Dirty Boots
Dirty Boots: Irregular Attempts at Critical Thinking and Border Crossing offers a Deep Southern, Generation X perspective on the culture, politics, and general milieu of the 21st century.
A Joyous and Inexplicably Necessary Thing (May 2, 2024)
” Though it can’t substitute for lived experience, reading is an intellectual exercise that augments and improves lived experience.”
Tuskegee (April 9, 2024)
“Though I have no personal ties there, Tuskegee, Alabama is a particularly interesting place to me.”
Who Knows . . . (March 7, 2024)
“Often we don’t even realize, in various situations, that there is more to know.”
Shorty Price (February 1, 2024)
“I think of Shorty Price when I hear about politicians today who run for public office not to be leaders or problem-solvers, but celebrities or personalities.”
The Third Third (January 25, 2024)
“Life after 50 will be like a real-life bonus round.”
Eerily Prescient but Also Mistaken (January 9, 2024)
“Few people today know who Kevin Phillips was. Were I not a writer who seeks out lesser-known stories from Southern history, I probably wouldn’t either.”
Flag Football (December 19, 2023)
“I’m as awkward a sports dad as has ever been, but there is one thing I’m certain of. I’m thankful that my son and my daughter have these opportunities.”
Mulling over Milligan (November 21, 2023)
“Nearly two years later, the October 5, 2023 headline from National Public Radio stated it cleanly and clearly: ‘Alabama finally has a new congressional map after a lengthy fight.'”
The Environment in the News (November 22, 2022)
“We can call each other names, laugh at people we disagree with, and buttress ourselves against change, but the facts remain. One day, we will all – everyone of every political leaning, in every nation on Earth – look at the distressing effects of pollution and waste, knowing that we could have done something to stop it. And when it happens, name-calling, laughing, and denial won’t do any good.”
“The horror! The horror!” (November 5, 2022)
“Today, mindfulness gurus and their adherents preach a gospel of deep breathing and thinking about something else, but horror movies tell us two things that we need to remember.”
Unencumbered (September 20, 2022)
“The work of putting one’s past in the past is daunting.”
From Judas Priest to the Dalai Lama (October 14, 2021)
“One bored Sunday night recently, I was browsing the ‘Cult Classics’ section of the Tubi streaming app and came across this short film I’d never seen or heard of: Heavy Metal Parking Lot. Now, in my late 40s, I’ve been interested in the obscure, the off-beat, and the otherwise odd for most of my life, so I’m always pleased to make new discoveries. This one I should have seen a long time ago: a fifteen-minute, homemade documentary about the parking lot outside a Judas Priest concert in Maryland in 1986. Back in the day, these were my people.”
Let’s learn the lesson and move on. (December 29, 2020)
“But it’s like I tell my students: a failure is only a failure if you don’t learn something from it. If we’re willing to learn from this year’s failures, we’ll see that 2020 has provided a powerful lesson for the education community.”
Recycling, Money, Sustainability, and Me (February 20, 2020)
“I agree that municipal support for sustainability is a good idea, but we’ve got to recognize when personal and community effort offer a better solution than a government program.”
Twenty Years since Y2K (December 21, 2019)
“We all just knew something awful was going to happen, but that was also kind of cool. We were told that all of the computers were going to freak out and crash, including the ones in our cars, including the ones at the banks, when the double-digit year ’99’ tried unsuccessfully to flip over to ’00.’ The computers wouldn’t know what to do, and it was going to be apocalyptic.”
“Where there is no love, put love” (December 24, 2019)
“When I read or hear sayings like that, I wonder why doing something so simple can be so difficult. I think that it’s because other responses, rooted in self-preservation, come more naturally when we find ourselves in situations where there is no love: walking away, pretending not to notice, blaming someone, acting ugly back, complaining later.”
Thirty Years from Now (December 17, 2019)
“In the year 2050, my children will be in their early to mid-40s— the age I am now. I supposed that they’ll have families and children of their own by then, and if I’m still vertical, I’ll probably be a grandpa. Given the rise of technology in the last thirty years, since 1989, I can’t even begin to imagine what life will be like in 2050, what kind of a world my children will raise their children in. But I have to be honest that I’m worried.”
