What Do You Say, Dear?
One of our favorite children’s books is a humorous guide to manners illustrated by Maurice Sendak of Where The Wild Things Are fame and published in the 1980s. The book, What Do You Say, Dear?, asks what to say when you bump into a crocodile on a crowded street? Or when a nice gentleman introduces you to a baby elephant? Or when the queen feeds you so much spaghetti that you can’t fit in your chair anymore? The answers are pretty straightforward. Say, “excuse me,” or “how do you do,” or “no thank you.”
Read More
Football Gets a Penalty Flag
None of us was the mother of gifted athletes. Nonetheless, our kids played sports from a very young age, not because we were in search of an athletic scholarship or a spot in the majors, but because it was the thing to do. Our towns all offered soccer and tee ball, then Little League and Pop Warner football. With the right coaches promoting good sportsmanship and mutual respect, and parents on the sidelines doing the same, sports for our kids were a fine way to spend a Saturday morning or weekday afternoon.
Read More
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Tracy Kidder doesn't walk by homeless people on the street anymore. He doesn’t act as if they are invisible. He makes eye contact. He speaks to them. And he usually gives them money.
Read More
Ignorance: Super Spreader of Racism
We are no longer surprised when we hear that poor people and people of color have a harder time accessing good health care because they don’t have adequate insurance or don’t get sick days at work. We get that co-pays can make it difficult for many to purchase needed medications or go to doctors’ appointments.
Read More
Banning Books Censoring Lessons and Redacting History
Many of us are watching our children and grandchildren head off to school this week, some for the first time. Those of us in the Northeast can be pretty sure (and yes, we've know about the problem in Ludlow, MA, but it's an outlier) that the shelves in school libraries will not be emptied of books that depict characters with two mothers or fathers, or boys or girls questioning their sexual…
Read More
Who gets to vote?
We thought it might be interesting to ask some friends, relatives, or colleagues – or reflect on our own experiences as immigrants – what voting was like in their countries of origin. Did every adult get to vote? Was it mandatory? Were there fines or punishments for not voting?
Read More
Don’t Be Fooled by the Names!
The shock waves are still reverberating a year after the Supreme Court, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, overturned 50 years of precedent – 50 years of protecting a woman’s right to choose whether or not to proceed with a pregnancy. In some states, women no longer have any choice and may even face imprisonment if they terminate their pregnancies. In other states, they must meet stringent standards, such as terminating before they may even know they are pregnant or a heartbeat can be detected. Doctors, too, face punishment for aiding women who seek abortions, sometimes even when the pregnant woman’s life is in danger. Too many women find themselves scraping together the money to travel out of their home states to places such as Massachusetts to seek surgical or medication abortions where they are still protected and legal.
Read More
What, to a Slave, is the Fourth of July
In lieu of our normal newsletter, we have chosen to mark Independence Day, the Fourth of July, by reprinting abolitionist Frederick Douglass’s famous anti-slavery speech, delivered on July 5, 1852, to the citizens of his hometown of Rochester, NY. Many of us have read excerpts of this great speech, but not the entirety. We think it is worth considering without editing, as we face so much discrimination, hate, and bigotry in our country today.
Read More
It’s a Wonderful Life for Whom?
Owning one’s own home has always been part of the American Dream. Finding a place in your price range can often require some compromise. Then making an offer and having your credit rating checked. Next is hunting for the best deal on a mortgage and coming up with the down payment. For those of us who are lucky, that down payment often includes loans or gifts from parents and grandparents.
Read More
Sounds Like a Plan
Recent conversations with friends have made it clear that many of us don’t fully understand the difference between Plan B and Plan C in pregnancy management. With the overturning of Roe v Wade and the more recent ban on medication abortion pills…
Read More
Local Leader Tackles Health Inequalities
Here’s a frightening statistic to try to swallow with your evening vitamins. Boston’s Back Bay residents have a life expectancy of 92 years while residents of Roxbury, just four miles away, can expect to live only 59 years. What we know is that factors such as access to health care, affordable housing, and clean air have a lot to do with the difference in these two outcomes.
Read More
Does Our Dry Cleaner Need to Share Our Politics?
Recently, we’ve been grappling with some of the finer points of being an ally to the marginalized among us. The new book, “Say the Right Thing,” by Kenzie Yoshino and David Glasgow, NYU law professors and founders of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, offers us reminders about the importance of standing up when we hear and see things; of what not to say because it may sound hollow, patronizing, or have the exact opposite of the intended effect; how to engage in respectful disagreement; and more.
Read More
Belated Benefits for Black GIs
The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the GI Bill, was a bi-partisan effort to help returning servicemen adjust to civilian life by providing funds for education, government backed loans, unemployment, and job-finding assistance.
Read More
Play Nice
We are all well aware of the mental health issues plaguing teens, especially youth in the LGBTQ+ community. Transgender youth particularly struggle as they are bullied and ostracized by peers, often rejected by their families, and desperate for a sense of belonging.
Read More
The Decolonization of Design
When our kids were in grade school, some of their schoolmates wrote to a crayon manufacturer to protest the name of their “Flesh” crayon. They insisted it surely wasn’t the color of the skin of the Black children in their classroom, nor of any but the blondest and fairest of them all. The company responded and changed the name. Truth be told, the children’s letters were probably joined by hundreds, if not thousands, of others from around the country.
Read More
The War Between the Statues
We all know far too well that the contributions and roles of Black, brown, and AAPI people, women, and those in the LGBTQ community are underrepresented in history classes throughout the country - not just in the South, though the problem may be most egregious in some states there.
Read More
Hiding in Plain Sight
So here’s the thing about antisemitism in America. It’s always been here. When some of us were growing up in the 50s and 60s, there were neighborhoods where Jews couldn’t buy homes or join certain country clubs. Colleges and universities had quotas on the number of Jewish students who could be admitted. It was not unusual for Jewish children to be accused by their Christian friends of killing Christ. Or for a Christian boy to tell his girlfriend he couldn’t take her home to meet his family because she was Jewish.
Read More
Being The Mama Who’s ‘Other’
The moms among us, particularly those who came to motherhood in the 80s and 90s, joined mothers’ support groups the way our mothers talked over their back fences. We met in each other’s homes or at the park or playground, at the Y or in a church basement. We talked about when or if we wanted to go back to work, even if we knew we had to; whether we loved or hated nursing and how we felt guilty for both; how our husbands were or were not disappointing us with their attempts at co-parenting; how we were going to be supermoms or if we even wanted to be; when we might ever get a full night’s sleep or feel sexy again.
Read More
When Plan A Fails
A few weeks ago, we wrote about Plan C and the possibilities of providing pregnant folks with the medications to terminate unwanted pregnancies through at least the first trimester. With some ingenuity and commitment from organizations and individuals, we hope Plan C will be accessible to people in states where surgical abortions are becoming more and more difficult to obtain.
Read More
Turning Rage Into Action
As we try to reckon with the reality of life after Roe v. Wade, we feel obligated to become well-informed about the options that remain available to our sisters living in states where surgical abortions will no longer be legal.
Read More
