Random Political Thoughts

1. I'd like to save constitutional amendments - whether state or Federal - for things that really really need to be amended. Not for laws that people have attempted to pass and failed. I'm tired of voting on this issue.

2. The dumb local Alameda robocalls should be made earlier - I already voted, people!

3. If Christians followed what was in the Bible, we would not be spending time arguing about abortion or homosexual marriage UNTIL we had established justice in the world, fed the hungry, helped the widows and the brokenhearted. The Bible says to love our neighbor, to bring justice to the oppressed, to feed the hungry, and a lot of other things that we are not doing. When I hear people talk about how government shouldn't provide welfare and social programs, but instead, it should be faith-based institutions, I want to shake those faith-based institutions. Let's STEP UP and help already so the government doesn't have to!!

4. I actually LIKED John McCain until he got weird and grumpy and spent all his time defending Sarah Palin. I used to like him. All of a sudden, he's seemed to switch his opinion on many of the hot-button issues, which makes me wonder what will happen if he's president. Also, he's gotten a lot less "straight talk mavericky" and a lot more grumpy old man lately. If he were one of my third graders, I'd call him Mr. Cranky Pants.

5. I don't like Sarah Palin. At all. I'm sure God loves her, but I am not God and she doesn't think I am part of Real America.

6. Fox News Sucks. This is old news but when they ran their little thing saying "Outraged Liberals: Stop picking on Obama's Baby Mama" thing while someone was talking a few months ago, they totally lost me. Do white people have any idea how offensive that is? Can you imagine if John McCain said something about laying off of Cindy and someone referred to Cindy McCain as "McCain's Baby Mama??" I can't imagine that it was meant for any purpose other than trying to make Obama seem scary and ghetto and too black to be president.

Comments

Jessamyn Harris said…

word up!

4:26 PM

A Loss

(I have been putting off finishing this blog post for months. You'll see why) Today, I was cleaning a bookshelf and I found the journal from one of my third-grade students, who I call Fred in my book , in 2001. I still had it because he didn't come to the last day of school to get his stuff this year and I guess it got put in a pile and somehow I've kept it with me. He didn't come to the last day of school, probably because his family was a mess: dad in prison, mom in an abusive relationship, all the kids (understandably) acting out violently. Fred was expelled from our school in second grade for hitting a teacher. Then he was expelled from the other school, I don't know why, at the end of second grade. He came back on the condition from the administration that he be in my class because I had him as a student in first grade and he listened to me and worked well with me. We had a really good relationship, although Fred was definitely not easy to have in class.

A New Prison, Part Two

Second very long part of the prison visit report. After we got all the paperwork filled out and went through the metal detector, we got visitation slips with the name of the inmate, and made our way over to the other building for visitation. This is not maximum security so thankfully you can just sit next to the inmates, and not be separated by glass or have to use a telephone to talk. First, you get a gate unlocked and go into a holding pen that is of course in direct sunlight (or rain if it's that season) and surrounded by fences topped with razor wire. You wait there until the gate at the other end is unlocked. This holding pen was a little bigger and less claustrophobic than the other prison (I do not have any claustrophobia and I came very close to a panic attack once at the other place) and they opened the other gate more quickly. Then you walk, again in blazing sunlight (or rain) to the visitation building. This one was less of a walk than the other prison but I still

A New Prison, Part 1

My former student, friend, and co-author was moved to a new prison during COVID. We (myself, Mitali, and his Abuela) have visited a couple of times via the video visit functionality they set up, but we've also been trying to visit in person, ever since in-person visits were allowed again. After four of them being canceled (sometimes we were told why, sometimes not), we finally got a visit. I was super nervous about this visit. (I felt better when Mitali mentioned that she was also, because she is an inherently positive and optimistic person!) I am not proud of this, but there was a large part of me that was hoping that the visit would be canceled, just like the previous four were. I felt a little better when someone I know messaged me privately to tell me that they had had very good experiences visiting a family member in that prison. But I still didn't sleep well at all that night, worrying about the guards, the many things that could go wrong, and the projected 111-degree hea

Bronwyn Harris, Author

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