Category: courage
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The beginning of change
On January 16, 2019, 12 women who had been part of the reporting for Jody Kantor and Megan Twohey’s book She Said gathered in Los Angeles. “This is what everyone in the room, and more people beyond it, now understood,” they wrote. “If the story was not shared, nothing would change. Problems that are not…
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The magic of beginnings
“And suddenly you know. It’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings,” Meister Eckhart once said. Happy New Year!
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Overwhelm the world
“Do your little bits of good where you are. It’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world,” Desmond Tutu once said.
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One giant leap for WOMANkind
NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir became the first all-female spacewalking team on Friday, October 18, 2019. “One giant leap for WOMANkind!” Representative Katherine Clark wrote in a tweet. Kathy Sullivan, who became America’s first female spacewalker 35 years ago, added, “We’ve got qualified women running the control, running space centers, commanding the station,…
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We must act now
“How is it possible that the most intellectual creature ever to walk the earth is destroying its only home?” Jane Goodall asks. Goodall doesn’t try to answer that question. But, she finally concludes: “If we all get together, we can truly make a difference, but we must act now. The window of time is closing.”…
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Is Dorothea Lange’s America our America?
The commentary on the photos of Dorothea Lange at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa asked about the poor who are still with us today. We have made progress, the writers of the commentary replied. “Still, has this progress overcome the challenges of poverty and racism?” “Maybe not” seemed to be the conclusion. Lange’s photos, including…
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The dignity of the poor
“I had to get my camera to register the things about people that were more important than how poor they were—their pride, their strength, their spirit,” photographer Dorothea Lange once said. Lange’s photos, including the iconic Migrant Mother, “humanized the consequences of the Great Depression.” I saw some of her photos recently in an exhibit…
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Personal turmoil
Dorothea Lange was taking portraits of wealthy people when she decided to take photographs of the poor during the Great Depression. “I was driven by the fact that I was under personal turmoil to do something,” she once said. Lange’s photos, including the iconic Migrant Mother, “humanized the consequences of the Great Depression.” I saw…
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Margaret Atwood, feminist
Margaret Atwood has consistently refused to label herself a feminist. Recently, at Arts & Letters Live in Dallas, she explained that, just as there are many kinds of Christians, there are many kinds of feminists. If you look on the Internet, you’ll find 75 different kinds of feminists, Atwood said. And, these 75 different kinds…
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Sustained outrage
“What you need is sustained outrage, there’s far too much unthinking respect given to authority,” Molly Ivins once said. I recently saw the movie about Molly Ivins—“Raise Hell.” Let’s all remember Molly and raise a little more hell. –Joy