“What you put in your gut . . .” (December 10, 2019)
“In Alabama, we may not all be farmers, but we all eat – some of us more than others! – and what I heard over and over at the Food & Farm Forum was: how we eat affects our health and our environment.”
Kress on Dexter (December 3, 2019)
“Kress on Dexter is a mix of historic and modern and still has two entrances, but now its contribution to Montgomery is more about openness and diversity, housing the Civil Rights-focused More Than Tours and 1977 Books, which calls itself an ‘Abolitionist Libería,’ as well as a public-access storytelling booth and the Prevail Union coffee shop.”
What I’m Thankful For (November 26, 2019)
“Every year at this time, we’re encouraged to consider and even share what we’re thankful for. Of course, I’m thankful for my family, for the life that God has given me, for health and relative prosperity, and for the opportunity to teach and write as my way of making a living. But I’m also thankful for some other larger things, too.”
Farm School Lessons and My Stubborn Optimism (November 19, 2019)
“While I’m no expert and have no formal training in agriculture or horticulture, I had more experience than they did in how to build, plant, grow, and harvest.”
“And we ain’t got but fifty states.” (November 12, 2019)
“The results of the National Assessment for Educational Progress, abbreviated NAEP, were released on October 30 in what they call ‘The Nation’s Report Card.’ Alabama’s results show losses in both reading and math scores, and the page devoted to State Comparisons shows that forty-eight states ‘performed significantly higher,’ three states were ‘not significantly different,’ and zero states ‘performed significantly lower.'”
“Before some ol’ fool comes around here” (November 5, 2019)
“I’ve always liked Lynyrd Skynyrd— that is, Lynyrd Skynyrd as it was originally, before the 1977 plane crash. (The band’s second incarnation . . . not so much.) Their biggest hit came out in 1974, the year I was born, so I can never remember a time when the band wasn’t a big deal here in the Deep South.”
ASAN’s Food & Farm Forum, 2019 (October 29, 2019)
“The Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network has as its mission: ‘to deepen relationships between the people of Alabama, the food we eat, and the place we live.’ This should matter to all Alabamians for a variety of reasons, the chief among them being our health.”
Ken Burns’ Country Music (October 8, 2019)
“I didn’t really ‘discover’ country music – real country music – until I was in college, and only then through acts like Bob Dylan and The Byrds.”
Cultivated people have nine thoughts. (October 1, 2019)
“I just like the column as a literary-journalistic form. If hard news is the cake, and pictures are the frosting, then columns are the sprinkles.”
Thank You, Peter Greene! (September 24, 2019)
“Greene’s byline explains that he spent thirty-nine years as a high school English teacher, and now writes on education issues. It’s nice to know that someone with that much ground-level experience is out there countering the ideas from people with only an eagle-eye view.”
The Wisdom of WarGames (September 17, 2019)
“In a way, Joshua’s truism is correct, and in the Deep South, we have a euphemism for no-win quarrels: a pissing contest. The fight that will gain nothing and change nothing, but is only about causing damage in the interest of bravado and perceived superiority.”
The Shift Away from Eliot (and Toward Tartuffe) (September 10, 2019)
“Having received my formative literary (and artistic) education, both institutional and practical, in the late twentieth century, Eliot’s idea was the gold standard. The work must stand on its own. An artist is not good because of who he or she is, but because of what he or she produces.”
From Legalizing Marijuana to Fishing for Red Snapper (September 3, 2019)
“I noticed immediately after arriving that almost everyone there was in a business suit – me in jeans and a plaid short-sleeve shirt – but I already had a feeling this would be more than a chat among friends. The folks who would talk to us had studied an array of problems we face in Alabama, were not from special interest groups with predetermined agendas, and were there to offer recommendations for solutions to six of our state’s problems.”
Montgomery’s Mayoral Election, 2019 (August 27, 2019)
“Today, August 27, the people of Montgomery, Alabama will elect a new mayor, and the result will likely be historic.”
