Tag Archives: Protests

Rainbow Scare

“The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.” — Maya Angelou

“If the Supreme Court can reverse Roe, it can reverse anything” — Mary Ziegler

Earlier in June, I began to consider a topic for my next blog post. I often begin my writing process with research, reading online, frequently the subject is politics, culture wars, and/or the news of the day. I also reflect on my lived experience and things that pique my curiosity.

I decided on Rainbow Scare and soon after read an opinion piece by Allison Hope. I also became alarmed when the leak occurred earlier in May of the draft Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade and its potential impact overturning settled law. It raised the possibility that the gains we made in the last decades could be undone. We’d essentially go back in time. We could lose reproductive rights, both access to abortions and contraceptives, and for women, the ability to make decisions about what happens to our bodies, plus our LGBTQ+ community may have our marriages nullified and our relationships criminalized. Oh, my! Continue reading

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The New Abnormal

Normal – conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.

Abnormal – deviating from what is normal or usual, typically in a way that is undesirable or worrying. 

As I write it’s the Summer Solstice. Here in Madison, Wisconsin, my home, it’s traditionally been celebrated, pagan-style, with bonfires and festivities marking the longest day of the year at Olbrich Park on Lake Monona. near my home.

“In northern European countries like Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, Midsummer is a festive celebration. When the summer days are at their longest, and in the north, it is the time of the Midnight Sun, festivals generally celebrate the summer and the fertility of the Earth.” Continue reading

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Dispatch from the Hideout: Stirred Crazy

For this next installment of Dispatch from the Hideout, I originally planned on writing about how I became stir crazy as I sheltered-in-place and stayed-at-home alone. Instead, following Trump’s LIBERATE Tweets which fueled demonstrations by his supporters in a number of states, I’ve changed the focus to an opinion piece, Stirred Crazy.

Stir Crazy

One benefit from the pandemic experience is I’ve learned that I’m able to thrive on my own, while still desiring social, physical, emotional, and spiritual connection with others, including loved ones and a larger community. Continue reading

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Back to Blue: Restoring Progressive Roots

As a poet and memoirist I typically write about remembered experiences, the people and events from my life, and the accompanying feelings. I often examine the meaning of those memories and how the people, places and things can inform my choices and help determine the direction of my path moving forward. I look back and reflect, and I practice mindfulness when I’m able (a challenge some days) and I visualize my future.

I’m also a novice activist-writer. I sometimes comment on issues that I hold close to my heart and reflect my personal values: LGBTQ and gender identity, feminism, civil rights, spiritual freedom, economic, gender, and class parity, gun control, substance abuse recovery, domestic violence and the protection and support of vulnerable populations including the mentally ill, homeless, children and the aged. Critically important is the intersectionality of these issues.

Occasionally I venture into and comment on mainstream politics which always seems like a minefield. This post is about the current political climate in my home state of Wisconsin. I enter the fray with trepidation. Continue reading

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