The past couple of weeks have been an emotional and mental whirlwind as I navigate the aftermath of unexpectedly putting myself in the crosshairs of a rabid racist. I have been writing about race and racism in Maine and beyond since 2003, and while there have been times when I have written pieces where I fully expected blowback and harassment, …
It was over a decade ago that I received my first invitation to keynote an event for Black History Month. If memory serves, it was a UU Church in Kennebunk, Maine. At that time, Americans of all hues were awakening to the painful reality that despite having our first Black president, injustice still ran rampant when it came to Black …
Mohammed Albehadli was the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) coordinator for the South Portland School Department when he received a racist email in December 2023 from Ryan Murdough, the New Hampshire founder of the New England White Network. The email has been described as threatening and, according to published reports, South Portland schools Superintendent Timothy Matheney described the letter as …
Twenty years ago, when my mother died, I read John Lennon’s famous quote, “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” It struck me hard enough that I put it in the signature line of my emails. It’s one of those quotes that is a very real truism: We make plans, but life often has its own …
A few weeks ago, Elon Musk tweeted on X that “DEI must DIE.” Generally, I ignore anything that Musk says—after all, it’s not like we share similar ideologies about, well, anything. The thing is, that tweet stirred something in me that I had to sit with. Upon deeper reflection, I actually agree with him—just not for the same reasons and …
This month, I will be quietly celebrating my 10th anniversary as executive director of Community Change Inc. No small feat, as we are one of the oldest anti-racism organizations in the United States—founded in 1968, at a time when the United States was in racial turmoil. Our founding was the direct result of the Kerner Commission Report, which found that …
If you’ve followed me on other platforms or social media, you might already know this. But if not: I’m one of the shrinking numbers of people who haven’t gotten COVID yet. It’s not because I have some sort of wondrous immune system. No, I got sick plenty over the years when my kids were in school bringing home germs. I …
Violence. We’ve gotten so comfortable with violence. So-called Christians wishing for atheists to die horrible deaths. People calling upon others to do violence to trans people just for existing. The way officials strive to build “cop cities” to train police to do harm to citizens in ever more blatant ways, not just for crimes (that rarely deserve that level of …
Being on a campus in the United States, whether grade school or middle school or high school or college, seems to be increasingly a roll of the dice. When will your campus finally be visited by gunfire? Will it be when you’re attending or working there or after you graduate/leave? Will it be decades in the future or tomorrow? It …
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Happy Friday! It’s a gorgeous day up in my corner of the world and way too beautiful to be writing a blog post today. So I present you with the Friday Round-Up a list of blog posts this week from other bloggers that blew my mind. Perhaps if you need to kill some time or have a quiet moment you can check them out. http://ravingblacklunatic.blogspot.com/ Check out this cat, I have been a fan of his work forever. http://www.whataboutourdaughters.com/ Good stuff here as well http://sweetersalt.com/ A Maine blogger who talks fashion and food…the best of both worlds http://paganchild-starmommy.blogspot.com/2011/03/keeping-focused.html A new blog that offers words of wisdom for all of us. http://mscleaver.com/ Another Mainer who for Lent is giving up pants, she is also a crafty gal If you have any links to good blogs, feel free to leave em. It’s my hope to make the Friday Round Up a regular feature at my new home specifically I would live to shine some light and love on smaller bloggers. It’s hard out here in this blogosphere with so many good blogs to choose from and so little time so let’s help everyone get a slice of the pie. I will be back on Monday, at that time I will unveil some ideas I have around monetizing things but You May Also Like: No related posts.
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A year in review: Reflections, expansion, and growth at 50
I entered 2023 with a profound fear of dying early. I was turning 50 in January—the same age that my mother was when she died (and not even a week after that birthday, no less). Six weeks before her death, I had just turned 31. For 19 years, I lived with this overwhelming fear of turning 50, partly because of …
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