Table of Contents:
Annotated, Reverse Chronological Order
What Love Can Do. The people of Minneapolis showed us a variety of ways that “peaceful” and “active” go hand-in-hand in non-violent protesting. (February, 2026)
Protecting Ourselves During A Protest. In the face of ICE brutality, Protesters in Portland, Oregon, and all around the country have given us techniques for feeling safe in the midst of a protest crowd. (October 2025)
The Power of the People. Individual citizens are stepping up to save accurate history recorded on National Park plaques and throughout Smithsonian exhibits, in light of Trump’s orders to make all American history hero White people. (September 2025)
The Majority Project. Over 70% of Americans say they want universal background checks for gun purchases, trans rights protections, safe and legal abortions, and paths to citizenship. Purchase postcards with these facts from @signsofjustice to mail to your representatives. (September 2025)
Librarians. Dr. Carla Hayden was fired as the head of the Library of Congress. She now has a role with the Mellon Foundation to promote libraries. Public access to knowledge and information is crucial to a democracy. (July 2025)
Look for the Teachers. In response to relentless efforts on the part of the present administration to intimidate and politically influence Harvard University, this prestigious institution offers several courses in democracy and citizenship – free, online, and open to everyone. (July 2025)
Albert Schweitzer. Reverence for life, a phrase coined by Albert Schweitzer during his work as a medical missionary, grows out of the idea that every living thing wants to stay alive and every living thing is here to thrive and live its best life. This is the foundation of working to live as equals. (April 2024)
Mapping a Caring Community. How a map of community transportation options can reveal gaps in services, as well as gaps in caring about everyone in the community. (March 2024)
Update: Race-Based Hair Discrimination. The second of two articles on race-based hair discrimination (the first can be found under January 2019). In a Texas high school, Darryl George has been disciplined for most of a year for his neatly pinned barrel locs. Yet the CROWN Act sets clear limits on how schools and workplaces monitor hairstyles. (February 2024)
Headlines. Using an example of one of my letters to the editor, I show the importance of responding to misleading and careless headlines, articles, and even individual words we come across in our news feeds. (July 2023)
Shame Pain. Are anti-LBGTQ, anti-abortion, anti-diversity, anti-democracy advocates ashamed of their own ability to deal with strong women, aggressive and aggrieved males, happy queer folk, or accomplished Black and brown bosses and colleagues, as well as ashamed of their own ignorance and inability to keep up with society’s changes? (April 2023)
- Many municipalities have a 311 phone number that citizens can call for non-emergencies. Most of the time, calls are made by people seeking help with a family member who is mentally disturbed and uncontrollable. Up to 40% of the time, the mentally ill person is shot dead within seconds of police arrival. (March 2023)
The Parking Lot. Gun violence is a story about White males with a psychic illness that has gone undiagnosed and untreated because we are unwilling to see the madness behind the need to have millions of guns in this society and to carry those guns around. (March 2023)
Graffiti. A rural police force got a grant to offer graffiti workshops to all interested teens in the area – having local artists lead workshops on drawing and painting styles, giving the kids space and materials to create their art, and showing them the work of famous graffiti artists. (February 2023)
Babe in the Woods. A homeless woman gave birth in a tent on a freezing winter night and left her baby there. She was afraid the authorities would confiscate her tent and all of her belongings if she called 911 to ask for help. (January 2023)
Hello Again, Dear Readers! Updating subscribers on the content of the blog. (January 2023)
Slavery, Equality, and the Thin Space Between Them. A map showing the blue and red patterns of voting in the presidential election. Over seventy million people voted against the fundamentals of democracy and human decency. (January 2020)
Information and Equality. Social inequalities exist in part because some people see their beliefs as equal to knowledge. Mainstream and social media have given equal time to ignorance and fact. The pursuit of factual information is essential. We are the ones who need to make sure we are getting facts and knowledge. (October 2020)
Death of a House. A deteriorating abandoned house is gone one day, wiped away from the landscape. Political neglect of whole populations amid the COVID-19 epidemic, migrant crisis, police violence, and racial hatred is similarly wiping out hundreds of thousands of people. (October 2020)
Children In The Middle. The importance of a child’s life has not been part of policy conversations. Immigration policies, environmental policies, pandemic policies, gun control, and many other issues have caused children to suffer. (October 2020)
