Dear President Biden, Yesterday I shared my pastor’s statement “safety is a myth” along with her strong urging that those of us who have gotten to walk through life believing this myth or the myth that safety is somehow attainable need to let it go and get on with the work of justice. Today as …
Safety haiku
Dear President Biden, This morning our Senior Minister, the Reverend Dr. Kelle Brown, preached on “Entrances and Exits” for Palm Sunday, juxtaposing Jesus’s triumphal entrance into Jerusalem with his horrifying exit from this life via crucifixion. In unpacking her understanding of what happened to Jesus at this crucial juncture she lifted up the idea that …
Marilyn Mosby and Transformational Inclusivity, Diversity, and Equity ~ TIDE
Dear President Biden, Remember the other day when I brought up the idea that we need to include “Transformational” in our conceptualization (and execution) of DEI work and shift to “Transformational Inclusivity, Diversity, and Equity” or TIDE? Well, I still believe this. I still believe that we can’t simply include more diverse people in the …
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A thriving wage for everyone
Dear President Biden, So the issue that keeps poking through and grabbing my attention when I have a quiet moment is the press conference you all had on Tuesday about equal pay for women. I read several articles about it and came away feeling a mix of emotions – hopeful, grateful, disappointed, frustrated. The genesis …
The weight of history
Dear President Biden, Do you know what “the weight of history” means? I thought it was a super common idiom that must have a fleshy backstory, but Googling it didn’t yield much of anything. Maybe it’s too basic for anyone to bother unpacking, but it’s been bugging me. I can only speak from my position …
Reality nuggets
Dear President Biden, Lately I’ve been hanging out at work (via Zoom-like platforms) with way more young people than old people. I’m humbled and grateful to say that they’ve become my teachers. So many of them are living out loud and questioning what is and why is it is that what is is the way …
Transformational Inclusivity, Diversity, and Equity ~ TIDE
Dear President Biden, A couple of weeks ago I read something where someone was taking diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts to task. He was focused on the inclusion aspect and concluded that it’s beyond a bad idea to just invest in including more BIPOC and other varieties of under-represented people in the same old oppressive …
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Not “un-American”
Dear President Biden, Happy belated St. Patrick’s Day to you – I know you are super proud of your Irish roots so I hope you enjoyed the holiday yesterday. You probably know this, being both Irish and Catholic, but just in case you don’t, I learned yesterday morning that Patrick was born in Britain to …
Bleak
Dear President Biden, “Yesterday was a really bad day for him, and this is what he did.”Capt. Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s OfficeI’m sure you know by now who Jay Baker is and that he said this unspeakably callous thing about Robert Aaron Long having gone to three spas in the Atlanta area …
Grant due Tuesday haiku 2
Dear President Biden, I’m in the homestretch with the grant that’s due tomorrow but this needs to be another haiku night. Just for fun, I’m going to tell you what the title of this letter’s blog entry is since I’m finding all the “u” sounds amusing: “Grant due Tuesday haiku 2.” Here it is: We’ve …