-
blog action … deferred action
Blog Action Day is a global effort designed to promote discussion around a single issue that affects each of us. Since 2007, this annual event has inspired positive conversation in the blogosphere, with writers exploring universal topics related to our environment, poverty, climate change, water, and food. This year’s theme, The Power of We, provides an opportunity to define and celebrate the concept of community. How will we make our mark on the world? What will we do to make sure our children’s dreams come true? Everything in our power. I am reminded of a former student who graduated recently with an undergraduate degree in Psychology. Like me, she is an immigrant.…
You May Also Like
Goodbye to my Juan, Goodbye Rosalita …
Walking on Air.
severe clear – september 11
-
Uncategorized
breast cancer … not worth debating?
It is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. President Obama proclaimed it so on October 1, 2012. For added emphasis, the North Portico of the White House was illuminated pink for one evening. Basking in a ubiquitous pink glow, America’s most famous house reconfirms the power of the organization that bears the name of Nancy Brinker’s dead sister, Susan G. Komen, to deliver what Brinker once described as “conventional messages in unconventional ways in unexpected environments.” Given this logic, perhaps the presidential debate was “too conventional” a venue to raise the question of breast cancer. On top of that, there was that whole issue of the altitude in Denver . . . Incomprehensibly, it did not occur to Jim Lehrer, the…
-
Uncategorized
so you say you want a revolution?
. . . so what are you going to do about it? It is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but you already knew that. I imagine some of you are beyond aware, fatigued by the reiterated reassurances that early detection is the next best thing to curing breast cancer. Maybe the myth of mammogram as the perfect test is beginning to wear on you. You might even be quietly resigned to accepting “No Evidence of Disease” (NED) as good as it’s going to get. Breast cancer impinges on the lives of everyone you know, in ways not always immediately discernible, given the complexity of the disease, the politics of its lexicon, the business…
-
well suited
The little boy standing on O’Connell Street, is the image of his father, my brother, anticipating a cream bun treat at the nearby Arabica Coffee. He has just completed a milestone to remember, his first day at school, where he will be known by the Irish version of his surname, the very impressive Mac Uaitéir. Literally, this translates to “Son of Water,” a Celtic Warrior who quite possibly could have held his own with “Wind in his Hair” or “Dances with Wolves.” Thus, a first day at primary school with baked goods from Arabica Coffee, assumes the tone of an epic adventure. The ready-made tie around the collar of my nephew’s…
