Social Commentary

Four things you can do to fight back after the supreme court reversed women's right to an abortion.

To remain a patriarchal society men must control reproduction.

When any part of humanity wins we all win. And when any part of humanity loses all of humanity loses. Volumes of social research indisputably support the conclusion that all of society does better when all of society does well.

Andrea Hill explores how the rules used to coerce or enforce participation in religions, cultures, or systems are the ones that drive "them versus us" perceptions of the world.

Our magical Christmas expectations are a product of our privilege. Our notion that we have a right to big bright celebratory Christmases filled with cheer and holiday spirit and piles of presents is barely 80 years old. Christmas 2020 is more normal than you think.

We have a lot of work to do to ensure that four years from now is not another replay of 2016. Let's not get cocky confident or complacent. Our work is not done until we live in a truly just inclusive economically stable nation.

When we define ourselves too narrowly we fail to see all the ways we can connect with other humans and in that failure lies all the previous failures of humanity.

Are you disappointed in family friends neighbors and coworkers who refuse to wear masks avoid socializing or who appear to be racists? In this time of overlapping existential challenges we're just witnessing people outing themselves as zero-sum-gamers.

The discussion among white people about systemic racial injustice is critical because it's our job to end institutional racism. Let's get familiar with how our privilege gets in the way of progress. There's just so much unlearning to do.

Remember every step of the way that this is about Love.

How did we end up with the realities of 2017? This reflection on the themes of 2017 explores the mindsets that got us here and ways to create change.

We are who we lead. If the Republican Party doesn't want to be considered the party of racism anti-Semitism misogyny and bigotry it must stop catering to those who embrace those values.

Rape culture is fueled by the passive acceptance of locker room talk. If you want the women in your life to be safe reject this sad excuse for joking around.

A proposed entry into the English language dictionaries - a set of definitions for the word "trump."

Perhaps individual Americans have the luxury of engaging in low-quality thinking (and I just say perhaps - I don't personally believe that to be true). But our leaders particularly our President and the leadership at the highest level of this country do not have that luxury we cannot grant them that luxury. Our future depends on electing leaders who are skilled in the act of thinking.

People keep asking when things will change. When will we have gun control? When will we stop violating women's rights? When will we stop voter suppression? When we all vote. Every two years. That's when.

There are many types of women but society isn't nice about many (most?) of them. The worst thing we do is divide them into two groups based on womb-output - moms and not-moms. Then we take the moms and divide them into stay-at-home moms and working mons. Then for fun we pit them against each other.

To understand the truth in the world simply look at yourself and what you believe. Your belief system dictates how you see the world.

God is the shared soul of all humans and that religion is a human construct that keeps so many from realizing the fullness of God. This is the religion trap.

Purse strings mean a lot in our society and that simple truth plays out in the most basic of our interactions. How we treat one another should be based on something far more valuable than that.

I suspect society's fixation on the average child is actually a fixation on the compliant child. Our parenting skills are judged by the conforming performing children we churn out.

Leadership requires clear values and the ability to ask who do we serve and what do we stand for.

But at that exciting moment with all the time and potential in the world before us too many women look in the mirror and see only the wrinkles the gray hair the softened jaw line the extra pounds.

The appalling lack of spelling and grammar on the internet points to a much larger issue of social and economic concern.

Ten questions we can ask ourselves to make better parenting decisions and produce stronger children.

The next time someone presents an idea that you are opposed to or disagree with try asking yourself what you can learn from that person and what they can learn from you.

What makes a person believe that others owe him or her more than they owe in return? People who borrow money but don't pay it back people who expect others to bail them out of situations they've caused people who do anything to get their way people who are indignant when they break the rules and then have to suffer the consequences - even people who don't say thank you but expect others to do so to them - these people seem to feel the world owes them more than they owe the world.

Apparently we need to start saying crazy things like "God doesn't want children to go hungry and without health care!!", "God doesn't want us to cut education and give that money to billion dollar oil companies who will be profitable either way!!" "God gets to decide who is worthy enough to go to heaven!"

If having too many guns on the streets of America is not our core problem then why is it that every other developed nation with significantly restricted gun ownership also has a more than 10-fold lower rate of gun violence?

