I woke to the news of the Orlando shooting.  I posted the following on my facebook:

There simply aren't words...have we learned nothing from our own history? Rather than stumble over my own thoughts, I will let those whose clarity was greater than mine currently and let you take from it what you will. May humanity soon realize our greatest strength ( Read more... )

A student posted a clip of what is going on in Syria.  It was not especially graphic, but in it two brothers rushed their  younger sibling to the makeshift hospital.  A girl watched as she was treated in the hallway, without any pain medicine.  The video ended watching the boys saying goodbye to the lifeless brother and the mother arriving to take ( Read more... )

I once visited the graves on the beaches of Normandie, France.  Rows and rows of graves stretch to the horizon.  The sky was cloudy and gray above the solemn waves and I remember thinking, "this is what every leader should have to see before deciding war is the answer; this is the cost and should only be used in the direst of need to overcome the ( Read more... )

Enough, just stop.  We have people, children, suffering every day...people who don't get enough to eat, who are sick, who have been hurt by society turning its blind eye...  Yet what do we see in the news?  Hateful, angry remarks on politics, on stopping those from speaking out and asking for worth, a blatant display of ignorance and lack of ( Read more... )

Of all the things I have experienced and seen, watching a former student who knows he's going to die is one of the worst.  He will be lucky to survive until high school due to a genetic disease.  Watching him deteriorate, try to keep his hopes up, it's absolutely heartbreaking.  While I have experienced things that were perhaps more painful, this ( Read more... )

I didn't even remember if Halloween was the 30th or the 31st--it's been so long since I celebrated it. The moment I left the university for student teaching my life changed forever. Before I left, I had been having nightmares something bad was happening to someone in the family. I kept calling home the last half of the semester asking if ( Read more... )

Driving today I wondered over the few years I've been teaching, how many students I have cried for...

( Tears )