A Citizenship Story. One test for U.S. citizenship is based on a set of 100 questions immigration officers can choose from at random for the oral exam. Most of us would be unable to answer most of the questions because we are unschooled in our history and our civic responsibilities. (September 2020)
No More Executioners. Our society has different roles for two different branches of law enforcement: the police and the legal system. Although police personnel behave as if they have the authority to physically punish someone when they are simply suspicious or feeling disrespected, the authority to determine punishment for violations of law and order belongs to the court system and the judges. (August 2020)
What Will We Do With THEM? We need to have a conversation about what will happen to the people among us who hold racist beliefs once we vote in democratic leaders. Everyone needs to belong, and everyone needs to gain knowledge and understanding of “others” – people who are not like us and do not share our perspective. (August 2020)
Interrupting the System – Locally. Find local and regional issues that are examples of authorities following standard practices and instead create forward-thinking options that make life better for everyone. Be prepared to intervene on behalf of underrepresented members of the community. (July 2020)
Stranger in a Strange Land. White people have lived in a different nation-state than Black people. To understand the racist world that people of color live in, White people need to listen to the stories of Black people. (July 2020)
Many A Winding Turn. Black people are exhausted from talking to us about racism. After the murder of George Floyd, the message was clear: White people, YOU need to do the work of addressing racism. (July 2020)
Time for a Course Correction. Challenge your local newspapers to examine the racism inherent in some of their articles and headlines, featuring White elected officials and White citizens. Challenge local sports teams, schools, elected officials, and health care providers to discuss how they confront racism within their organizations. (July 2020)
Our Conversion Mission. Convert a person who has racist views into an anti-racist. Convert complacent managers of local businesses, local church pastors, school administrators at our alma mater, and members of the local creative community into people who publicly acknowledge their efforts to address racism in their own sphere. (June 2020)
Dear Readers. Report of a repaired technical glitch that had halted email notifications of new articles. (June 2020)
What We Say Matters. We talk about the media’s responsibility to tell news stories without bias. It is just as important that we tell ourselves and one another the stories of the day without using the language of White supremacy. (June 2020)
Intersection Essay #5: Hawaii Leads the Way! After the economic devastation of Covid-19, the Commission on the Status of Women in the state of Hawaii put forth an economic recovery plan that proposed a universal basic income for every citizen to eradicate gender and racial gaps, a minimum wage for single mothers of $25/hour, and free publicly funded child care for essential workers, including caregivers and nurse’s assistants. (June 2020)
Bring It Home: What You Can Do to Disarm Your Own Racism. Stories of White persons who have found ways to address their own racism through individual acts, through their behavior at protests, through books and podcasts, and through deliberate closing of the separations and silences that divide us. Resources provided. (June 2020)
How to Vote (When You Don’t Want to Vote for Anyone). During the COVID-19 “stay home” weeks, many people who were normally busy working jobs and ferrying kids to and fro found themselves with time to watch TV news, read the papers, and follow social media. If you get bogged down in what politicians are saying and doing, focus on their values and how their actions and words demonstrate what they value. (June 2020)
Living As Superior. The chaos, violence, hate, and disrespect that follow from a sense of superiority have nothing to do with Constitutional rights. It creates a barbaric, tribal society of storming buildings and rounding up enemies. People with rights also have responsibilities, including being educated about the issues, protesting peacefully, and treating others with respect and dignity. (May 2020)
Who, Where, What Is the Resistance? Efforts to create a more just society grow out of compassion for others. “The resistance” belongs to those who prevent progress towards that goal, the ones who put up barriers of every kind against justice for all. (April 2020)
One Day. We saw things during the pandemic that we had never seen before, from wild animals in city streets to thousands of body bags loaded onto forklifts and buried en masse, forgotten. One day, we will remember being in disastrous times together and see ourselves as family. (April 2020)
Sign Language. Free courses in sign language are available online. Think about the privileges that hearing affords. Sign language skills make it possible to include deaf acquaintances in social and civic activities. (April 2020)
Handicapped Parking. Handicapped parking signs depict only a person in a wheelchair. The disability community is working on broadening the general public’s understanding of who may require a handicapped parking space. (March 2020)
