Posts By: Janet Givens
One of the many benefits of having written a blog for the past seven years is that it gives me access to the living rooms of hundreds of people I’d otherwise not have had. And today I will use that privilege and trust you will welcome it. Every now and again we are given an… more »
“In light of recent events, a lot of people are now feeling a very visceral response in how they show up in this world, and how they see it from our lens,” says Ramunda Lark Young, co-founder of Washington-based MahoganyBooks, an independent bookstore specializing in books written for, by or about people from the African diaspora. Have you had… more »
What a great poster this protester carried. Treat Racism like CoViD 19, it declared: Assume you have it. Listen to experts about it. Don’t spread it. Be willing to change your life to end it. And it’s that fourth one that’s been preying on my mind. What am I willing change in my life if… more »
Saturday, lightning struck our street. We were luckier than some on our street; we only lost our modem. The folks down about a half mile had fire spewing out of their electrical outlets. In between is my mom’s little house. She lost her modem, her satellite TV, AND, her adding machine exploded while she… more »
This is George Floyd’s face. Most of us know of him from the viral video of his death under the knee of Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis policeman. Or from the news media coverage this past week. Or from social media posts. We deplore the killing. Of course we do. We know it should never… more »
I’m musing a lot lately. Pondering, imagining, wondering. Are you musing more these days, too? I find it’s a calm, curious place to be. No compelling urge to explore; I just ponder. I’ve come up with four particular musings that intrigue me and plan to offer them here one at a time. Perhaps by the… more »
So I’ve got a conflict to toss around. Sort of. Not the “difficult conversation” type conflict I’ve been so focused on of late. — or rather had been before my attention zoomed over to COVID. (Zoomed, you get it? Sorry). This one is more a conflict within myself. Another who-do-I-believe? conflict. And it has to… more »
Another acronym has found me. They do that alot, from my use of CD (first for Cultural Differences, then for Civil Discourse) to my three Cs — curiosity, compassion, and courage — and to my new book LEAPFROG (How to hold a civil conversation in an uncivil era). What’s in my BAG? It’s how I’m… more »
Surely you recognize this photo by now. It is the hill near Taylor Hall where National Guardsmen, many not much older than the students down below, opened fire, killing four and wounding nine. Here’s what I wrote two years ago on Remembering Kent State killings: On Monday, May 4, 1970, at twenty minutes past noon,… more »
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