When Reading Meant Everything (August 20, 2019)
“Though, as a young kid, I was something like the bullied Bastian in The Neverending Story who escaped from the world through books, what I have found in books and magazines (and music and movies) since then is expansion. By high school, I was no longer reading to get away from the world— I was reading to know it better, to see and to know more of it, to glimpse ways of life I hadn’t imagined, even when I couldn’t physically leave where I was.”
When the Underground is Just Not Anymore (August 13, 2019)
“Masquerade was a legendary music venue when I was coming up. It opened in 1988 – when I was thirteen and too young to travel far for a show – in what had previously been an old mill, and it was a staple of the late 1980s and ’90s alternative scene in the Deep South.”
Year 17 in the Classroom (July 30, 2019)
“Seventeen years in, I’m confident in my ability to teach and in my ability to work with scant resources. I’ve been teaching longer under this post-Recession situation than I did under the situation before it.“
Prescriptive or Descriptive? (July 23, 2019)
“I think about the same pros and cons, but not about lexicography: in writing about this region, is it better to simply describe what we see, or should we be prescribing what we’d like to see?”
Reflecting on the National Sustainability Teachers Academy (July 16, 2019)
“One of the prime lessons of the academy was to underscore that the idea of sustainability is not solely environmental, but must also include an understanding of society and the economy. A sustainable model for living, working, consuming, and disposing of waste must be equitable and just, answering the needs of all people involved.”
Our Last-ness (July 9, 2019)
“In Alabama, thinkers from all points on the political spectrum seem to enjoy raising the issue of our last-ness. Whether the tone toward the facts is deep consternation, an indifferent shrug, or something in-between, the tendency to comment on or allude to our position at the bottom spans the boundaries of race, gender, class, and political affiliation. We all seem to have something to say about it— me included.”
Matthew Antoine’s Quandary (June 18, 2019)
“Earlier this month, I re-read that last book – Gaines’ novel [A Lesson Before Dying] – and had forgotten about the figure of Matthew Antoine, the narrator’s teacher when he was young. Matthew Antoine, as he is described, is an embittered realist whose only wish for his students is that they escape from this place where they are sure to meet violent deaths, where they will be ‘brought down to the level of beasts.'”
White Lies and James Reeb (June 11, 2019)
“White Lies takes on the matter of Reeb’s death in Selma in the lead-up to the Selma-to Montgomery March. Reeb was a Unitarian minister, originally from Kansas and living in Boston, who came south to join the march after Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965.”
“Expect nothing.” (June 4, 2019)
“Sometimes I ask myself the same thing, here in the Deep South. After reading so much Southern history, after examining the problems and listening to various perspectives, after traveling around and interviewing people, after keeping up with who-is-who and who-did-what, have I learned nothing?”
Finding the Clotilda (May 28, 2019)
“This discovery puts a Southern historical puzzle piece into place that had been missing for more than a century-and-a-half.”
The Bright Side of Impermanence (May 14, 2019)
“Having lived my whole life in my hometown, I’ve had a front-row seat for the march of time that has altered one local landscape.”
“Dog-Eat-Dog” (May 7, 2019)
“What I’m left to ask is: if trained professionals, lawyers, judges, policy wonks, advocates, and legislators can’t stop this . . . what can an ordinary person do?“
Fighting the Urge to Fight about Fighting (April 23, 2019)
“To face what the Deep South has become requires anyone with an eye toward improvement to consider these notions: Don’t tread on me, and proceed and be bold.”
Real Phonies (April 16, 2019)
“When the Hollywood agent OJ Berman first meets Paul Varjack at Holly Golightly’s wild party in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, OJ asks the handsome young writer, ‘Is she or isn’t she?'”
Political Correctness in a World of Big Megaphones (April 9, 2019)
“What has actually made people reticent is witnessing the onslaught of negative responses that follow an obnoxious, divisive opinion posted on social media.”
