What’s good for the obtuse…

Our family tells a story that, in 1848, my great great grandfather Patrick stowed away on a boat from Ireland to the USA at the age of 14. This was during what we call the Irish Potato Famine but which the Irish called the Great Hunger. During this time, more than 10% of Irish people…

Labels

Those who hold power create labels and boxes for others to advance their own interests.  During slavery, white slaveowners grouped those they enslaved into categories of "field slaves", "overseers", and "house slaves". They deemed "house slaves" most docile, fit to be around women and children. They were given certain privileges that those who worked in…

Breaking links? Or forming bonds?

Last Saturday, I joined 30,000 people in Chicago’s Loop and 5 million across the country protesting the Trump administration’s policies and actions. We decried the administration’s deportation of immigrants, targeting of students for their free speech, gutting of federal programs including education and health, persecution of transgender youth, and so many other harms. It was…