“Texas Longhorns women’s hoops great Tiffany Jackson dies.”
The headline made me want to know the rest of the story: “at 37 of breast cancer.” What was a sad story became even sadder that in 2022 women of all ages, colors, and ethnicities are succumbing to this still devastating disease.
October is beautiful, busy, and full of things to pay attention to–things like domestic violence and emotional wellness. And, if you work it right, you might even get a day off to celebrate Columbus Day though I don’t know how you discover something that wasn’t lost but that’s a discussion for another day. This month’s … Read more
“Try to remember the kind of September, when life was slow and oh, so mellow…” (Schmidt, Jones)
Autumn has finally arrived and whether your summer was wild and fuzzy or hot and hot, fall offers a more relaxed pace. Growing up on a farm, fall meant cotton picking, the mid-south fair, back to school, cooler days, and political campaigns.
I’m not sure whose bright idea this was—sending plane and busloads of immigrants to democratic cities at taxpayers’ expense to show disgust for immigration policies—but this is unacceptable, inhumane, and about as anti-American as anything we’ve seen lately.
“Man on a shooting spree in Memphis, police say.” The headline scrawled across the television said it all, but I was busy with my shrimp and grits. My husband and I had joined colleagues for dinner Wednesday, and we were having a lovely time on the veranda of a midtown restaurant.
College presidents have a million things to keep them awake at night—pandemics, dormitories, or whatever they’re called now, the latest amenities, deferred maintenance, accreditation, staffing, payroll, inspiring young people, retention—the list goes on.
I’m happy to report that I finished paying my student loans before I started drawing Social Security benefits, but barely. I didn’t borrow much—about $5,000, but when I graduated, I didn’t make much—my first teaching job paid $17,000. Even adjusted for inflation, it’s still not much.
I prescribe to the notion of when you don’t know what to say, keep quiet. So, for the past two weeks, like the scriptures, I’ve been pondering things in my heart—wildfires, climate change, flooding and devastation in Kentucky, Monkeypox, COVID, FBI raids and rumors of civil war, politics, teacher shortages, subpoenas, world hunger, — and discerning what to say.
I was reading a recent interview on school board elections in the Tennessean newspaper and saw this question: “Will you commit to being civil in how you present yourself and the way you interact with opponents and others? (Our definition of civility is being a good, active, honest and respectable citizen.)” How appropriate because civility … Read more
“First, they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.” Martin Niemöller