The standards aren’t the problem. (April 2, 2019)
“Adopting the Common Core standards and adapting them into our state’s College and Career Ready Standards meant that Alabama was among a majority of states who embraced this progressive effort. But maybe not anymore.”
The Loss of Good Service (March 26, 2019)
“In the South of the 1980s, Bartley wrote, ‘social developments wreaked havoc on traditional southern folk culture.'”
Moderation, Practicality, and Prudence (March 19, 2019)
“The conservative/liberal heuristic is so strongly rooted down here that it’s probably more likely that we’ll all subscribe to The American Scholar than that many will change their voting habits. “
Ugly Words for Ugly Thoughts (March 12, 2019)
“Cussing is about the only bad habit I have left.”
Making a Dollar with My Dad (March 5, 2019)
“We came up at a time when a dollar still meant something, but so did having the high score on Galaga or Dig Dug at the neighborhood arcade. Neither of those would last long.”
The Case of Goodloe Sutton (February 26, 2019)
“It was unavoidable that we in Alabama would have to answer, in some way, when the world caught wind of Goodloe Sutton’s recent editorial proclaiming that the Ku Klux Klan should descend on Washington DC. And it was inevitable in this era of social media that the world would indeed catch wind of it.”
Reading, Writing, and How to “Fix” Education (February 25, 2019)
“There are only two subjects that pop up in modern media that really get my goat: criticisms of Generation X and criticisms of K-12 teachers— in part because I’m both.”
Spelling, the South, and Certain Confusion (February 19, 2019)
“Because we live in a global society, we need standardized spelling and grammar, and the South is no exception.”
Local writers are real writers. (February 12, 2019)
“There are two things that seem difficult for people to understand about those of us who are (somewhat condescendingly) called ‘local writers.'”
Generation X gets skipped— again! (February 5, 2019)
“Now that I’m middle-aged – I fall smack in the middle of Generation X – I try really hard to focus not on the 1980s and ’90s bitterness that marked my generation, but on being kind and empathetic and those sorts of niceties.“
As Long as the Two Opposing Perspectives Remain at Odds (January 29, 2019)
“One of the conundrums of educating all children in the Deep South is the divide over whether and how public schools should be funded and utilized.”
Reading Dreams of Africa in Alabama by Sylviane Diouf (January 22, 2019)
“The twenty-first century is a time of reckoning for long-standing injustices and neglected history, and if the cultures of the Deep South clash with only a half-understanding the issues we’re quarreling over, the outcomes will be as undesirable as the quandaries.”
The Sense that Prejudice Can Truly be Overcome (January 15, 2019)
“I would argue that no person has done more to improve life in the modern Deep South than Martin Luther King, Jr.”
The Unholy Trinity of Social Media Verbiage (January 12, 2019)
“As a writer, teacher, and editor, I am one of the people that William Zinsser called ‘the guardians of usage,’ the sometimes good-natured curmudgeons who you dislike for correcting your grammar but who you like because we know how to spell things.”
“For What It’s Worth” (January 8, 2019)
“Songs like ‘For What It’s Worth’ are the measuring sticks with which I judge all popular music.”
It’s past time to tend our garden. (January 1, 2019)
“We all know that New Years is a time for renewal – January 1 is a good demarcation point for a new promise to one’s self, a resolution – but what strikes me about the timing is something we discuss less often.“
Light aways conquers darkness. (December 25, 2018)
“Today, Christmas Day, is a day of light.”
Rubin, Resistance, and the “Rear Guard Action” (December 18, 2018)
“When everything is changing and nothing seems to make sense, asserts [Louis D.] Rubin, look to the writers— novelists and poets, in particular.”
Reading and the Truths on our Doorsteps (December 11, 2018)
“These statistics mean that about half of the people in the Deep South read very little or not at all. Because I’m a writer and a teacher of writing and English, people feel free – for some odd reason – to tell me either why they enjoy or why they loathe to read.”
“Do the careful donkey-tending work.” (December 4, 2018)
“The 11th-century Persian poet Rumi lived and wrote a long way from the 21st-century Deep South, where we would simply say: if you want it done right, do it yourself.”
