The Berks County Detention Facility, ICE and the KKK

Here are a few more photos from the Immigration Rally held in Philly on Saturday, some reflections on that rally, and some suggestions on what you can do next to resist Trump and his white nationalist movement. Carol and I attended the rally and when it was over we went to a nice place to […]

Are You Smarter Than a Burmese Python?

The Hegins Pigeon Shoot may not be known to you unless you like to murder pigeons or you grew up in Schuylkill County as I did. Hegins (pronounced ‘Higgens’ – don’t know why but perhaps since it is Germanic in nature it comes from some Pennsylvania Dutch usage in that area) was the location for […]

Philly School Board. Diverse? Yes. Public School Advocates? Not So Much.

Mayor Kenney just announced the 9 members of the new school board, and he deserves recognition for the diversity of the new members. Choosing diversity is a good first step, but it must be accompanied with choosing members who demonstrate a commitment to full and fair funding for public schools. That is not so evident […]

Disabilities Act of 2017

House bill 620 – the Americans with Disability Act of 2017 The cowardice and lack of integrity of the Republican Party was on full display yesterday when the House passed the ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017 that effectively gutted disability rights in this country. This bill was passed the day after the school […]

Memorial Day 2017

                    There are times when events connect without apparent meaning. That is what happened to me with today being Memorial Day, members of my family making an annual visit to cemeteries where previous generations are buried, and our own Unpresident Trump laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. One of […]

M.L. King, A. Ginsberg, Unpresident Trump

                OK class, which one of these three does not belong?                 Two of these folks could speak and write in compete and coherent sentences and at times their language was profound and poetic, but this is not the reason that I have chosen these three names to write about this time.                 Yesterday was […]

School Vouchers: Imminent Threat to Equitable School Funding

                  It was telling that Unpresident Trump and Secretary (are you serious?) of Education DeVos made their first joint school visit to a private religious school in Florida. Both of them have negligible experience with public schools and it is clear that their lack of interest in improving public education is neither knowledge based […]

White Privilege and the Politics of Personal Exoneration

I have recently read, or read again, two important pieces that I believe are interconnected and I want to take this blog entry to encourage you to take a deeper look at both of them. One is “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates and the other is Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege – Unpacking […]

Transgender bathroom rights. Really???

Are we really engaged in an argument about bathroom rights? It seems that way, but I believe that this is just obfuscation for prejudice and hatred of the other – in this case, it is directed against the LGBQT community and by extension, any community that is not white or straight. I want to share […]