Coronavirus, Slave Voices, and Hoodies. Three separate reports on inequality in America: the effect of the coronavirus on poor populations; the Library of Congress resource, “Born In Slavery,” that contains more than 2300 tapes and transcriptions of interviews with slaves; Representative Bobby Rush speaking in Congress, wearing a hoodie, about the death of Trayvon Martin. (March 2020)
Education and Equality. The United States is the only country in the world that has not ratified education for children as a guaranteed right. States cut funding to education. Politicians cut funds for education. In a democracy, where citizens rule themselves, the need for an educated citizenry is crucial. (March 2020)
Hometown Woes and Worries. The need to replace automatic responses with thoughtful pauses, when what we see in our neighborhoods is not to our liking. (February 2020)
Cinderella’s Step Sisters. The stepsisters are an example of how crippling it is to live with someone prejudiced and abusive to someone else, or to be someone who is treated as superior to others. (January 2020)
Equality and Ecology. Plants know how to get along with each other. So do animals. They do not try to oppress or dominate; they cooperate. The documentary, “The Biggest Little Farm,” is an example of how this works. (December 2019)
Moonstruck. The characters Loretta and Ronnie in the movie “Moonstruck” are examples of the human tendency to either push things away that do not fit our vision of the world, or to reach out to them, and try to understand and accept our differences. (December 2019)
Young Activists. World youth leaders are saying, “We can’t live in the world you have created.” They are doing the work of correcting our adult out-of-bounds behavior and laziness that has left the next generation with crises and disasters to address. (November 2019)
Untying Your Tongue at Thanksgiving. When people with sharp political differences gather at the holidays, try using these tested techniques for turning shouting matches into conversations. (November 2019)
Intersection Essay #4 – Hatred and Health. Race hatred is an illness that has been shown to increase the incidence of cardiovascular disease for both the hater and the hated. (November 2019)
What Are God-Given Rights? The United Nations produced a simplified list of 30 human rights, which are the best definition we have for God-given rights. (November 2019)
Civics Lesson #2. Defining current political terminology: conservative, moderate, progressive, liberal, independent, equality, social justice, democracy, and republic. (October 2019)
Trauma Informed Communities. Children who have experienced trauma – usually from the stress of violence and neglect – are more likely to be at risk for homelessness, criminal activity, and mental and physical disease. Trauma-informed communities educate individuals and agencies on how to respond to children and adults in distress. (October 2019)
Conversations on the Common. A report on creating dialogue with my neighbors – out in the open, on the town common – about hot political issues: immigration, Black Lives Matter, and gun control. (September 2019)
Do Less Damage. Just as we and the people who came before us created ways to do less damage to human lives – e.g., car safety standards, discoveries and inventions in health sciences, environmental and food quality standards – so this generation needs to focus on ways to do less damage to human lives to keep civilization moving forward. (September 2019)
Behold! We learn by beholding: sitting stock still and using our eyes and ears to take in whatever phenomenon is before us, especially amidst nature, art, and people. (September 2019)
Inside-Out Exercises in Equality #3. This third set of exercises to strengthen our understanding of equality focuses on empathy. (September 2019)
Facts. Given the amount of disinformation, bot propaganda, and AI creation that floods our pool of news bits and social media, we need to become the journalists of our own information – doing the fact-finding to determine what is true and what reports are manipulated and misleading. (August 2019)
We Need To Talk. When this article was written, the death of George Floyd kicked me hard enough in the rear end that I was forced out of my introvert bubble and into the act of carrying signs around our local common, asking people to come talk to me about the issues of the day. (August 2019)
Disabilities. A presidential candidate is so afraid of people who are unlike him, he mocks a young man with a congenital disorder. Society as a whole has moved far beyond that. Ads include persons with disabilities, businesses are run by persons with disabilities, athletes of varying abilities compete internationally, and we have a growing sense of respect and admiration for all people. (July 2019)
Together We Rise. Together Rising is a non-profit that uses a variety of tools to address overwhelming and seemingly unfixable circumstances of human distress. Anyone can write to them of a distressful situation – personal, or societal – and the organization will respond. (July 2019)
Different. Many plants in the garden become something other than what their labels advertised, just like the children we bear. They will go on being what they are meant to be; we are the ones who need to adjust our perspective and our care so that they thrive. (July 2019)