Ignorance (November 27, 2018)
“Maybe I’m being snarky here, but as I read this passage, I couldn’t help but think of our current culture and politics.”
The Worst Fallacies (November 13, 2018)
“One of the worst fallacies that I can imagine is: I’m going to make my life better by making yours worse. “
Backwardness versus Progress (November 6, 2018)
“The Deep South especially is still home to a host of wild characters that the rest of the nation seems to find at least troublesome, at most infuriating.”
Voter turnout changes the outcome of elections. (October 30, 2018)
“In the Deep South, voting has never been a simple prospect. “
“Nothing cool ever happens down here.” (October 23, 2018)
“Resistance to change is one of the hallmarks of Southern culture, and while that predilection is usually applied to our political circumstances, its cultural significance can’t be ignored.”
Education, Alabama, and the Need for Grassroots Effort (October 16, 2018)
“Where I think we’ve strayed is in the assumption that education only occurs in classrooms.”
EJI, the History of Racism, and Knowing Better (October 9, 2018)
“What I’m driving at is this: EJI’s museum and memorial don’t allow visitors to deny history by clinging to oft-repeated assumptions.”
A Primer on the Very Notion (October 2, 2018)
“Though my education, career, and worldview have led me away from a traditional Southern working-class experience, I’ll never move completely beyond it.”
My Two Cents and Your Two Cents and His Two Cents . . . (August 28, 2018)
“Right now, that’s the missing puzzle piece: direct action from the people who don’t believe that public engagement is worthless and who do believe in the value of making a thousand small changes.”
The Winding Back Roads of Southern History (August 15, 2018)
“In the South, we’ve dealt with difficult matters for our whole history.”
Bertrand Russell, Alabama Politics, and Some Hope for November (August 7, 2018)
“As a person with left-leaning ideals and moderate habits tempered by a decades-long immersion in working-class conservatism, and as a person with a strong preference for facts and critical thinking over fairytales and superstitions, I am looking toward the November elections with some measure of hope but also a deep concern about what will occur . . . again.”
When I become president . . . (July 21, 2018)
“I will run as a moderately liberal conservative who is a strong supporter of the First Amendment and a representative for the best values of the South: individual rights tempered by a love of God and family. My campaign theme song will be Merle Haggard’s ‘Rainbow Stew.'”
Uncle Henry Never Dies (July 9, 2018)
“As a creative person who makes a living in my field, I’ve always resented this pretension that we can only declare ourselves to be a [fill in the blank] if we make enough money at it to pay for housing, utilities, food, healthcare, childcare, and transportation. Otherwise, we’re not a [fill in the blank].”
You can’t stop sunshine. (June 28, 2018)
“Solar power isn’t the norm in the Deep South, but the reality on the ground varies from state to state.”
Revelations from Reading through the Code of Alabama, 1975, Partially Out of Boredom (May 21, 2018)
“I have this know-it-all tendency that causes me, usually out of boredom but sometimes out of curiosity, to browse government documents, law books, court decisions, local histories, old newspapers, census data, and other generally obscure texts just to see what’s in them.”
Field Trips to Nowhere (April 28, 2018)
“I take students on these trips into the Black Belt – which I affectionately and ironically call my ‘field trips to nowhere’ – for two reasons: first, because I didn’t know about this rich history until I was grown up and I want better for them, and second, because of something that William Zinsser wrote in his seminal book On Writing Well: ‘Go with what seems inevitable in your own heritage. Embrace it and it may lead you to eloquence.'”
Thinking One Way, Voting Another (April 15, 2018)
“When voters elect politicians who they immediately (or already) disdain, the effects are so grossly counterproductive as to be nonsensical, and thus, we in Alabama, and in the wider Deep South, get to keep the widespread inadequacies that we want relief from.”
Every Single Day (March 4, 2018)
“I don’t even consider participating in protests.”
You get your values at home. (February 24, 2018)
“Beyond our duty to instruct students in our classes’ subject matter, teachers can meet society’s expectations that we are positive role models in their students’ lives— but only if there is value placed on education within the children’s own homes and communities.”
