We drink our coffee
Skid into our parking spot
Late, by two minutes
The day is a drudge
Much the same as yesterday,
As will be tomorrow
Oblivious to
The obliteration of
An entire culture
That’s what we call progress
Category: History
Categories
Clicks of the Desperate
“Doctors” with no oath
Looking to make a profit
Will descend on those
Who want their own choice
Tik toks and others
Will film “do it yourself” clips
And prey off the clicks
Of desperate girls
Boys without knowledge and
Men with few consequences
Will not be party
To the new shadows
Haunting the world of women
The wake of horror
Brings with it calls for action
There’s a problem though.
Politicians don’t
Listen to the peoples will
….they’ve gerrymandered it
“Thoughts and prayers” we’ve heard.
For a decade now
Long ago they chose to favor
Guns over children.
So. Pressing forward seems…hard.
But it’s not.
Outrage is the start…but…
Vote local.
School Board
City council
County council
Fuck, make sure you know who the PTA President is.
These local yokels
Impact your life
And in the wake of horror
It’s the start of change.
(I hope)
The typing of keys
The rustling of paper notes
Soft murmured questions
Intensity’s high
When students are writing
States are banning books
900,000 are dead
Now, the GOP
Have, of course, declared
Events of January 6
“Legitimate discourse”
2024
Is barreling fast toward us
A darkness is brewing
A darkness is brewing
Categories
Systemic Cycles
You may not know this.
But…in 1931,
The US started
Deporting citizens.
American citizens
Were rounded up and shipped out
It seems crazy right?
I’m talking about
People of Hispanic descent
Most had been born here
Why did this happen?
I’m so very glad you asked
The reason is bad…
The Great Depression happened
The US decided
To stop caring for citizens
Of certain origin
History matters.
Those who want to hide history
Want to make damn sure
It’s repeatable.
Don’t fall for the rhetoric
Teach real history.
As Told by Gifs (Part 1)
Have you ever woken up and really wished that there were a way you could learn about the American Revolution that spoke to you? Never fear, The American Revolution as told by GIFS is here!
Let’s start at the beginning. Britain, France, and the 13 Colonies end the 7 Year War in 1763 after—you guessed it— 7 years. A lot happened in this war, but the TL;DR version is that it cost Britain a shit ton of money, and resulted in the Proclamation Line of 1763 which didn’t allow colonists to go steal more Indigenous lands. But…if you’ve ever met a colonist…
After the war, which also took place in Europe by the way, stop buying into American Exceptionalism…
Britain was basically broke and since they went into debt partially by fighting the French for the American Colonists, Parliament turned to the 13 Colonies for help.
As you can imagine, the 13 colonies didn’t love that too much.
Let’s talk for a minute about the different taxes that Britain tried to impose. Actually, jk, it doesn’t matter because the colonists whined so much about the taxes that Britain repealed all of the laws.
…except one.
I want to be really clear here. The tea tax was the final tax imposed on the colonists, and it mainly hit the merchants buying the tea from Britain (though consumer prices went up, of course, because capitalism). Also, there were more regulations so people couldn’t bootleg tea anymore. Britain thought they were awesome. They’d finally made a tax that was going to stick, no one could possibly be angry!
I mean, I don’t want to belabor the point but…have you ever met a colonist?
This group of kids called the Sons of Liberty, which, by the way, would be described as Anti-Fa now, decided they were really going to stick it to the British and their tea tax.
And thus, we have the Boston Tea Party. I’ve included a dramatic recreation for you below.
The tea party, as fun as it sounds, actually cost the Brits a whole lot of money. Millions of dollars worth of tea was destroyed. My favorite part is that the Sons of Liberty trolled around the harbor for the next day or so, making sure no one came to steal any of the floating tea.
The Brits, of course, were super pissed.
The Boston Tea Party led directly to the Intolerable Acts…but you’ll have to tune in to part two for that.
Categories
This is Not a Food Blog
Before you go any further, don’t expect a recipe at the end of this story
The doorbell rang during dinner. Unexpected package, I thought to myself while answering the door thinking FedEx was delivering late.
It was a package, but it wasn’t from FedEx or any other carrier for that matter.
It was a neighbor gift.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOO” I cried, falling to my knees as I glared around for the offending neighbor. They didn’t even bother to wait, just a doorbell ditch drop off. Probably thought it’d be cute.
The gift is really nothing much. Just a nice, thoughtful baggy of candies and other treats for the festive holiday season. But, it’s the baggage that comes with the baggie. Because now, I must reciprocate.
