Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.” ― Martin Luther King Jr. For 27 years, Milwaukee’s history has been influenced by a force of nature…
Today I will receive an award from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee for LGBTQ+ Advocate of the Year. The mid-afternoon ceremony is a big one with more than a score of other awards being given for enduring contributions to the development of the University, excellence in teaching, distinguished service, research, academic staff service, academic staff…
Accountability has fascinated me for a decade or more. I teach about it over and over. I am a student of it as well. Because of this, I am a stickler at times for how the word is used. I rarely if ever ask to hold someone accountable; the concept of doing so is foreign…
Fictions are remembered, too, and they are not stored any differently in the mind from other experiences. They are experience. Siri Hustvedt, Living, Thinking, Looking: Essays For many years I have wondered how poor and working class people in the U.S. can be so regularly persuaded to vote against their own self-interests. Election after election we…
Memory, like perception, is not passive retrieval but an active and creative process that involves the imagination. We are all always reinventing our pasts, but we are not doing it on purpose. Delusion, however great, is not the same as mendacity. We know when we are lying . Lying is a form of double consciousness.…
In 1969, (I know, readers thought I was going to write “Stonewall,” but I am not!) I started student teaching with Florence Atu-Yarney and Ann Jo Carter. The two semesters I spent with them at Lincoln Junior and Senior High School were transformative in ways that I am still trying to untangle in my mind.…
There have been big swaths of my life when I felt like I was leading from behind. I suspect that many, many others have felt the same way, though they might not have named the phenomenon thus. Here are some examples: Having more experience and information than anyone else in a group, but not being…
Only a couple of weeks ago, I remarked how a few fireflies in my backyard made me a time traveler. Dexter and I both spotted their greenish glow. You know how they are: the first one or two make you wonder for a moment if you actually saw them. You look where the tiny beam…
One of the things I noticed as a new staff person at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin in the early 1980’s was that both government and foundation staff were very helpful. They wanted Planned Parenthood programs to succeed. They valued sexuality education, clinical services, and advocacy. They got the point that to make every child a…
The countdown to my encore launch has begun. At 5:00 PM Central Time July 31, 2015 I am closing the door on this chapter of my life as the President and CEO of Diverse and Resilient. The following Monday, I will be attending more specifically to my work in community development with projects in Milwaukee and…
Creating Community for Everyone 