It breaks my heart that gun violence has become an evergreen topic, but here we are. I won’t list them but the Gun Violence Archive does. It’s unsettling to look at the list and see how many of these terrible tragedies have already faded in memory. The following is an update of post that appeared here three years ago. ## What do you see when I say “passive?” Hankie-totin’ Southern ladies on their fainting couches? Perhaps a heroine, reenacting The Perils of Pauline, tied to the…
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8 Places Where You, Self-Care, and Advocacy Meet
I’ve been thinking a lot about advocacy. Avocate is both a noun and a verb. I remember very few profesional situations in which it wasn’t a significant component of the work. Child protection. Addiction treatment. Domestic violence and sexual assault services. Community action and anti-poverty work. When I think about the timeframes of my work in those arenas, the need for advocates makes a lot of sense. We were needed to speak up for alcoholics and other addicts as sick people who needed treatment rather than…
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Hopeful Trending in 2021 or What Bernie Memes Mean to Me
Oh, boy. It seems that the wild ride that was the most welcome end of 2020 and early January news kept many of us from the annual “what’s hot and what’s not” lists. My family’s temporary relocation has postponed my pithy observations even longer. Most of the time I’m just amused by the trends predicted for a new year but this time was different. I was at least mildly curious about color and fashion trends, but what I really wondered was how any 2021 trends (and,…
