Esperanza

2.24.2011

The Truth is We Say Not as We Do

What is the problem with this picture?

2.18.2011

School's Out

Well we got no choice, all the girls and boys
Makin' all that noise, cause they found new toys
Oh we can't salute ya, can't find a flag
If that don't suit ya, that's a drag
School's out for summer
School's out for ever
School's been blown to pieces
Well we got no class
And we got no principles
And we got no innocence

Dear Gov. Rick Snyder,

Please explain how cutting another $300 per pupil funding (on top of the $170 from last year) will create a better future for Michigan.

How will we create more jobs when we wont have educated civilians to fill them? Our global competition only adds to their school days and costs while we cut. Education allows us to develop informed citizens who will work, fight and vote. Maybe ignorance is your goal?

You claim to cut the excess but what excess are you speaking of? Some local schools don't even have a complete set of texts for all of their students. They still depend on VCRs and broken down projectors. Their maps are out of date. They fail to provide college preparatory classes, like Advanced Placement, because they can't hire another teacher. Teachers clean their own classrooms since the custodian was cut. Maybe in Ann Arbor you have those fancy schools with laptops and turf football fields that I heard of?

Education is part of the solution to our financial woes. Not in cutting its resources but in providing new life and support for those citizens who face the most difficult financial struggles.

Thank you,

Seriously Concerned Citizen

8.21.2010

This is the Sound of All of Us

Singing with love and the will to trust

Leave the rest behind it will turn to dust

This is the sound of all of us

8.10.2010

It's Time to Turn Your Love, Give it Back

4 Weddings!

Jeff and I went to FOUR weddings this summer, three within 10 days of each other. Needless to say, we ate a lot of dessert and danced till our feet hurt. We traveled to Costa Rica, Chicago's Ukrainian Village and Grand Rapids for all of these weddings. Each wedding reflected the couples involved and were so different. It definitely made me think more about how we define marriage in our culture and the practices that we continue as tradition even though their original meaning was lost long ago. (For example, did you know that a bride traditionally carried a bouquet of flowers to mask any body odor?!) I have a tendency to get hung up on these silly histories (and what I sometimes see as pointless, expensive undertakings) but I also learned to just sit back and enjoy the beauty of some traditions, like cake.