ted Orland, Art and Fear Quick. Look around your office or workspace. Do you have a clock there? Do you have a visitor chair—a chair where a visitor could sit, should one suddenly appear …
Replace “they” with “we” with “I”
We all believe in equality, as long as it is equality with our superiors. What is the tipping point? I’ve long been fascinated by the fact that our Social Contract works—that people stop at four-way stop signs and allow the person to their right to move first, creating a sweet …