So. At 9PM at night, having never made it before, I decide I’m going to make caramel. I take a shot of rum for luck, and get to work.
Luckily, I had the requisite materials. I stirred and stirred the milk and cream until it hit “scalding”. Which, if you don’t know, is like 180 Degrees and ten hours of stirring.
Then, I poured an entire bottle of Karo syrup in with 4 cups of sugar. For health, you know, and waited until it began boiling.
By now I’m on my third drink and it’s 11PM. I’d been working for close to twelve hours.
Well. Two anyway.
Two fucking hours? I whisper to myself. I had no fucking clue caramel took so long.
Once the sugar is boiling I had to spoon in the milk mixture. I thought this was the end of it. 1/3 cup in three minute intervals was nearly the death of me. I’d frantically stir as the bubbles would rise up, threatening to overtake the lip of the pot. Alexa refused to keep time.
Where’s an ox and lamb when I need one?
Once I’d added the milk I had to wait for the “soft ball” stage. My sugar was already boiling merrily in the pot, I thought for sure we were ready.
Or maybe I was drunk. We’ll never know.
It’s 11:30. I put the candy thermometer in the pot. I’m 40 degrees away from freedom.
Except….that 40 degrees takes 40 years.
I waited. And stirred. And waited some more. And stirred some more.
FINALLY, at 12:35 AM, 3 1/2 hours after I’d started, the caramel was ready to be poured. Yet, that was not the end. I spent another two hours wrapping the damn things.
But now, I too will have a neighbor gift. Handmade caramels. Delicious and made correctly first try. At 39 I’ve officially arrived at adulthood. I can, not only do hard things, I can do them while drinking rum. The true test of a competent pirate.
Now, the only thing left to do is carry loose peppermints in my purse instead of gum.
Categories
Learning is Radical
“The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility” — bell hooks
The classroom spaces
Are under attack right now
To try to stop change
Education is
A powerful thing for kids
And adults alike
A lack of knowledge
Means keeping the status quo
While education
Means moving forward
We can not afford to stop
We must keep teaching.
In the workplace, it’s really about control.
If you’re a woman, perhaps you’ve been told you’re a gossip. Or, you’ve been warned against gossip. Perhaps you’ve even been forced to watch Tedx clips about why you shouldn’t gossip at work, given to you by some dude on the internet.
The term “gossip” tends to be a phrase that uniquely targets women, and the way in which women interact with one another. It carries a negative connotation, and people often consider gossiping as “bad.” In Puritan New England, gossip was called “gadding about”, even Martha Ballard, that great New England midwife, called herself a gadder. Probably because she had all the juicy details of everyone’s lives (and could testify in court if a woman named the father of an illegitimate child on her birthing bed).
Now, we call gossip “spilling the tea” or “hot gos” or, simply, “chatting.” Whatever you call it, it’s usually targeted at female groups, and, occasionally, used as a weapon within workplaces.
The Weaponization of Gossip
Some workplaces, usually female centered (though not always), attempt to “ban” gossip. It’s actually something I’ve heard a lot from fellow teachers discussing their workplace conditions. The problem with this is that gossip is a hugely broad term, and may be defined as anything “negative.”
By defining any negative speak as “gossip” and therefore banned within the workplace, it prevents women (or anyone), from discussing workplace problems or issues. In a world where male administrators may not listen to the concerns of their female colleagues, this is problematic. Additionally, a “ban” on gossip may create a culture of fear — where you may be worried to tell someone about a problem for fear of “being negative” and getting reported. It’s like, McCarthyism, but at work!
The fear of being perceived as “negative” prevents people from perhaps discussing important topics like, oh I don’t know, wages, harassment, internal policies, or other things that employees may want to take collective action on. A ban on gossip harms everyone, but can be especially harmful for any BIPOC employees. Bias is real.
And, there’s the rub. It’s that collective action part that administrators or bosses want to prevent.
Ok…so what?
So, what can you do? Well, obviously, the answer is to gossip about it. Because often what employers deem as gossip…is not actually gossip.
At its core, gossip is information. Information about time, work, pay, conditions, experiences. Information is powerful and information is almost always used as an avenue of change. On the flip side any attempt to control or hide information is almost always used to stagnate and maintain power.
So talk my friend. Spill the beans, the tea, gad about, chat, discuss, laugh, get angry, get sad, get happy and importantly — share information. Stay powerful.
Hipstory 