Is Women’s History Month still relevant today? Is the need for sisterhood activism over as some say? We look back at the first group to advocate for women’s right to vote nationally and see that it was ultimately successful. The Seneca Falls Woman’s Rights Convention was held long ago in1848. But the words of its organizer Elizabeth Cady Stanton still hold true and yet are still controversial, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.”
Category Archives: Advisors
Advisory Council
Diversity and Speech Part 44: Generations of Gender Talk – by Carlos Cortés
Keeping up with the ongoing changes in diversity language has become a matter of lifelong learning. For a near-nonagenarian (I turn 90 on April 6), this means continuous learning as well as relentless unlearning. That is, trying to unlearn old uses of language that decades of repetition have deeply wired into my brain.
Take gender. Growing up in 1940’s Kansas City, Missouri, I learned that men were men and women were women. I inhabited a world of man talk and woman talk, men’s jobs and women’s jobs, men’s clothes and women’s clothes. It wasn’t much different in college during the 1950’s. We were men and women, not cisgender or transgender men and women.
Continue reading Diversity and Speech Part 44: Generations of Gender Talk – by Carlos Cortés
Why not a “Sully” Sullenberger for President? – by Terry Howard
“Some voters are burned out on outrage!”
That’s the recent headline in a national publication. That outrage? The eyebrow raising rancor, silliness and general awfulness surrounding the upcoming presidential election.
And the truth is that if we strike out the first four letters in the word “outrage” what’s left are three letters many voters are particularly burned out on…. age…as in President Joe Biden’s age! Count yours truly among them. Shucks, if I had a dollar for every time Biden’s age is cited in the news, I could purchase a luxurious mansion in Miami, Malibu (or, eh, Mar-a-Lago).
Continue reading Why not a “Sully” Sullenberger for President? – by Terry Howard
Know history so it will not have to repeat – By Deborah Levine
Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press
I thought of this saying on Jan. 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day: “History repeats itself. So you might wanna pay attention.” A comment from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum resonated with me: “As we are witnessing an alarming rise of antisemitism around the globe, it is more important than ever for us to recognize the critical lessons of Holocaust history as we commemorate the victims and honor the survivors.” At the same time, there is growing noise about the “Holocaust Industry,” which asserts the American Jewish establishment exploits the memory of the Nazi Holocaust for political and financial gain and to further Israeli interests.
Continue reading Know history so it will not have to repeat – By Deborah Levine
COVID Extremists Unite – by Deborah Levine
Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press
I freaked when I saw this article online, “The Covid extremists can’t bear that nobody is listening to them”. I’d just recovered from Covid and then, something called Covid Rebound. Having escaped Covid for years, and been thoroughly vaccinated, I thought I was safe. I complained to my daughter, the doctor. After briefly expressing sympathy, she said, “You’re old! Be grateful for those vaccinations. Otherwise you could be dead.”
STEM Women Storytellers – by Deborah Levine
Women GroundBreakers Storytelling
The push to attract women to STEM education and careers is gaining steam, but the impact is questionable. Young women have ample cause to be discouraged given the decrease of the number of women professionals in many STEM fields. Bucking the trend, efforts to encourage women to embrace STEM have increased dramatically. Those efforts span the country, including in Tennessee where Chattanooga’s Women GroundBreakers Storytelling featuring women in STEM.
Continue reading STEM Women Storytellers – by Deborah Levine
Hate and the cost of silence – by Deborah Levine
Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press
Many quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr. were posted on line this week. A fellow Chattanooga colleague got my attention with, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Then I got an email from a synagogue buddy asking me why Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) was being silenced and suggested that I write about this for my TFP column. Interesting coincidence! But I was busy mailing a DEI book that I’d written. Holding the book in one hand, I picked up an unmarked envelope mailer only to find that there was something already in it. And that’s when coincidence became weirdness.
Continue reading Hate and the cost of silence – by Deborah Levine
HONORING MLK DURING BLACK HISTORY MONTH – by David Grinberg
Timeless Lessons for Generations Z and Alpha
Black History Month is an opportune time to pay tribute to the greatest civil rights leader of our modern times: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
MLK’s timeless words of wisdom continue to resonate today with a new generation of young people–Generations Z and Alpha–who can learn many vital lessons for the civil rights icon. Most notably, that hate begets hate on social media and digital devices. This is especially relevant due to the ubiquitous nature and influence of today’s mobile, digital and virtual Information Age on the minds and development of young people.
Continue reading HONORING MLK DURING BLACK HISTORY MONTH – by David Grinberg
BLACK HISTORY MONTH BOOK REVIEW – by David Grinberg
“Keepin’ It Real: Essays on Race
in Contemporary America”
“Keepin’ It Real: Essays on Race
James Baldwin, the famous 20th century American intellectual, once observed:
“History is the present. We carry our history with us.
To think otherwise is criminal.”
This is an important point to ponder during the annual Black History Month observance during February in the United States. Baldwin was an iconic and outspoken figure of his time who was internationally recognized as a leading voice of the African American experience.
Thus, as Baldwin reminds us posthumously, we should not only focus on trailblazers of centuries past, but also consider more recent history when assessing the state of racial progress.
Continue reading BLACK HISTORY MONTH BOOK REVIEW – by David Grinberg
How Rosie triumphed over us all – by Deborah Levine
I’d just driven into my parents’ driveway. I was time to pick up my toddler from the babysitting grandparents. And there was my little 3-year-old Rosie, rocking back and forth on her rocking horse without a care in the world. The horse squeaked and groaned on its springs, far too annoying to be allowed in the house.