The Boxes in the Attic (A Love Story) (January 25, 2018)
“Over the last twenty years, since moving away from home into bachelor-pad apartments then getting married and having children and moving a few more times, the boxes have come with me. I’ve done some purging from them, reducing the number from a half-dozen or more in my single days down to only two or three now.”
Many hands make light work. (January 21, 2018)
“While this need for harmony can lead to many approaches, from a knowing acceptance of social and political realities to a torrential resistance against certain ideas, the goal is ultimately the same: freeing the goodness in a world where it is often obscured from view or wearing strange disguises.”
Slacktivism (December 17, 2017)
“Slacktivism is the practice of supporting progressive causes in name, but not actually doing any work. “
What does teacher advocacy look like? (November 24, 2017)
“Any competent classroom teacher will have queries to make and concerns to share – about school culture, course offerings, teacher units, facilities – so how should that happen?”
Having an Open Mind (August 20, 2017)
“Close-mindedness might be the plague of our era.”
“Look Back! March Forward!” (August 6, 2017)
“My generation – Generation X – came up in a world of relative material comfort, but that lifestyle was chosen for us, so I ask: if toting water from the well was better, why weren’t we still doing it when I came along?“
Year 15 in the Classroom (August 1, 2017)
“Although I’ve been a teacher in a public school for fourteen years, I still consider myself an outsider in the field of education. “
Civics in Alabama (July 16, 2017)
“We need civics education in Alabama.”
Solutions are better than complaints. (July 2, 2017)
“excerpt”
Looking for the Truth in the Age of Fake News (June 23, 2017)
“Lies and deception are – and have always been – tools for manipulating people into allowing what they otherwise would not and into acting in ways that are contrary to what they know as good and right.”
On the Edgy Edge of Edginess (May 25, 2017)
“An old proverb says that Time heals all wounds. It also humbles all young people.”
“To thine own-self be true.” (March 2, 2017)
“However, saying ‘To thine own-self be true’ is also not a license to selfishness.”
Falling Short (February 23, 2017)
“The problem is morale.”
Things. (February 7, 2017)
“And I don’t want to throw them away.”
Could close reading save the world? (January 26, 2017)
“This real-world difference is what us literary types call ‘criticism.’ It is greater than ‘appreciation,’ which is only a surface-level experience.”
We may be last in everything else . . . (January 17, 2017)
“By now, there can’t be a single college football fan in this whole nation who doesn’t know about the University of Alabama’s current stature.”
Truth-telling in an Age of— What do we call it? (December 27, 2016)
“To my understanding, only a few things separate human beings from animals: opposable thumbs, language, . . . and the ability to reason.“
Where did twenty years ago? (December 13, 2016)
“The mid- to late 1990s were a really good time to be young, the way I recall it.”
Teach. (December 8, 2016)
“The history of the Deep South, with respect to social justice issues, cannot be approached casually, for that can easily lead to something like shell-shock.”
To Regard Others as Worth of Kindness (December 1, 2016)
“Yes, it’s hard to embrace dignity and kindness while another person spews venom onto something we value. But reciprocating with our own venom will only leave two people tainted and hurt, where one hurt is too many.”
That’s news to me. (November 29, 2016)
“We can’t survive as a culture if our children are screen-addicted, gullible, and foolish.”
A Long, Long Pattern of Disrespect (November 22, 2016)
“I’ve never understood the right-wing obsession with absolutely destroying the Clintons.”
Fiddling While Rome Burns (November 3, 2016)
“They’re all very busy—fighting with each other. Bickering, wasting time and money and energy, paying lawyers, each declaring himself to be the righteous one in a den of thieves. And the state’s problems are no closer to being solved.”
Alabama Votes (October 20, 2016)
“In addition to the presidential race, Alabamians have a whole plethora of offices and amendments to vote on.”
