I have seen this going around certain pockets of my timeline, and it has reached the tipping point where I feel the need to comment.
This photo is disingenuous.
Employers often discriminate against people using shelters as addresses. It happens so frequently that some states, like Connecticut, even passed legislation to address the issue (SB 896 is the legislation in Connecticut). Continue Reading…
Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jpeepz/220670731
License link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/
Historical perspective is nice. Not a patient, friendly, warm apple pie type of nice, but more like the type of nice when a new power tool works as advertised, or a recently downloaded app actually proves to be helpful. Historical perspective provides us with a great tool for deepening our understanding of the present. The US is a country forged from the fires of political protest. We have a strong-willed mentality as a nation, a refusal to let go of what we think is correct, and the legal protections to carry out protests against what we think is wrong—even when that wrong is the US itself.
James Baldwin was quoted saying “I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” Baldwin was wildly disliked in his day, and many thought of him as unpatriotic. He was also beloved by many for his deep intellectual honesty. Continue Reading…
Original book cover for Ralph Ellison’s novel, Invisible Man.
“I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me.”
– Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
There are times when we feel as though we need a soul rattling experience. I’m not talking about a near death experience, or some high adrenaline activity. What I am talking about is the need to go deeper, to discover or re-discover pieces of ourselves in order to see a greater picture that we cannot fully put together. This past week I had one of those experiences. I had several of those experiences. At the beginning of the week, I finished re-reading Ralph Ellison’s classic novel Invisible Man. I picked up this book in hopes of re-discovering a piece of me from the last time I read the deep prose and wild narrative Ellison put to paper. I found that piece, but I also found a lot more. Continue Reading…