Make your VOTE count

The presidential race is really just around the corner. We will vote for a new president before we have a vaccine for this virus and before we all make out our Christmas wish lists so it's important to stay educated on what matters. There are a lot of smaller but important races happening around the country and it is crucial to pay attention to these races AND donate to help them stay in the race. Let's start small-right here in Black Hawk County. I'm going to give you a link for all the candidates on the progressive side so you can find out more information and/or donate to their campaigns. I've donated a ton this summer because I'm not out shopping or eating out so you can do it too. These are the ones I'm paying attention to; let me know if there are others you think are crucial.

Kelly Dunn vs LeaAnn Saul : this race is for Cedar Falls City Council and Kelly needs to win because she will make a positive difference in our community while Ms. Saul is homophobic and narrow-minded.

Theresa Greenfield vs. Joni Erst : Greenfield has the endorsement of the League of Women Voters, is against Citizen's United and will be a good senator for Iowa. We really need one!

J.D. Scholten vs. Randy Feenstra (he won Rep ticket against Steve King and shares his views) : this is a very important race and it is crucial that J.D. win this one. He was close in 2018; let's hope this is his year.

Sara Gideon vs. Susan Collins : Maine Senate race, time for Collins to go.

John Hickenlooper vs. Cory Gardner : It would be great to see Colorado flip blue.

Jaime Harrison vs. Lindsey Graham : It's been time for Lindsey to go...

Amy McGrath vs. Mitch McConnell : We definitely need Amy to win Kentucky!

Jon Ossoff vs. David Perdue : Georgia needs Jon Ossoff.

And the top of the mountain is of course Joe Biden. I caucused for Pete Buttigieg and I'm still a major fan.  I am not a huge Joe fan but I am happy to vote for him because I know he will right the shipwreck we are in right now. Encourage others to vote too so we don't end up with the non-voter apathy we had in 2016.

And if you are interested in Black Democratic candidates running right now, check out this state-by-state list in Marie Claire.

July Ramblings

I'm taking a BLM class through Iowa Safe Schools-what an amazing organization this is!  The class is great, learning a lot, and I'm almost finished. The homework keeps me busy though as I worry about school openings and life surrounding Covid numbers rising all over including Iowa.

I''m still reading Ibram X. Kendi's book and I realize I have a bad habit of setting nonfiction down in order to pick up fiction. I had a turn to stroll around our public library last week (by appointment only) and picked up the first in a mystery series by one of my favorite authors William Kent Krueger. He wrote Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land. He has 17 books in this mystery series started in 1998 and they feature an Irish/Native detective named Cork O'Connor and are set in northern Minnesota.

My book club this month is reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Murial Barbery. I'm barely half finished and it's got a lot of big words in it and I'm not really pulled into the story yet. It's interesting mind you but not like "ooh, I don't want to stop reading..." I'm also reading a book for school, Lalani of the distant sea by Erin Entrada Kelly.  I'm also still reading to a group of students using Google Classroom. I upload videos of my reading in my backyard and they listen at some point in the day. I just finished Kazu Jones and the Denver Dognappers by Shauna Holyoak and I just started Carl Hiaasen's Squirm, which is on our state award list for this coming year.

When I need a mind break I've been catching up on HBO's Insecure with Issa Rae. It's one of my favorite shows because I connect with her humor, her awkwardness, and the shit she goes through on a daily basis. I get her and I think of her like a friend. This is the perfect reason for watching shows outside of your regular comfort zone. You can learn things about people.

I'm still pretty much hunkered down at home. I venture out to the grocery store every once in awhile, fully masked up and disappointed in a world of people that can't seem to do the same. What the heck people?!? Ridiculous-we could lower our numbers if you all would just get on board. I also go to work because I've got three boxes of new books to process before school starts (if? Yes, I'm looking at you mask-less people) and I want to get them finished and do a massive clean-up there. I've only spent a couple hours total just reading away in my beloved orange hammock~I trust there will be more before the summer is over...

I'm judging you by Luvvie Ajayi

(source: HuffPost)

This 228-page book is filled with love, hope, snarky humor, and a whole lot of wisdom from a young activist.  This is a library copy and I have a ton of pages "ear-marked" for re-reading or talking points. I'm gonna have to iron it before I return it to our library. Speaking of our library they are opening tomorrow for browsing by appointment!  Masks are required and very limited amount of people at the allotted time. We have one hour in the library with like 5 other people. For the last month or so they've been doing holds with curbside pick-up, which has been great but how nice to browse...I'm reminded of all that we've taken for granted.

I follow Luvvie on Instagram and thought about ordering her book but money being what it is I checked the library and was very grateful they had a copy. I love that she refers to herself as a "professional troublemaker"!  She blogs at Awesomely Luvvie and has a podcast as well. This book published in 2016 still touches on all that we are experiencing today. If she could add on a chapter concerning Covid-19 I'm sure she would. And she has a new book coming out in 2021!

