During 2018, our nation saw issues of race and justice take center stage in ways and with a frequency not seen in some time. We saw race baiting used in policy, practice, and procedural debates across the country, from immigration and border security to policing. As we celebrate the legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the hard-fought victories of the Civil Rights movement, local municipalities continue […]
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Julia Ward Howe | Mother’s Day Proclamation
In 1870, Julia Ward Howe – an abolitionist best remembered as the poet who wrote “Battle Hymn of the Republic” – worked to establish a Mother’s Peace Day. Here is the proclamation she wrote in 1870, which explains, in her own impassioned words, the goals of the original holiday. “Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: ‘We will not […]
Sparrow | Goodbye, Patriarchy
It’s like the French Revolution. One by one, prominent men are wheeled out to the guillotine and dispatched. Of course, the present-day “deaths” are metaphorical. Garrison Keillor is still alive, just out of sight. But “Garrison Keillor,” the charming, folksy, self-deprecating Midwestern humorist, is dead. As is “Harvey Weinstein,” the brash, 1930s-style film mogul. Some of these decapitations are as swift as an ATM transaction. TV journalist Charlie Rose disappeared […]
Ellen Woods | Taking charge
In 2007 my daughter Lulu surprised the family by joining the Army. She was eighteen and had already been accepted at Cal State Monterey. Lulu told me that her father and stepmother insisted that she go to college; they were vehemently opposed to the army. Her dad and I hadn’t made any joint decisions since he remarried when Lulu was four years old. I fully supported Lulu’s decision though it […]
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