Life is a Narrow Bridge

  Today's deep dive goes into the word "migrant". Remember back when you were in grade school and you learned about people moving to another country? You learned about immigrants who emigrated from their homeland to make a new life for themselves and their families. Maybe the word "migrant" came up when learning about the farmers who came north to California to help with the grape harvests. But moving to a new country was considered immigration. Now, in the news, the word "migrant" shows up again and again. We rarely hear the more neutral term "immigrant" or the emotionally laden terms "refugee" or "asylum seeker." This is by design. It is part of a plan to keep people out of "our" country, and to focus on their impermanence here. It is part of a plan to downplay the dangers many have tried to escape. It is part of a plan to separate today's would-be new Americans from our ancestors who came here for a better...

  There’s a refrain in the Disability Awareness world: “nothing about us without us…” It also was a campaign slogan for Polish rights back in the early 1900s and a message that child advocate Janusz Korczak used to advocate a democratic school environment in his Warsaw ghetto orphanage. Nothing about us without us… This begs the question: how can Ukraine not be part of the so-called “peace talks” with Russia? Ukraine was the aggrieved party. Ukraine should be calling the shots. But the US under our new administration has quickly given extra power to the aggressor. This is not power that is ours to give.