Grotesque. The political scene is one of inhumane grotesqueries. Immigrants, children, their helpers, women, poor people, gays and lesbians, climate activists, and others are under attack as if they are less than human. (June 2019)
Separation. The government estimates that 3,000 children have been forcibly separated from their parents at the border and scattered into foster care and shelters all over the country. The irrevocable damage done to children in the name of policy is appalling. (June 2019)
Invisibility. The increased visibility of non-White, non-Christian people in our society has led to a significant number of White Christians who are pushing back, even using criminal behaviors to kick others back into invisibility. (June 2019)
Red and Blue Make Peace. Better Angels is an organization that offers workshops all over the country to help people who identify as blue and people who identify as red talk to one another. In this mad world where facts are treated as fiction and humane laws are being dismantled, their work is succeeding in helping us find common ground. (June 2019)
Intersection Essay #3: Event Planning. Groups focused on a cause – women’s rights, the LGBTQ population, religious faith, the arts – often fail to organize their major events so that they are inclusive and provide for the participation of marginalized groups – the deaf, the handicapped, those with language barriers, and so on. (May 2019)
Worship and Power. Why have places of faith so often been the targets of arson and hate graffiti? The universal message of loving one another is a threat to those who would divide us; faith teaches the power of creating kinship. (May 2019)
Kinship. When lesbians, women of color, a Native American woman, and a Muslim woman were elected to the 116th Congress in 2018, their first actions were to build bonds of kinship with one another. They recognized that they were kindred souls in the struggle for equality. (April 2019)
Free to Be . . . You and me. The message that “gender roles” are social constructs has been illustrated many times over in the 50 years since Marlo Thomas published this book. But many people still live in the shadows due to our inability to accept more than two gender identities. (April 2019)
Borderless Things. Music, art, writing, fashion, and cooking are examples of things that transcend borders and spread to countries all over the world. When great tragedies happen in one place, people around the globe find ways to participate in the emotionality of that event. (April 2019)
Equal Does Not Mean Same. An important element to seeking equality for everyone is opening up our vast resources and opportunities to people who are being left out. The needs of the poor, the unhoused, women, and minorities may be different from the needs of the White male establishment, but having different needs does not change our fundamental equality. (April 2019)
Assimilation and White People. White culture is pluralistic and defies definition. Every culture diversifies over time. The current emphasis on White, Christian, male-dominated society reflects a failure to assimilate into White cultural diversity as well as our highly diversified society. (March 2019)
Weavers. Repairing our lost sense of togetherness can be found among the compassionate organizations in every neighborhood across the country. The Social Fabric Project and the Aspen Institute look for ways to connect these people to weave together the broken threads of society. (March 2019)
Civics Lesson #1. White people are now the minority in this country. Women’s votes consistently outnumber men’s. In an era when some Whites are reacting with fear and anger to the changing demographics, we are each responsible for continuing to be democracy advocates. (March 2019)
Cry The Beloved Country. After WWII, we were schooled to be proud of our democratic ideals and to uphold them. Today, among elected officials, the people who are fighting for our democratic ideals are minorities and are labeled “progressives.” (February 2019)
Nothing to Fear, Except Fear Itself. Several research studies are showing relationships between a person’s general sense of fear and aligning with right-wing rhetoric. Diminish the fear, and the bigotry diminishes. (February 2019)
Inside-Out Exercises in Equality #2. These include an exercise in auditory bias and links to articles on intersectionality with discussion questions. For discussions about communication, I’ve included letters to the editor over the issue of lawn signs. (January 2019)
Are Your Ears Ready for Equality? White people have been known to go into tirades over hearing people in restaurants and stores speaking languages other than English. Feelings of impotence, inferiority, paranoia, and entitlement underly these incidents. (January 2019)
Hair. There is no body part quite like hair – our common source of joy, pride, battles, and changes. It has become one more thing that White Americans feel they need to control among people of other races and ethnicities. (January 2019)
National Health Care. An open letter to Representative Richard Neal for failing to listen to the stories of his constituents on a broad range of issues, especially health care. (December 2018)
