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All posts for the month March, 2021

I’VE NEVER – a reblog

Published March 30, 2021 by Nan Mykel

I’ve Never

I have never encountered racial and ethnic insensitivity in my graduate program. . .

. . . except when a professor talked about how Asian students are not fit for philosophy.
. . . except when students have asked me (more than once) to please tell them where I am from, because they “just cannot figure it out.”
. . . except when a student joked in the middle of class about me not having immigration papers.
. . . except when I had faculty member in a private meeting bluntly say that if I want to get a job I needed to specialize in Latin American philosophy. I do nothing of the sort. I work within M&E.

I love philosophy, but sometimes these little things are really, really annoying.PHILSTRUGGLEASIAN AMERICAN, GRAD SCHOOL, LATINA/O AMERICAN

Sorry- Having great difficulty traversing the two editors. The above originally appeared in the 2015 beingaphilosopherofcolor@wordpress,com

I want to ask a question: While eating at a church free luncheon on a university campus I found myself sharing a table with two black men who were presumably students. I did not want to insult them but I was curious what country they were from. Now, that could have been taken as rude and prejudiced, whereas I just hoped for a little friendly dialogue. They told the country and we ended up by them proudly showing a smart phone photo collection of their family back home. What should I say or not have said to start the conversation?

THE THRILL

Published March 30, 2021 by Nan Mykel
THE THRILL

Who was that masked man waiting

one line over at the grocery?

He looked familiar.

He turned and she thought he smiled.

“Hello, Agnes!”

“Oh it’s you. Alister! Hello.”

“Had your second shot yet?”

“Yes…And you?” His line moved,

their pleasantries at an end.

While waiting for her On Demand

ride she froze. Had she greeted her

old friend by the wrong name?

Was he too polite to correct

her? What must he think? That she had

forgotten their halcyon tryst?

Why had she called him Alister?

Alister was her second cousin,

not this handsome old devil.

At least she thought this one was

handsome, she couldn’t tell. Agnes

smiled. And he remembered her…

Nan

Dancing the Strange Antiquark

Published March 27, 2021 by Nan Mykel

You put your right foot in, you take

your right foot out, and you shake it…

With old age comes deafness, sometimes,

allowing for Music of the

Spheres to be heard.  If you have not

heard it, lissen up.

Called the Rightfold Way…(Is it life?

It’s moving)…it is weighted down

by a language too gross for words

(ha).  Would you care for 6 flavors

of quarks or 6 flavors of leptons?

Perhaps a strangelet, a strange quark,

a hadron, kaon or pion?

(Pee on?  Chuckle). To the right is

a universe, to the left a

microverse, and we’re either in

it or it’s in us, and/or both.

And the space,,,All that space between!

One could get lost in the tempo

of the song of waterfalls in

the rhythm of dancing fireflies.

A soul could hide inside

this mandala in motion for

ever.

                                   Nan  3/27/2021

Image: Katiemiafrederick

HERE? NOW?

Published March 25, 2021 by Nan Mykel

I exist because I have an echo.

No, that won’t do

because wolves have echoes too.

I didn’t say wolves do or don’t

exist. I know they exist, But

are they there, inside themselves?

Am I? Are you? Are we?

Image: wallpapercave.com

Nan from the past

I WAS DISAPPOINTED TO DISCOVER…

Published March 24, 2021 by Nan Mykel

…that while it is Disability Awareness Month, there are scads of other causes claiming it for themselves.  Oh, well, it’s not the first thing I was gullible about, nor the last, I’m sure…

I stumbled on the topic when I received a letter from Caroline Lahrmann,  about the  Arc of Ohio Attack on Choice
From Caroline Lahrmann:

In their recent newsletter:

the Arc of Ohio attacks the ICF system, and by extension the vulnerable people who rely upon it. The national Arc is behind a proposal for a new federal bill that will effectively eliminate nursing homes and the ICF program. It has a friendly sounding name, the HCBS Access Act, but do not let the name fool you. It is meant to remove choice from people with disabilities and the elderly. It amends the Social Security Act as follows:

1. Establishes in federal law an “individualized” assessment to determine the services an eligible person will receive.

2. The bill requires that the assessment is administered with the presumption that “each eligible individual, regardless of type or level of disability or service need, can be served in the individual’s own home and community.”
The bill ends choice of care for the elderly and individuals with disabilities by forcing everyone into community settings and financially disincentivizing states to offer nursing homes and ICFs. It is deeply concerning that the Arc of Ohio would lash out at the DD community in this way. Providers of all kinds and families have faced a stressful year and should be congratulated for rising to the occasion. Proposing such divisive legislation is concerning at anytime, but especially now.
3. Establishes a new service for nursing home and ICF residents called “transition services” — meaning transitions to community settings.

