Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr

Here we are approaching the federal holiday celebrating the birthday of this great American hero who gave his life for the fight against segregation and we are right back into that 1960’s space. The pictures out of Minneapolis, New York, and California remind me of the protests over a segregated United States.

How is it possible that DT and his Klan have brought this era back and how is it possible that so many americans are right there with them? It’s like the great-grandchildren of the actual Klan are now having their moment in time, acting as both ICE and DT’s cheerleaders.’ Reading social media posts about Renee Good’s murder and other ICE takedowns I find it scary to see how many do not understand the racial profiling that is happening. I see comments about getting the “criminals” out and wonder how they can be so delusional. I heard a story about ICE agents eating at a Mexican restaurant only to return later and arrest the staff that served them. These aren’t criminals, Renee Good was causing good trouble, and the man who shot her should be in jail awaiting trial. Anyone who thinks different than that is a racist and shouldn’t have a voice here. We ended segregation in 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was signed into law. We cannot dial back from that.

I’m with the protestors because I believe that everyone matters and we all belong here. And I just do not understand how anyone can disagree with that statement. We are not removing criminals, the criminals are in the (now trashed) White House, and the Senate. We have too many people complicit in all the things that are happening including stealing oil and bombing Venezuelan boats, hosting meetings about taking over Greenland, minting coins for himself, ruining the East Wing of the White House, firing so many necessary government workers, asking military personal to take part in treasonous acts of war. the list goes on and it is only the first year. I’m scared.

I believe if some of our strong democratic members could get together and take out the whole administration out we could save the U.S., and it needs to happen quickly before we get in a fight with our NATO allies, before millions of our black and brown neighbors are arrested and taken away. We can’t wait. We are waffling between Nazi Germany and Jim Crow laws. Here’s my list of players: Barack, Corey Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie, and Stacy Abrams. I need this group to become our Dr King. If I could, I’d issue a citizens arrest for DT, Vance, Noem, and Karoline Leavitt, who make me angry on the daily. This is a terrible time in our country.

What would you do to make this go away?

29 days of book love…

I’ve been working with 3rd-6th grade students on biographies and autobiographies.  Such treasures are available in this section of the library.  Kids don’t usually think about all the variety there and biographies are much more creative than they used to be.

I discovered this book as I pulled books to design this center-based activity for 5th and 6th grade. I wanted them to discover new people for their projects and also just for life knowledge.

Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds; The Sammy Lee Story by Paula Yoo and Dom Lee (2005)

In 1932 12-year-old Sammy can only watch others swim at the local pool except on Wednesdays.  Because of his skin color he has to wait for one day of the week to be allowed to enter the public pool.  Crazy, right?

As he watches he sees one boy fly into the air and dive off the diving board.  His thought is he wants to do that.  The next Wednesday Sammy works on diving and his friend Hart challenges him to flip.  Sammy continues to work on diving and eventually was able to work with a coach.

His father, though, really wants Sammy to fulfill his dream of becoming a doctor. The cool thing is he does-he goes on to study medicine but also continues to dive.  He experiences discrimination at every step of his life yet he kept pushing through and challenging himself.  At the age of 28 he became the first Asian American to win a gold medal and then he defended his gold medal at the 1958 Finnish Olympics.

What an amazing life he led.  I loved discovering Sammy’s life and sharing it with students.  I wonder what other treasures are stuffed in our biography section.