Fully Present Post 50

I did my civic duty and reported for jury duty on Wednesday of last week.  I was fully expecting a repeat of my many previous days of jury service.  I would read and possibly be called into a courtroom for jury selection and be excused.  I’ve never served beyond that.  That’s what I was expecting, but this time was very different.  And I’m actually glad it was. Continue reading “First Time Juror on a Trial”

According to my Ancestry DNA, 84% of my ethnic heritage comes from the “Shithole” Africa.  More specifically, a whopping 48% of it comes from Nigeria. I have traced my family roots in America back to slaves on both sides and not surprisingly, there are a few white people (of Scottish, Jewish, and Spanish descent) mixed in.   Mine is the story of America and what it means to be American.  What Mr. Trump espoused was a white supremacist way of thinking that threatens to poison the collective minds and attitudes of vulnerable, ill-informed people. Continue reading “Immigration from Shitholes”

It is a delightful sight to sit in a large room surrounded by the ethnic, racial, gender fluidity, religious, generational, and sexual orientation diversity that represents America.  In early December, I had the pleasure of attending the NASPA Multicultural Institute in New Orleans.  At the conference were student affairs professionals, chief diversity officers, campus mental health providers, faculty, researchers, diversity experts, and graduate students hoping for a career in student affairs.  Since its inception, I have attended all but one of the Multicultural Institutes.  But this one, because we are in the age of Trump when the values and tenants of multiculturalism are under attack, this conference made me realize why social justice work is so exhausting. Continue reading “The Long Fight for Social Justice”

One of my favorite times of the year is this week between Christmas and the New Year.  For me, it is a time of deep rest, resolve, and reflection.  I get to rest because my University is closed and we get a paid vacation every year.  This is truly a blessing, so thank you Cal Lutheran University!  My resolve to know better, be better, and to do better becomes more apparent in this quiet time.  And then I take the time to reflect the year that is passing and on what resolutions will carry me to a better place next year. Continue reading “New Year New Resolutions”

It’s Christmas Eve and while I have so much to say, the only thing I will say this Sunday is Merry Christmas to my Christian friends and Happy Holidays to everyone else.  In the words of a favorite Christmas song: “May the joy of the season surround you.”  I pray you take today and the rest of the year to be fully present with family and friends and also with those who are less fortunate, filling their lives, too, with your love, kindness and generosity.

Ramming bills through Congress along strict party lines hasn’t proven to be good policy.  The ACA or Obamacare at least invited Republicans to contribute, but Republicans had already decided that they were going to oppose anything Obama wanted to do despite the fact that the ACA was originally a Republican idea.  That leads us to the Republican failure to repeal and replace the ACA.  Is it any wonder that they had no better ideas after 8 years, especially since the ACA was their idea?  That brings us to their obsessive need to pass something big.  I wish they had tackled infrastructure and not taxes. Continue reading “About Taxes and Tax Cuts”

 I’ve lived in Southern California almost my entire life.  It wasn’t until the 1970’s that I experienced the horror of the wild fires that come with living in this great state.  When I was 13, our family moved out of the city to a magical place  at the foothills of the Angeles National Forest.  We moved to Lake View Terrace, a suburb off what is now the 210 freeway at the east end of the San Fernando Valley.  This week, Lake View Terrace was in the news  again because of the fire threat.  Continue reading “California Fires”

I’m grappling with what to make of all these men who have violated our current moral code by sexually abusing vulnerable woman.  We’ve all heard the saying that good people sometimes do bad things. Any  human being who lives long enough will eventually do something “bad”.  By bad, I mean an action that violates the social construct of morality gleaned from the family or community in which the person grew up.  Clearly Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, Roy Moore, Al Frankin and Donald Trump have done really bad things to women and in Roy Moore’s case, to girls. But when do they cross the line into being bad people?  Continue reading “Doing bad and Being Bad”

I am a consumer.  I’m a retailers dream come true.  After over-consuming a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with family plus two students too far from home, my daughter and nephew and I headed to the mall for deals.  We purchased exactly what we were looking for at a nice discount. But the mall and the stores were relatively empty, not a single long line anywhere.  Good for us, but I wonder about the economy where they expect the average person will spend $900 on Christmas this year.  I’ll spend half of that and I’m still consuming too much. Continue reading “Over Consumption”

There is a tidal wave of political and ethnic division rooted in tribal ambitions and tribal fears threatening the very fabric of our nation.  And we can’t afford to ignore it.  On C-Span Book TV yesterday, I watched the live Miami Dade Book Festival as one of the authors of “One Nation After Trump” presented.  During the question and answer period, a 20 something clean cut and very articulate white male stood up in front of a packed audience and respectfully asked if people like the author were not the racist because they seem to celebrate the fact that whites will soon be a minority in their own nation? Continue reading “Innocent Evil”