Adia Victoria @ Saturn Birmingham (September 13, 2016)
“Her scratchy-sweet, but sometimes dour voice betrayed a twinge of a Southern-cum-British accent, and the grim guitar-driven band came off as a cross between Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Black Keys— blues-influenced but not exactly blues.”
Women, Wages, Work, and Wisdom (July 19, 2016)
“The Deep South’s unsavory history with being shortsighted on women’s issues is well-documented.”
Who suspends a preschooler? (June 30, 2016)
“Education is about lifting people up, empowering people, and sharing the knowledge and skills that improve access to the best things in life. Teachers, principals, counselors, and aides perform those functions, and support staff enable them to perform those functions. “
Apoplectic, or I am more than a number. (June 9, 2016)
“In my classes, I’ve sometimes called a student’s grade ‘that stupid number.'”
Greg Gunn (March 10, 2016)
“Whether we like it or not, Montgomery is now the focus of the unseemly attention that no city wants. In this time, we need truth.”
The Anxiety of Too Many Choices (February 16, 2016)
“Over the last few years, the crazy number of choices provided by the internet and digital media distribution had caused me to build up a seemingly interminable self-assigned ‘reading list.’ “
Eudaemonia (January 19, 2016)
“Could it be possible, you gratification-seeking modern hedonists, that happiness isn’t derived from doing what feels good, but from doing what is right, what is best, what is most responsible, most virtuous, most admirable?”
What’s it take to make it out there? Literacy, that’s what. (September 22, 2015)
“Sadly, too many people, young and old, suffer from illiteracy. I use the word ‘suffer’ appropriately here; to be illiterate is a root cause of which many social ills are the symptoms.”
The Great Many Deep Souths (September 1, 2015)
“All I know at this point in a long period of study and thought is: what the Deep South needs is a massive progressive shift driven by an honest acknowledgment of real problems. That’s it, I have nothing else to declare beyond that.”
The Green Pope— Francis, That Is (August 11, 2015)
“Everyone may not own property on this planet, but everyone does live on it and rely on it. We all need the air, water and food that the Earth provides. That ‘universal solidarity’ makes us all stakeholders in finding solutions to environmental problems.”
Bad News Times Three, Alabama (July 16, 2015)
“While we’ve got a ways to go politically, we’ve also got a lot going for us, too.”
An Even Dozen (Years in the Classroom) (June 9, 2015)
“No, I didn’t know I wanted to be a teacher— until two or three years after I became one. Teaching had to grow on me, and when I think about it, now I have trouble picturing my life without teaching as a part of it.”
Requiem for the Yard Boy (April 14, 2015)
“Among the Southern traditions that have been lost in the last two or three decades, the disappearance of summer yard work for spend money is lamentable.”
Shut Up, Doomsayers! (February 7, 2015)
“Staring in the face of the global-warming dilemma, the ecologically minded doomsayers have coined our modern apocalypse. But this one has no redemption attached to it.”
The “There’s Hope for this Generation’s Music” Playlist (December 9, 2014)
“Near the end of last school year, one of my seniors gave me a mixed CD she had made, songs she thought I should listen to, and on a half-folded index card inside was the handwritten title ‘The ‘There’s Hope for this Generation’s Music’ Playlist.'”
Before Their Eyes Adjust to the Light (October 9, 2014)
“Encountering successive groups of young people, year after year, reinforces that unadulterated human truth: we try to tell them what’s waiting out in the world, we want to prepare them to face it, and like young people have done since the beginning of time, they have to see for themselves to know and understand.”
Educator discounts? It’s about time . . . (September 16, 2014)
“In our career field, educators listen to angry parents as they malign us, we hold it together as the media criticizes us, and we endure as the politicians and reformers blame us while cutting our funding— in short, we stay on the job even when it’s tough.”
Ferguson (August 26, 2014)
“We’ve seen this before, what we’re seeing in Ferguson, and that’s what makes it so crazy. We have to ask: Again? Our failures should have taught us by now what not to do.”
Interdisciplinary (April 15, 2014)
“While I enjoy the work that I do, I am almost impossible for institutional types to classify.”
Foster Dickson 