The Lethargy of Privilege. We had months of news stories about the migrant caravan crossing Mexico and walking towards the U.S. border. If activists, progressives, sports figures, movie stars, and others who talked and tweeted about this humanitarian crisis had gone there to accompany them, border guards would not have been firing tear gas into the crowd. (November 2018)
Thanksgiving. This is a special Thanksgiving meditation designed to recall and find gratitude for all of the people who have crossed our paths. (November 2018)
It’s Down to Me and Thee. Research continues to show large numbers of White women voting for bigoted, misogynistic male Republicans. Since thousands of stories tell of one stranger having a profound effect on another, each progressive woman needs to find a Republican woman to engage in ongoing dialogue. (November 2018)
What’s In A Name? The dominant White culture constrains many parents of other ethnicities from giving their children names that have the deepest meaning to them. They are concerned about bias among those who review scholarship, college, job, and mortgage applications. (October 2018)
Indigenous Peoples’ Day. It is up to indigenous peoples to decide what they want to make of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. If White people want to have input on the content of the day, we could start by examining our history with indigenous populations in our midst: Hawaiians, Native Alaskans, Native Americans. (September 2018)
Women in Politics. “How difficult is it to be a woman” in the United States? A World Economic Forum revealed that we are a country that makes it very difficult for women to be in the workforce, to have political clout, and to make progress as a gender. (September 2018)
Prison Strike 2018. Prisoners in 17 states staged a strike to call attention to the medieval conditions that we allow, ignore, and sanction within our prisons. A country that violates the human rights of its own prisoners finds it too easy to incarcerate immigrants. A list of criminal justice reform resources is provided. (September 2018)
Voting: Privilege and Inclusion. Voter suppression measures target Black and brown populations, as well as the physically and mentally disabled. We can use the privilege of our white skin and able bodies to counter some of these efforts. (August 2018)
National Nonprofit Day. The money that we send to our government to take care of all of us is being diverted into the special interests of those in power. Consequently, the depth of our non-profit network is profound, trying to make a dent in issues that require federal solutions. (August 2018)
In the Doctor’s Office. Doctors have become riveted to their computer screens and focused on questions the medical establishment requires. The implicit inequalities that result in the doctor-patient relationship can be addressed by acting as your own advocate. (August 2018)
Equality Behind Bars. It makes sense for politicians to include prisoners in conversations about improving the criminal justice system. Also, candidates for elected office have family, neighbors, and friends who have been touched by “the long arm of the law” and need to speak to how that affects their views. (July 2018)
Aunties and Uncles. One way to break down established perceptions of others that depend on categories and labels is to focus on the stranger as “brother,” “sister,” “auntie,” or “uncle.” These familial terms include others as members of our human family. (July 2018)
On Being Able-Hearted. Sometimes experience teaches us to wall off part of our hearts, our human responses to other human beings. Crippling emotional disabilities are the result. We need to take actions that help to get the lifeblood flowing with compassion. (July 2018)
Finding the Moral Universe. When people in power treat good and evil as toys they can turn inside out and upside down, we feel a sickening sense of powerlessness. It may be helpful to make a list of ways you can stand your ground, be who you are, and grow in moral maturity. (July 2018)
Fear of Democracy. Some White people fear diversity, thinking that including others in American democracy diminishes opportunities for Whites. Intolerance of differences correlates to being debilitated by fear of diversity and accepting authoritarianism. (June 2018)
Laws of Sand. A stark contrast is occurring between the historic struggle to create a Constitution that would uplift all of our citizens and endure for hundreds of years and the laws being created today to limit the rights of women, people of color, the poor, and immigrants. (June 2018)
Equality in Public Places. Some cities have set up vending machines for the homeless that include food, socks, tampons, water, books, gloves, and other necessities. Shelters and outreach services issue electronic cards that their clients can use with the vending machines. (May 2018)
Inside-Out Exercise in Equality #1. Three exercises for a small group of friends: (1) discuss individual memories with hair, (2) research the authors of favorite children’s books, (3) discuss personal experiences with Roosevelt’s “four freedoms.” (June 2018)
