The coronavirus pandemic is a cruel teacher and we are its stubborn, unmotivated students. The pandemic taught us lessons; when we didn’t learn, it simply taught its lessons again. The virus itself has the simple aim of reproducing itself, but the disease interacts with our society in a way that highlights our glaring deficiencies. Its…
January 6th
One year ago, an armed force overwhelmed police, stormed the US Capitol, and threatened the lives of US Senators, Representatives, and the Vice President. They tried to stop the certification of electoral votes through an insurrection targeting the United States government. They did this because they believed the lie that Joe Biden had lost and…
Under threat
When we first encountered COVID, most of us expected it wouldn’t affect us. When we realized it would, we hoped for a brief pause in our daily activities. Instead, COVD became an enduring threat to us, our families, and our communities. We thought the disruption might extend for months, then put our hopes in vaccines…
Resetting or renewing?
Often, the new year is seen as a chance for a new start: a chance to reset our habits, our attitudes, and our relationships. In some ways, this is healthy – we need to shift our daily routines, fashion a new outlook, reconnect with friends and family. Change is a constant of life, and we…
Light
Why does light die? Light is the energy emitted by excited electrons falling back to their resting states. It is generated by the heated filament of a light bulb. By the chemical reaction in a firefly's abdomen. By the nuclear reactions in our local star. It is directed, transmitted, dissipated. According to science, it does…
How joy became a commodity
Komm, Herr Jesu; sei du unser Gast; Und segne, was du uns bescheret hast. Whiteness is the bargain that all white people's ancestors accepted. It was simple: in exchange for being accepted into whiteness – a fellowship of basic social status and economic reward – they agreed to give up their ancestral cultures. My ancestors…
White people, we must care for one another.
A father and son go to a pharmacy to get the child vaccinated against COVID. After administering the vaccine, the pharmacy employee offers a bin of small toys and the child picks one -- a tiny, squishable duck. On the way home, the child starts to complain that one of the duck’s eyes is smaller…
White parents, let’s look beyond our own children.
In my community of Oak Park, the high school just canceled extracurricular activities for the next two weeks, until winter break, due to a rise in COVID cases at the school. A number of students and parents in the community are frustrated about this cancellation, and some of them staged a protest this past weekend…
How we respond in a crisis says a lot about our community.
All people are concerned about their own safety and that of their families and friends. This is a basic human need and is the reason that communities fund police and fire services -- to protect the safety of their residents. Oak Park, the community where I live, is no different: 30% of our overall village…
Thanksgiving
On a national scale, Thanksgiving contains the legacy of Europeans pushing Native peoples off their lands, killing them, taking their lands. It contains the legacy of the collapse of Indigenous populations. It contains the legacy of how white people have used that land -- for slavery, for settler colonial capitalism. It contains the exploitation of…
