Tuesday, February 25th -- One month ago I got up as usual and went for a three-mile run. After breakfast and my usual preparation at home, I traveled to two of the schools where I coach on the west and north sides of Chicago. I had meetings with a principal, a teacher, and a teacher…
There is no problem. There is a problem, but it’s not our fault. There is a problem, but it’s not that big a deal… This is a huge problem, but there is nothing we can do! Let’s just enjoy ourselves... This seems to be the arc of awareness for some of us on both climate…
Taking in the news, we are bombarded by the coronavirus, and our nation seems in the grip of an uncontrollable fear. Out in the streets, in schools, in restaurants, in stores, the nation seems to move on as it always does. Where is the truth -- are we in the midst of a crisis or…
This essay also appeared in the local Oak Park newspaper Wednesday Journal. Here in Oak Park, Illinois, it can feel like we are insulated from the worst effects of climate change. Huge hurricanes, massive flooding, and horrible heat waves all intensified by the energy of a warming planet can seem like someone else’s problem. And…
This morning, I helped host a workshop at a high school that I support in the Chicago Public Schools. At this workshop, the students shared how they had advocated for and formed two new student organizations at this school, a black student union and a gay-straight alliance. The students shared how they saw the need…
My mom tells a story -- I don't remember it -- that she was driving somewhere with me during the election campaign of 1980 between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. I was 4 years old. She stopped at a light and a woman approached the car. The woman leaned down to my mom's open window…
This essay also appeared in the local Oak Park newspaper Wednesday Journal. American schools have been struggling for decades -- and should have been struggling since their inception -- to properly educate Black and Latinx students. Oak Park and River Forest High School, like many suburban high schools with sizable Black and Latinx populations, has…
Theme (01/31/2020) This nation was founded as a multi-level apartheid state, with democratic traditions for wealthy white men, a semi-benevolent oligarchy for other white men and white women, and a fascist police state for people of African descent. Over time, agitation -- largely led by Black women and men -- has pushed the boundaries of…
Listen to "System Warning" here. Refrain: Breakdown, Planetary system warning. Breakdown, Our society's in mourning. x2 Verse 1: Burning up the buried energy created over eons, Just to have the sparkly stuff that capitalism feeds on. Dumping all these gases in our atmospheric system, We've desensitized ourselves so we don't feel the fear of this…
The wealthy white men who originated the institutions that make up this country -- from those who stepped off the boat at Jamestown to those who led the American Revolution and wrote the Constitution -- created the system of white supremacy. This white supremacy gave them free labor (free to them, although at great cost…
Entwining 