The Poor People’s Campaign. Little has changed for poor people in the last 50 years. Bringing legislative attention to their health care, job opportunities, living conditions, and access to necessities such as transportation and groceries are the subjects of Dr. William Barber’s Poor People’s Campaign. (May 2018)
Women, Men, and Public Schools. Teacher strikes are about addressing the history of oppressing women in the teaching profession – their poor wages, their opportunities for advancement, and their voices in the structure and content of the curriculum. (May 2018)
Still We Rise. In honor of Maya Angelou’s 90th birthday, here are three issues that will rise with greater and greater strength the more they are ignored: (1) public schools, (2) Black Lives Matter, and (3) police brutality. (April 2018)
The Truth About The Press. Reading independent news sources became all the more essential when Sinclair Broadcasting bought hundreds of news stations and required all of the news anchors to read prepared scripts favoring the Trump administration’s policies, which favor Sinclair Broadcasting. (April 2018)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, And These United States. Our cities and states have such extreme rates of poverty, homelessness, incarceration, and government neglect that Human Rights Overseers from the United Nations have been in our country to advocate for addressing issues that keep people from participating in our democracy. Citations from the UDHR are given. (April 2018)
Peace Zones. (March, 2018) Instead of living a life alert to the danger of gun violence all around, let us make each site where there has been a mass shooting a peace zone. Each zone would ban guns and would include every household affected by the shooting, directly or indirectly. (March 2018)
How to Love Our Neighbors. Acting as a good neighbor to all people might have helped avoid tragedies like the police raid in Island Pond in the late 1970s and the discovery of the 12 Turpin siblings in Perris, California, this month. (January 2018)
Intersection Essay #2: The Importance of Telling Our Stories. A national project called “To Immigrants, With Love,” sponsored by the “Define America” project (http://www.defineamerica.com), includes storytelling and a series of murals throughout the country that depict the stories of immigrants. Listening to one another’s immigration stories from present and past generations illustrates the powerful dynamics of intersectionality. (December 2017)
Patriotic Political Opposition: Positive Outcomes from the People in 2017. The creation of sanctuary churches and cities, the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, state and regional efforts to keep combating climate change, liberal towns speaking with and learning from right-wing voters: the population has been busy preserving our democracy. (November 2017)
Emotional Privilege. Hatred is a luxury of the emotionally privileged. The story of Daryl Davis is told against the backdrop of the White supremacists who marched with torches and menacing chants in Charlottesville, Virginia. (August 2017)
Observation and Empathy. Observing an individual makes a qualitative difference in a relationship with that person: boss to employee, teacher to child, neighbor to neighbor. The greater our observation skills, the greater our capacity for empathy. (August 2017)
Homeless Panhandlers: Ashley’s Story. Finding different ways to respond to panhandlers recognizes the grace abundant in our own lives. Speaking to a panhandler as one human being to another is as important as the charity. (July 2017)
Compassion 101. Compassion is the force that moves people towards social justice. Consider the lack of compassion in lunch shaming in schools, in 911 responses to domestic violence calls, and in congressional failure to pass universal health care. (June 2017)
Intersection Essay #1: Politics and the Human Body. Children and adults pay a physical and emotional price for political decisions that circumvent humanitarian and environmental protection guidelines. (April 2016)
Refugees and Remembrance. Our emotional response to the anniversary of 9/11 echoes the making of refugees around the globe, and the vital importance of those who offer safe haven. (February 2017)
The World Wide Women’s March: January 21, 2017. An estimated half a million marchers in Washington, D.C., were joined by 4 – 6 million worldwide marchers in capitals and hamlets all over the globe to focus attention on women’s rights and women’s issues. (February 2017)
Standing Rock: Protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. Native Americans faced an exaggerated display of violence when they protested plans to build an oil pipeline on their land and under a lake that is a critical part of their water supply. (January 2017)
Flight Behavior. Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Flight Behavior, describes an iconic and comical confrontation between an Appalachian sheep farmer and an enthusiastic environmentalist studying Monarch butterflies. (January 2017)
Messy Democracy. Elected politicians are posing for the camera instead of rolling up their sleeves and doing the work of evaluating problems and solutions from the perspective of their constituents. (December 2016)
Signs, Signs. Have protest signs and lawn signs taken the place of civil discourse? (November 2016)