Category Archives: Social Justice

Did I just See The Future? If so, It’s Pharma-Or Die

Okay, I’m sitting on the waiting bench at the big box pharmacy. There’s a guy at the counter: lean, middle-aged, in a white tee shirt, looks like he works hard. He’s waiting too, seems jumpy.

A pharmacy clerk comes in view, stepping from behind the long rack where dozens of plastic bags holding filled prescriptions are hanging. She says something to the guy, and all I catch is “Five seventy five.”

The guy steps back.

“What?” he says, and he’s angry. “I’m not paying that.” He makes a fist, but doesn’t raise it.  “I’ll just die.”

I glance back at the clerk. Did she mean “Five dollars and 75 cents” per pill? Or was it “Five hundred and seventy five dollars per dose”? Like for an Epi-pen?

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The Talk They Did NOT Hear at Friends Central School . . .

On May 25, Sa’ed Atshan was chosen by the Swarthmore College Class of 2018 to be the speaker at their “Last Collection,” an opening ceremony of their Commencement exercises.

Here are some excerpts from his talk. . . . I’m posting them as a sample of Atshan as a speaker, and as a man sharing his identity and evolution with younger peers. I believe much of this would have been in the talk he was planning for Friends Central School last year.

But this was an experience denied to the students at Friends Central School. To prevent Atshan from speaking there, two teachers at Friends Central were fired, and a high administrative official left.  This shameful incident is now the subject of a federal lawsuit.

Atshan’s Swarthmore talk was intriguing to me for several reasons, but one was a question I’m still seeking the answer to: 

What is it about this talk, and about this person, that was worth destroying the jobs of three loyal faculty at Friends Central School to keep  both off their campus?

Many readers will know that the Friends Central administration has refused comment on this matter.  So we’re on our own to sort it out. This talk is not a final answer; but is worth reading and pondering as the seeking continues. 

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Varieties of Racism: the Carolina Confederate Flag Campaign

The feelings associated with this argument can run high. On August 14, 2017, a Confederate memorial statue at the courthouse in Durham was pulled down by protesters. Some of the same protesters moved on to Alamance County, and on the night of August 19, 2017 approached the Confederate statue in front of its “historic” courthouse.

The Confederate Memorial in Alamance County NC: Bigger, taller, well-guarded; still standing.
They had no luck there. The Alamance statue is much taller, much larger, and looms much higher over the courthouse square. It was also guarded by many ACTBAC sympathizers, not to mention police and sheriff’s deputies. After a several hour standoff, the protesters and anti-protesters dissipated in the dark.

Not long thereafter, yard signs began appearing on a scattering of Alamance lawns, calling for protection of such monuments as history.

So far, NC hasn’t seen a repeat of the August 12, 2017 Charlottesville VA violence over racial symbols. But as the “mega flags” proliferate, the waters are still stirring.

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Selma, the Day before Memphis & MLK’s Murder; A Look at my last visit

On April 4, many eyes will be on Memphis, Tennessee, remembering what happened there 50 years ago, I’ll be among  those. But I’ll be doing it from Alabama, just down the street from the still blindingly all-white state capital in Montgomery. That’s where the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church still stands. There in 1955 Dr. King … Continue reading Selma, the Day before Memphis & MLK’s Murder; A Look at my last visit →

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