Everyone knows that our political system is broken. Scratch that – almost everyone knows that our political system is broken. Mmmm, I’ll try again. What looks broken to most of us is actually working very well for a select few. That about does it. Our government is set up to protect the interests of wealthy…
I feel our humanity leaching away with each passing day. I feel it seeping from our collective body with each preschool teacher detained in front of their students. With each person dragged from their car and hauled off to a detention center. With each door ICE agents knock down without a warrant. With each person…
Oak Park, Illinois, the community where I live, recently initiated a campaign called “Make REAL Change, Not Spare Change”. The “spare change” they refer to here is giving donations directly to people who are panhandling or soliciting on the street, whereas the “REAL change” is giving money indirectly to local nonprofit organizations to then support…
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…
It is natural for us as humans to seek security. We are motivated to find every opportunity for ourselves and our families to be safe. When we encounter difference, we are primed to see that difference as a threat to our security, and we react accordingly. Immigrants are, by definition, different. They have come to…
November 5 approaches. Everyone knows this date – the marker for our nation to decide between Harris and Trump. In reality, we may not know the results of the vote for days or weeks after that, but the importance of the day is seared into our minds. Still, I am concerned that our focus on…
The US presidential election process is deeply flawed. It is based more on cults of personality than substantial policies. It is infected by financing from whomever has the deepest pockets. It is about sound bites and publicity rather than policy. Presidential debates exemplify these flaws in the best of times. In the days of Biden…
February is Black History Month, where we honor the triumphs and achievements of Black culture across this country throughout our history. Last Saturday, Lunar New Year observances began, a time when many Asian cultures recognize family, culture, and the dawning of a new year. Sunday was the Super Bowl, a secular American commemoration of capitalism…
Fear freezes our spirits, causing them to retract deep inside us. When we are afraid, we shun one another. We look out for ourselves. Fear strips away empathy, compassion, and collective action and we are left with selfishness, greed, and individual needs. The wealthy elites have an interest in keeping us frozen because when we…
Entwining 