Pomp and Circumstance

Posted May 25, 2023

Filed under Life

As the school year rolls into a June stop, I always like to press pause and ask my Seniors to reflect on their first 18 years, and consider imparting some advice on their peers. To that end one of their final assignments is to write a Valedictorian Speech, regardless if they will give one at Graduation or not. I write a Commencement Speaker Speech, regardless that I will not give it at Graduation. Seems like a task worthwhile for all of us to do these last days, don’t you think? The other day, during Period 3 we each stood at the podium on the auditorium stage, and addressed each other with all the pomp we could muster. I can assure you, they move me to laughter and tears every year, and I am always in wonder over their wisdom and optimism. This time too.

Tonight, I will share my speech with you.

Continue reading →

No, it is the guns

Posted March 30, 2023

Filed under Life

As most of America is still reeling from one mass murder and bracing for yet another, I find myself wanting to do little else than scream in outrage to not think at all about the epidemic of gun violence that dominates our lives. Not thinking is winning, mostly. After the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School on that crystal clear December 14th morning in 2012 I felt certain that change would come about, that we did not want to be a country where children would be valued less than profit gains for weapon’s manufactures, but as failed law after failed law dissolved into shameful inaction, part of my belief broke. Government has failed to fix this problem here in this United States of America. Thanks to the NRA and their fully weaponized lobby, much policy is run on greed by the ultra-rich who foster illusions for those they disregard. But this is old news. There is no new shaming news left for our Republican Senators to shine on us: we know them by their own voting history which has earned them high NRA ratings and burgeoning cash rewards. But there is always a new twist on who or what to blame coming from their media spots and I am sickened by the garbage they spread.

Continue reading →

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave

Posted October 20, 2022

Filed under Life

This week a student mentioned that we were on the brink of civil war. Not sure what the context was, since this snippet of conversation happened in the busiest of classroom moments. In a completely other class, on an entirely different day, another student mentioned that we would be embroiled in WWIII before the month was over. There is much weight on our youth these days. My students, like all the others clear across this country, regularly practice what to do if an armed and dangerous person comes into the school to gun them down. Their last three years were interrupted by a global pandemic that has in fact infected many of them, and for some, left lingering health problems. Fear resides at the core of their being. Anxiety is discussed between them with an air of universality. They are equally troubled by what lies ahead. About our sickened planet, our dismal response to gun violence, the absence of empathy for the refugees at our border, and for the robed ones dictating over women’s bodies. They want our flag to stand for them, the queer, BIPOC, trans, questioning and demanding generation. The whole of this revolving planet is on the brink of extinction, they fear.