We Americans like our politics black and white but the most significant social issues are mess and there are no perfect solutions.

GOP pushes for birth control measure that undermines women's access to family planning.

My Granddaughter's Heroes

The simple answer is that Health Care costs too much in America at least.

How well can a program - any program - designed to meet the needs of all the children in the system be anything but generic? As hard as teachers and administrators try to develop creative curriculum and dynamic delivery methods they are constantly hampered by everything from legislative interference to lack of funds to bad parenting to the effects of poverty.

Our children - and now our grandchild - have paid a certain price for having gay (grand)parents.

When it comes to gun violence as with so many things in life it's really important to zoom out and look at the whole picture and not just the few pixels that interest you.

The Wisconsin Family Action Council won't even tolerate gays 'imitating marriage'. I had no idea that what we were doing for the past almost 20 years - raising children taking care of each other caring for in-laws being active members of our extended families and investing in our schools and communities was an imitation.

Let's stop with all the knee-jerk platitudes and do some real critical thinking and rational discourse. There are solutions out there - we just have to be intelligent and engaged humans and get out there and find them.

The act of voting is never just about a candidate. It's about a philosophy. My prayer for a nation is that we vote beyond our biases and fears and carefully consider the world we are creating.

Right leaning constituents who don't believe in the social safety net but who rely on unemployment benefits are now complaining that they may not see an extension of benefits after December 2012. How does that square with their politics?

We are entitled to our own opinions but we aren't entitled to our own facts.

Global drought will weaken the social fabric as food prices rise. Whether or not you believe global warming is man-made or natural it's time for all of us to work to reduce the impact of human life on earth.

Dialog can't happen between the extremes of a position - it takes not just cooler heads but more open heads to nurture a conversation to a productive conclusion.

This little medical tidbit of insight flipped my stomach. Apparently women have developed a biological response to protect us from sexual assault. A biological response. That means we've learned to anticipate rape at the level of our genome.

I'll use this opportunity to write the "what I would say to a minister if he out-of-the-blue decided to preach to me about my queerness" blog.

It's time that our leaders take responsibility for their part in even tacitly supporting this most UnAmerican of behaviors.

I am simply weary of people using sacred texts to justify cruelty bigotry and small-mindedness.

The problem with massive ego is that you don't even know you're stupid.

We should be engaging in difficult conversations with one another not mutually engineered denial.

I think if politicians had to wear their sponsors as patches on their little blue suits things might change.

Are American advertising firms dumbing everything down because Americans are lazy thinkers or are Americans lazy thinkers because we are confronted -- no assaulted -- by a constant barrage of stupidity? When we find cultural leaders - thinkers - who respect our intelligence we demand a great deal of them. And rightfully so.

It is a complicated world we live in. A world in which we require conviction about certain things in order to center ourselves and make our way. A world in which those same convictions can sometimes blind us to a greater truth or realization about life love and God.

In a culture consumed with celebrity gossip and reality TV what is the impact on the people for whom the celebrity spotlight never wavers? And do the rest of us share responsibility for their fates when the attention goes too far?

I have been acutely aware as my peers, all of us teenagers roughly a quarter of a century ago, begin to judge teenagers for their clothing, their speech habits, and their music. I don't have the best memory, but I sure do remember my dad bemoaning my wardrobe, my parents telling me to turn down my music and what-was-I-listening-to-anyway, and being constantly corrected and chided for using teen slang. As an adult I have had very entertaining conversations with my parents about how their own parents were convinced that they (my parents) represented the end of society as they (my grandparents) knew it. And while we didn't turn out so bad, I have a sinking feeling every time I see an adult behave poorly in public, act disrespectfully to other adults in front of their children, and show up regularly on the evening news as perpetrators of a broad range of crimes. If we are going to ask "what is the world coming to," shouldn't we be asking it of ourselves?

Americans are not only considering the prospect of a black president but of a black first lady. What knowledge experience and sensibility do we bring to this consideration?

We're home-schooling our kindergartner. No we're not fundamentalists (of any sort) separatists public school antagonists or shiftless. We just don't know where we'll be living in the next few weeks.