4. Provides for a federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) of 100% for home and community based services, but not for nursing homes or ICFs. (The FMAP is the amount that states are reimbursed by the federal government for Medicaid services.)

The bill ends choice of care for the elderly and individuals with disabilities by forcing everyone into community settings and financially disincentivizing states to offer nursing homes and ICFs. It is deeply concerning that the Arc of Ohio would lash out at the DD community in this way. Providers of all kinds and families have faced a stressful year and should be congratulated for rising to the occasion. Proposing such divisive legislation is concerning at anytime, but especially now.

Caroline Lahrmann
Disability Advocacy Alliance,  
==========================
Sorry, I can’t translate all the letters for you.  Been struggling between classic and guttenberg for 3 hours…Yes, I have a 49 year old daughter in a skilled and loving state institution very happy where she is. Couldn’t get along in the community …So I admit I’m biased.  Reports of resident abuse in community group homes in 49 states, where staff are undedr paid and not well trained.

No Re-Blog

Published March 21, 2021 by Nan Mykel

Sorry, I referred a friend to this spot for a reblog of Jerry Coyne’s post about Amanda Gorman’s poetic work but there wasn’t a reblog button, only a confusing warning about copyright, so you’ll have to find it yourself. It seems there’s some prejudice against non-black translators of her work.

RACISM part three – polygamy, anyone?

Published March 21, 2021 by Nan Mykel

I don’t know what to make of this,  so I’d like to hear from you.  I know the topic is not literally about racism, but it could be about prejudice.  How do prejudice and discrimination interface?  I’m referring to the topic introduced in the newyorker.com, “How polyamorous and polygamists Are Challenging Family Norms.”

Whew!  If it’s not one thing it’s another.  I know I have a teeny bit of prejudice against exclusive hedonists and criminals and prejudiced people,,  but the idea of welcoming multi-wife enclaves into our neighborhoods makes me almost blow my cool.  Why?  And would that make my feelings into prejudice, if it isn’t already?  Is my tensed  stomach at the idea a sign of prejudice?

True I can support gays and transgenders and almost drag queens  and maybe careful and strong self-disciplined drug users,  and am not too judgmental about the polyamorous, but something about polygamy feels like it’s stirring my prejudice.  —I guess that means I…what?  I don’t know what.  There is a difference between what could be changed and what cannot.  I understand that sexual gender and orientation cannot basically be changed (after the change).  Race cannot normally be changed (although I want to read that novel where two twins of color decide differently–one to pass, the other not.)

Although they (we) would protest, political partisans could theoretically change, as possibly misogynists could.   Is it still prejudice even if one can choose the category?.  If I turned away a neighbor polygamous wife who asks for a cup of flour at my door, I guess that would be prejudice.  But if I turned away a similar request from a wife and child beater, then what?  And does it make any difference what I call my attitude and behavior towards different groups of different folks?

Fear’s ghost wanders through some of these topics.  I know my deeply held longing for one on one bonding with another is threatened by the idea of polygamy,  as unconscious fear underlies my feelings toward black men.  But I don’t encounter many if any situations where prejudice is elicited.  I vote right and act right, even if my fears are not completely eradicated.

 

 

Oh Dear…

Published March 20, 2021 by Nan Mykel


I came on too strong, didnt I? Sorry.

I was probably just trying to rein in myself.

As a former therapist I try to gentle my own self, sometimes. 

Occasionally it works…But if you see lots of witch images

it means I couldn’t get rid of them…

Grumpy

PERSONAL PROCLAMATION

Published March 17, 2021 by Nan Mykel

Since I very much want North Americans to like each other once more, and because I was raised not to namecall, and due to the influence of a college half-semester on LOGIC at UF years ago, and because of wanting to avoid feeling more shame, I pledge to longer reblog or reference any post utilizing the logical errors of MISUSE OF EMOTIONAL LANGUAGE or POISONING THE WELLS, which includes sarcasm.  Call me on it if you catch me, and catch me if you can.  

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