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Rethinking Anger and Peacemaking
When scrolling through social media or listening to the news, it seems lots of people are angry, for a lot of different reasons. It may be tempting to dismiss such anger as divisive. However, as a professor and student of rhetoric, I am troubled by this tendency to dismiss other people and their arguments simply because we believe those arguments are made in anger. If we are committed to peacemaking and eliminating injustice, we need to be open to discussions, even if the framing or content of those discussions makes us uncomfortable. Not all anger is equal I want to be clear: I’m not saying we should give a pass…
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Are You Aware? The Hia-Ced O’odham and the Wall (a Crime Against Humanity)
This is part II in our “Nation to Nation” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. On March 20, 2020, a group of Hia-Ced O’odham leaders traveled to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to visit our sacred place of being. While there, I gasped at what I saw. My heart bled in unbelief at the inhumane building of this counterfeit wall. It is counterfeit — not so much in its physical structure (because that is very real), but in its deceitful purpose. Truth be told, the majority of the drugs and human-trafficking come from the air, under the terrain, or corrupt officers. Cartels have a near-infinite…
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MWEG Member Letter to the Editor :: Voting
Since moving to Idaho three years ago, I’ve voted at the polls, but it conflicts with my work schedule and I felt rushed. I loved that in the recent primary election I could vote by mail here. In Colorado, I voted by absentee ballot and loved taking my time and researching. I really understood the language better, especially in referendums, etc… In May, voting by mail, I was able to do my research and felt confident in my choices of candidates and understanding of issues. We are all concerned about voter fraud, and some posit it would become more prevalent with absentee ballots. But the procedures in place work! In…
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Are You Aware? Native Americans 101
This is part I in our “Nation to Nation” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. In the United States today, the federal government recognizes 574 tribal communities as sovereign nations. Dozens more are recognized within the boundaries of states. Canada recognizes 674 First Nations communities as sovereign nations, and in Mexico 89 different Indigenous languages are spoken. First Nations and Indigenous Mexicans are all Indigenous and relatives of the Native communities within the United States’ current borders. Understanding a bit of history and the existence of tribal communities today is an important undergirding of any movement toward an “ethical” governance on these lands. We must be…
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MWEG Member Letter to the Editor :: ‘Voting by Mail Is a Boon for Parents’
“In 2016, vote-by-mail was a boon. With my children asleep, I found lots of uninterrupted time to research candidates and issues. I filled out my ballot a little here, a little there with my research fresh in my mind. I had time to reconsider each vote before finally dropping it off. Absentee ballots make me a more thoughtful and informed voter, and spare others from the chaos that sometimes comes with my entourage of young children.” MWEG member Maria Bettinson Evans believes absentee ballots are an essential piece to voter enfranchisement. Read her full letter to the editor in the Salt Lake Tribune. “Voting by Mail Is a Boon for…
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Are You Aware? Waves of Change
This is part VIII in our Awareness Wednesday series on disability. Read the other posts in the series here. I sit down at my desk, grab my laptop, and open a new document. I look around my desk at the chaos that lies in front of me. There’s a stack of booklets and research papers and policy recommendations from states around the country. Lots of sticky notes, dry erase markers, my detailed planner, and my long to-do list. My dry erase board is filled with scribbled notes and flowcharts about contact tracing the spread of COVID-19 in “hard to reach” communities. I see a stack of reports from Utah’s Medicaid trends…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Planting Seeds
A couple of years ago I attended a Relief Society lesson with a relative while I was visiting from out of state. I can’t remember for sure, but I think the lesson was on the talk A Plea to My Sisters by President Nelson. What I do distinctly remember is the electric feeling in the room as all of us, including me, a stranger, got excited about the possibility of the Lord needing us — his sisters — to do his work. I also remember thinking: But what exactly should I do? The good news is that having that feeling — of wanting to help God with his work and…
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Are You Aware? Expanding Perspectives
This is part VII in our Awareness Wednesday series on disability. Read the other posts in the series here. I have a host of medical diagnoses — a list of acronyms that likely won’t mean anything to most people. Some include POTS, MCAD, probable EDS, IBS, GERD, ME, mito, hypokPP, DSPD, PTSD, chiari, hyperPT… honestly, I don’t keep a running tally anywhere, so it’s hard to keep track of all of them. In plain English, I have a glitchy nervous system, low stamina, sagging brain, gimp leg, migraines, PTSD, allergies, and other conditions, all very complicated, most interconnected, few treatable, and most beyond the knowledge of the average doctor. I also…
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Are You Aware? An Effort to Hear
This is part VI in our Awareness Wednesday series on disability. Read the other posts in the series here. As the daughter and sister of physicians on the COVID-19 front lines, I’m a dutiful adherent of social distancing and mask wearing these days. But, as a person with total hearing loss, these strategies are hard. Social distancing means sound is farther from me. Mask wearing makes speechreading nearly impossible and further muffles the sound. As Roberta Cordano, the president of Gallaudet University, said in a recent New York Times article entitled “For the Deaf, Social Distancing Can Mean Social Isolation,” “The ‘two adults, six feet apart’ standard carries its own inherent…
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Are You Aware? Five Things You Can Do Right Now to Fight Ableism
This is part V in our Awareness Wednesday series on disability. Read the other posts in the series here. 1. Learn about the history of disability. In order to understand current experiences of disability, we need some information about how disability has been experienced. Because disability history is not covered in schools, most people have very little (if any) exposure to it, leaving it up to disabled people to do much of the educating on this topic. Given that disabled people have been around just as long as anybody else, it’s impossible for me to recommend resources that cover all of disability history. But I’ll recommend three resources that I believe…