I just want to give you a little taste from I'm judging you...

"Racism is not just perpetuated by the people in white hoods. It's also the well-meaning "I have Black friends" people who help it remain upright and unmovable. They refuse to see the part they play in the system because they're two busy making sure everyone knows how NOT racist they are. 
Listening to Black music and loving Beyonce does not give you a free hall pass out of the system of structural racism. Just because I enjoy a salad from time to time doesn't mean I'm a vegetarian. Being able to live w/out having to be defined by your skin color is the hallmark of privilege." (84-85)

and another: 

"So saying you don't see race is saying you have nothing to fix. 'Colorblindness' and cultural erasure help perpetuate this crappy system of oppression, because forced politeness and fear of the 'race card' trump actual work and progress. In the words of my beloved cousin (in my heart) Kerry Washington, "I'm not interested in living in a world where my race is not a part of who I am. I am interested in living in a world where our races, no matter what they are, don't define our trajectory in life." (88)

If you think at this point I'm going to quote most of the book it is a little like that...Plus I'd like to think Kerry Washington is my distant cousin as well.

In the feminism chapter she questions why can't we all get along, why do we need a dip stick to test out who can be a "real" feminist and that it isn't just reserved for white women.

"By the way, fellas, you can be feminists, too. We need more of you to say you are. That's sexy. I mean, don't say you are just to make it a pickup line. Actually believe it. Hey, boo. Call me sometime, with your respectful ass.   
Become a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Stay at home and raise your children. Keep the name you've always had. Change your name to your husbands. Hyphenate it. Refuse to cook because you hate it. ...Be Martha Steward, Be Oprah.  ...Wear short shorts. Wear a cloak. Wear heels." (128)

and in the homophobia section: 

"...many of those who are yelling about the sanctity of marriage are married men who are so far in the closet that there's a lion and a witch by their favorite wing tips. Their wardrobe of denial is so deep, it can get you to Narnia. How many conservative, publicly and boldly homophobic male politicians have been found to have side dudes? More than we can count." (136)

And then there is a whole amazing chapter about religion and Luvvie identifies as Christian but definitely not the sanctimonious kind. And that's as far as I've read; I still have a couple of chapters left. I'll leave you with this last thought on who we are:

"There's power in believing that there's God in each of us because if we are made in His/Her/Their image, then aren't we all like good Horcruxes for God, because a piece of Them is in us all? (144)

Beautifully said and if we all felt that in our hearts and souls we could see each other as humans worth love and kindness and treat each other as such. I hope you had a good holiday weekend, resting and taking care of your well-being. 

I, for one, am not a champion of this holiday for to me it's like Columbus Day and why in the heck would I celebrate him.  I think we should have some new holidays and some new positive statues like John Lewis, William Monroe Trotter, or James Baldwin. 

More on being anti-racist...

I am continuing my journey to better understanding by watching and I want to share the most interesting with you.  We should keep learning and pushing ourselves while we actually work to dismantle the racist systems in place that keep people of color from succeeding at life. We need to push our schools, banks, city councils, police departments, landlords, and neighbors to do better. If you work in an area that should help more get your people on board.  If you are a parent, teacher or administrator you need to push for real change in what and how we teach. This video shares how students in the South were explicitly taught to respect the Confederate flag, and it's so-called "heritage".



Also I read this great article, When black people are in pain white people just join book clubs, by Tre Johnson in The Washington Post about how easily white people dismiss the struggle. I feel like I'm stuck in this myself by how much information I'm taking in yet in order to be a better ally and teacher I have to understand how and what to say. I was asked to be on our district's equity committee, which I understand has been in place for years w/out getting much done, so we are still dealing with a lot of old/same hurt, outrage, and anger.

Teaching Hard History in K-5 is a webinar I watched from the Teaching Tolerance website, which is filled with valuable resources. This webinar already took place but if you register they will send you a link to it within a few minutes. I'm going to keep an eye on other webinars they may host as I would like to be part of the real-time Q/A




This video with Emmanuel Acho is helpful and he has several others to watch. I either stumbled upon this one or someone shared it on their FB feed.  It's shocking that people still don't understand the mental trauma and racist systems that Black people have experienced. This is one of many areas where the race has not been fair for generations. I encourage you to subscribe and take a look at each of his videos.

And one last one that I found on our list of resources for the school equity committee about micro aggressions. I love the dialogue that happens in this particular classroom. My head cannot wrap around things that people say out loud; like stop people and think before you speak and also how about a little mind-you-own-business! What would it look like to be more welcoming and accepting of people who don't look just like you.



Be kind out there and seriously do better. There are many ways to get involved and help even if just by donating or making phone calls. 8 can't wait is a great tool to help you. Breonna Taylor's murderers are still out there and here is a good article talking about this. And Elijah McClain in Colorado. We need to stop this before the list continues to grow...
Thank you for continuing on this journey with me...