Three tips from a teacher on how to teach your kids during a pandemic.
I arrived home at about 3:45. It’s my usual time to enter my home every day after teaching incarcerated children at my local juvenile detention center. Our Spring Break was next week, and I was ready for some relaxing time at home when a message came across my phone that made coronavirus real for me.
By order of the Governor of Illinois, all public schools in the state are closed through March 30th, 2020. I read the message at least three times. I even shut off my phone and restarted, hoping the message was my imagination.
However, it wasn’t. A microorganism, a virus, had shut down all the schools in a large state. There was no winter storm, flood, or wind chill warning. It was an enemy that attacked silently and wielded power to stop one of the largest organizations in the country-the public school. …
This cannot happen again. Ever.
She stands in her sanctuary — the bedroom of her home—after a long day, and her tired feet bark as she pulls off shoes that have pounded the streets of Chicago all day.
She eyes her bed with anticipation as she removes the last of clothing from her body. A body she believed was her own in 2019.
Naked, she stands and contemplates tomorrow’s challenges in the privacy of her God-given mind.
Suddenly her front door flies off its hinges and crashes loudly against the wall.
It’s a gang. The blue gang. Not the Crips or even the Gangsta Disciples. This gang wears badges and carries weapons that were once reserved for the battlefield. A gang whose weapons of ole were whips and dogs and their prey were runaway slaves chasing freedom with freed hounds biting at their feet. …
It’s a great representation for Black and Latino kids who are often disregarded in video games
Since I was a child, I’ve loved Spider-Man. I watched cartoons when I was a kid. The idea of a nerdy teen becoming a wise-cracking superhero was intriguing to me, and obviously millions of other children. Peter Parker was cool and protected New York- one of the most diverse cities in the nation.
My oldest son and I loved Toby Maguire’s rendition of the web-slinger. He and I spent the better part of the first decade of his life glued to the big screen marveling at the Green Goblin and Alfred Molina’s great villain Doctor Octopus. …
If my mom were alive, I wouldn’t risk her health.
This year Thanksgiving won’t be the same. Even if you are traveling to visit family, the shadow of the pandemic will follow. It’s difficult to escape the grip of a disease that's killed a quarter-million American citizens. However, some of us will try to outwit science and have a traditional Thanksgiving. Trust me, I understand. Family is important, and giving thanks with family is a tradition that goes back generations. But I wouldn’t want to trade a mouthful of turkey or a festive libation for a Christmas funeral. I understand that's a dark scenario, but it's a plausible and ugly possibility. …
However, Amanda Gorman’s Poem Provides Hope
For four long years, America was ruled by lies, hate, and manipulation. The former POTUS was the Grand Wizard of the chaos that ensued during his tenure. He grew a cult under our noses. He nurtured his mob on a diet of racism and white supremacy. They grew fat and angry as their bellies filled with ugliness.
Their minds became distorted, and the Former POTUS’s words became fuel for an attempted insurrection.
They were going to continue the falsehood of a great America by attacking the very seat of their white supremacy power- The Capital.
A citadel that created Fugitive Slave Laws. A monument that decried my ancestors' humanity with the Three fifth’s Compromise. A cradle for known Dixiecrat segregationists. The birthplace of mass incarceration and absent fathers and mothers. …
If you never believed in white privilege, I ask you to look at Washington on January 6th, 2021. A mostly white crowd with very light security stormed the United States capital like the Bastille.
They screamed, walked over the house floor, stole items, assaulted police, and lived.
A black man was shot seven times in the back in front of his kids by a white police officer. I don’t care about his warrant. He deserved due process not hot lead.
No charges but a young man will never walk again. Where’s the justice?
George Floyd crushed to death under the knee of the police. …
A poem dedicated to the loved ones who died alone.
According to Forbes, more people died Wednesday, Dec 9th, 2020, than on 9/11. Over 3,000 new fatalities in a 24 hour period. Please let that sink in. The sheer gravity of this number is numbing to the mind and soul. We’ve become accustomed to the amount of death we see every day from a virus that can be mitigated with three simple gestures: wearing a mask, socially distancing, and washing your hands.
This is not hacked science. It's backed up by some of the most prestigious doctors and scientists in the world. 9/11 was a horrific day in our country. We never fathomed that slightly less than 20 years later, a superpower like America would be economically and socially crippled by a microscopic organism. …
Voting isn’t enough to change America.
There’s been a discussion about Trump's voter turnout over the last few days. It’s not difficult to find an article asking how the president managed to add millions of votes to his total from 2016. I’ve asked this question myself, and I’ve been tempted to write about his massive election turnout. Yes, it’s not the 77 million votes Biden received, but the incumbent's number is nothing to glaze over. It speaks volumes about how divided a country we are. …
A poem about historical sacrifice.
I honor all vets of all races, creeds, sexual orientations, and gender. However, I wrote this poem to honor the historical black soldier who fought for a country they loved only to return and find a system that systematically lynched and murdered them. It’s of particular note that no black soldier received the Medal of Honor after WW2. In 1997 President Bill Clinton awarded those well-deserved medals.
Black soldiers fought in silence
For a country that hated the melanin
Pick up rifles and fought for independence
But it wasn’t theirs
Left in chains while liberation
disappeared on the fallacy of all men created…
It’s basically a Haiku but with a social…
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