Owning Up to Privilege and Moving Social Justice
“Here,” ordered the atheist/feminist author Sikivu Hutchinson, giving her impersonation of a member of the so-called New Atheism, “take this ‘We Are All Africans’ t-shirt and ticket to Darwin Day, and sit down and shut... Read More
Don’t Be a Dick’s
When twelve-year-old McKenna Peterson wrote to Dick’s Sporting Goods complaining that no women were represented as athletes in their basketball catalog, she was pointing out the obvious: Forty-two years after the other Dick signed Title... Read More
The Ebola Epidemic: Someone Else’s Problem or a Call for Global Compassion?
Ebola is here! Despite repeated warnings from the World Health Organization (WHO) that the epidemic in West African countries required an international response in order to halt its spread, the United Nations and the United... Read More
Favorite Pastime? A Seventh-Inning Walk through Hell in a Gasoline Suit
“I’d walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball.” –Pete Rose Ah, yes, nothing unites—and divides—our country like that great game of baseball and the conversations it inspires. Passionate debates abound: Which is... Read More
The Need to Belong
Humans began as tribal animals. Given current headlines, we know that tribalism and the labels it uses are still present. Tribalism is killing many people and destroying civilization’s better aspects—equality, education, art of all sorts,... Read More
Censoring American History
My students walked out on me last week. Just got up, left my classroom and marched right out of the school. I’ve been an English teacher in Jefferson County, Colorado, for eighteen years and I’ve... Read More
Don’t Celebrate Columbus. Honor Native People.
Today is Columbus Day, a federally-observed holiday and the day on which Americans celebrate Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of the new world. Many are reluctant to celebrate Columbus’ so-called achievement, since a new land can’t truly... Read More