I humbly regret not seeing what you saw not trusting your word even though i know you experienced it not starting to unlearn sooner not understanding until i saw the numbers 50-50 is not the same as 30-70 And then it all fell into place. The history. The blood. The oppression. My privilege. I could choose not to see not to trust not to understand not to unlearn. I choose now to see to trust and understand to unlearn and to mourn.
Oct 032011
Sep 262011
I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about oppression. I am taking a feminist philosophy seminar and am part of a transforming oppression workshop series. It’s frustrating, tedious, often painful, and very important work. I can’t shake the sense, though, that we might be looking at all of this in a way that isn’t all that helpful to dismantle the oppressive structures. There is a lot of slicing and dicing. I get that our identities are multidimensional and very important to our sense of self. They define who we are. And these dimensions are often the very same dimensions along … Continue reading »
During a recent intensive Nonviolent Communication training, i attended a session on choices. Our usual response is to submit or rebel because we think we have to do certain things, we don’t have a choice. The have-to that popped into my mind was “I have to earn money,” something i’ve struggled with ever since i’ve embarked on my transition. I shared this have-to in the group and pointed out that our choices are often limited by the system we live in. We experience a system-personal responsibility trade-off. Our current capitalist system is built on exchanges using money. A couple of … Continue reading »
The ranks of people cautioning about the detrimental effects of income and wealth inequality has increased again. This time the call for higher taxes on the rich comes from an unexpected source (at least I thought it was rather surprising…): William Bernstein, a top financial advise columnist. According to Too Much: Bernstein these days is offering up a new set of insights — on inequality. Our current rates of economic inequality, Bernstein observes in a new interview, are “killing us.” The United States, he notes, has “the highest rates of obesity, homicide, violent crime, and incarceration in the developed world, … Continue reading »
Jan 102011
I’ve rarely written about my divorce case because i’ve always been scared that there might be legal repercussions. There had been too many legal decisions that seemed unfair and illogical for me to trust the legal system to protect me. I broke my silence with an open letter. At the time i posted it, i thought the nightmare was finally over. The divorce was finalized in 1992. But it didn’t end until our son turned 18 – 17 years later. Well, apparently, it still hasn’t ended. The most recent court case ensued when our son refused to visit his father, … Continue reading »
Dec 032010
Here is what I sent to President Obama (I added the links for this post): Dear President Obama, When I voted for you, I voted for change. What you returned is more of the same. When I heard that you won, I cried. Now I cry because you perpetuate the injustices of the Bush-years by continuing the Republican lies. The government is not too big. The banks are. The problem are not social service programs. Tax cuts on outrageously high salaries and corporate profits are the problem. If you really wanted change, you would start listening to people like Robert … Continue reading »
Recent Comments