What Crosses My Mind

  • The ‘Not Yet’ Reality of Racism

    A dear friend once used the phrase ‘not yet’ to suggest a descriptive moment in our lives that though I will not describe that context, I will explore the phrase as it pertains to our lives in America today. As I write this commentary, I notice a massive gathering of protesters in Boston to represent…

  • The Need to Recognize Historical Trauma

    Many years ago, during a trip to Europe, I discovered a reality that would change my life forever. The year was 1985, and a portion of my travels was spent in Germany. In a visit to St. Mary’s Church in Lubeck, West Germany I discovered a broken and melted bell that was left in its…

  • On Donald Trump and Ignorance

    For weeks, perhaps months, no to be sure, for the last two years I have struggled with the phenomena that is Donald Trump. I will secretly admit to everyone that a decade ago, when he first threw his name into the hat as a candidate and then swiftly pulled it out because the powers that…

  • The Mourning Has Begun

    The skies are gray with humanity, powerful, frightening, a storm beyond the natural course of our lives.   In the comfort of home, some homes, ours, yours, we haven’t direct connections with theirs … Wait just a minute though, seconds really, that’s all it takes today to look at the pain of a lost soul,…

  • Love

    Its recognition is all we have, when we cry, when we want to die, when we sigh, there is a place that is waiting, when the wrath is over, while in the midst we remain frantic, we always question just why, where is it we were told to ready ourselves to take out, take out…

  • Propagandic Despair

    I want to watch the news, want to know, to understand, to speculate, what is right, what is incomplete, what deceptive story will lead me astray today, tonight, tomorrow, every way I look for something new, some situation refreshing,   I want to watch the news, I just can’t find the right ideas to concern…

  • On Bowling Green, Sweden and Massacres

      I read in the news today they’re rioting in Stockholm, days later, days beyond the triumphant ballast of an egomaniac struggling with air time, community, credibility, condescension, cowardice.   I suggested to a friend, ‘perhaps this is the plan’ that the idea was fed to the giant orange, and he spoke too soon, he…

  • Waking Without The News

    I awoke this morning with a certain calm, the quiet heartbeat of my dog nearby, the sun just beginning to radiate the room, life seemed a slow melodic sort of tune.   Oh, there are certain ideals on my mind that weigh heavily to be understood yet for that moment, that initial lull I could…

  • On People, Love, and executive orders …

    I am thinking about my Muslim students tonight. I am thinking about my Latino, Mexican, African American, Somali, Hispanic, Russian, Asian & White students tonight. I am imagining the confusion in their minds this evening and this weekend as they realize their lives have been measured rather than given the freedoms they would like to…

  • Peaceful Resistance

    What led the world to respond, with not only a few, enough to stop the presses or perhaps filter the pond, that place with which he will empty he stresses.   There this movement spoke with urgency offered the eyes of millions to understand we are framed within our own clemency, to know the bounds…