Well life at school will be changing. My colleague of seven years has suddenly retired. Not totally surprising since he feels our program will be going the way of the dodo very soon. So if no one else abandons me, we will have two new staff in the ILC with me being the oldtimer. I will miss Joseph's expertise in finding speakers and other nonacademics that enhanced our students' lives.

I am finally digging into An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz. nearing the halfway mark and I am quickly running out of post it bookmarks. Learning so much, I have to thank James Loewen and Howard Zinn for recommending her book. It isn't that I thought Native Americans were treated well by the conquering white hoards, but it far worse than I could imagine. Ok, maybe not, but worse than I hoped. I also think my people may have been a part of the first wave of marauders to come to America. Ulster-Scots seem to fit into what Ancestry pinpoints as my ancestral origins. Reading about the Ulster-Scots caused me to take a quick look at one of my trees in Ancestry. My ancestors came to the Carolinas, the low country and spread out from there. I guess I will have to pay to find out more. I did find a few who fought for the blue in the Civil War, which is nice to see. Also a couple who fought in the war of 1812. Like my blog, I have a hard time spending a lot of time doing research on these ancestors.

On this July 4th, I find it a bit disconcerting about the posts lambasting thanking the troops. Also the friends on Facebook who counter my posts with fake news. I decided no response is best since you can't persuade someone who believes the fake stuff with a showering of facts or even a question about what they have posted. Facebook is an interesting place, I do try to post only what I have researched/checked for truth. Sometimes I make a booboo, buy mostly I think I am doing a good job of practicing what I will teaching in the Fall in regards to fact checking.

I am saddened that one of my go to historians Jared Diamond may not be as well-researched as I had thought. I always had an inkling his explanations were too simplistic and now as I read Dunbar-Ortiz I see where I went wrong in believing what he said about indigenous populations and their lack of "cargo." The indigenous definition of cargo before being conquered is far different than what the man on Papua, New Guinea asked of Diamond. "Why you white people have so much cargo, and we New Guineans have so little?" This was the phrase that sent Diamond on his quest, a quest tainted by a Eurocentric view of what cargo is and was. I have little problem with my views being smashed by facts and history. I love learning and someday I hope to set my learning into words. I guess this blog could be a step in that direction.

It has been awhile since i actually visited my blog. I don't know why I haven't taken the time to set my thoughts to words. I have never been a journaler and maybe that is why. I have friends who carve out time daily to write down their thoughts. I have never been that disciplined. I do have those moments that pop up in the wee hours of the morning where I have great thoughts, epiphanies even, and then I eventually fall asleep and those epiphanies seal themselves into a vault I don't have ready access to.
Here is hoping with my new tablet that I will begin to carve out time. My current passion is reading history, the history I wasn't taught even when I first started college those many many years ago. History is a passion because I don't know my history. it took me far too long from the time I received my original birth certificate to actually do a search on Ancestry. By the time I looked my birth mother had died. Mary Ruth Hoffman, my birth mom. I knew her name early on as I found an article in The Oregonian about a baby found in St. Mary's Catholic Church. That baby was me. I went on Ancestry and found names and photos. Then last year I did their DNA test and discovered, much to my daughter's dismay that my blood would make a White Supremacist proud. My childhood dream of being an Indian princess dashed. I then paid the extra fee to dig deeper and discovered that some branch of my family tree has Ale Hatfield in it. My people come from the Carolina lowlands, they fought on the wrong side of the Civil War and in the Revolutionary War. I traced them back to the 1700s, immigrants from England.
Now I have to decide to pay another fee to access records from England. Not so sure i want to do that. just yet. It's a fairly good racket, want to chase those green leaves around the world it will cost you more money.
My students are interested because I get excited about their history as much as mine. I have begun to ask them, "Do you see your face in our history books?" They sort of do, but mainly the history books tell the history of those who states will buy textbooks about. It's my job to find the books that tell their history. That's my plan for the coming school year. I have purchased several retired history textbooks and through my donorschoose project Knowing the Truth of history makes more powerful, four classroom sets of history books. Hopefully we will be able examine the textbooks and learn as we go.
Tomorrow same place, same time.... I hope.

#tweetingdoesntfitmywordcount

I really haven't tweeted all that much, I only started doing it more of late because of @sk12 which is a website that caters to teachers and has a massive amount of wonderful online classes for the technically challenged.
If you know me, you will are probably wondering why I feel technically challenged. I don't really, but I do have very low self esteem in technology and a fairly steep learning curve with learning new things. So #technicallychallenged.
I am a lover of history podcasts and my favorite @missedinhistory recently promoted another podcast @politicallyreactive. I was uninterested until they mentioned one of the 'casters is @wkwamaubell who I discovered through his series @unitedshadesofamerica on CNN. I have always felt my white privilege to be more burden than privilege. I know that my whiteness, and I now have proof of it from ancestry.com, goes back centuries and #iamprettysureyouarentmorewhitethanme, is something I never considered as anything more than who I am. There was absolutely no way around it, I could dream that there was some multiracialness to me, now I know better. I have been able to trace my birthmother's line back to England. I have ancestors who fought in the American Revolution and the Civil War, unfortunately, in regards to the Civil War on the wrong side in my opinion. I have an ancestor who died from Chlorea in a Union prison camp.
The totally strange thing about my birth family is that it mirrors my adoptive mother's family. I am white and I was raised by white parents, one of whom was so racist that at one point I slapped her cheek because she called my Hawaiian boyfriend a nigger. I had always known she was intolerant, no hated other races. She was sickened that my cousin married a wonderful Mexican woman after his divorce. She nearly threw up when she found out I was pregnant by my Hawaiian boyfriend. I stupidily put that beautiful baby boy up for adoption because of her telling me she'd throw me out of the house if I kept the baby. It didn't occur to me to go to his family and ask for help. That's on me.
Now that I am totally #whitesagainsttrump, I wonder how she would vote. I know what I feel deep in my soul, but maybe she would have changed in her dotage.
I know have no one actually reading my blog, but I felt an explanation of why the wayward grammy is turning political is happening.
@wkwamaubell's podcast has fired me up and #tweetingdoesntfitmywordcount on the issues he and Hari are bringing up. I have been accused of lengthy emails by my principal and I am doing better on that this school year. But, fuck me silly, I just can't say in 145 characters, which includes spaces, which isn't fair, what I want to say. Argh... So here I am hoping to redefine myself here in my blog. I could always Facebook, but I am pretty I would get flamed by my friends who are Trump supporters. None of them seem to be able to not flame me or anyone else who says Trump is an idiot. I just ignore them or hide the posts they share from other idiots. Oh well. I am me and I don't apologize for my hatred of the racist Trump and those who agree with him. I truly fear for my country if Trump were to become President.

Adult coloring books

I have always enjoyed coloring and way back, way back I purchased a set of professional markers and colored and drew for a short time. I also purchase professional grade colored pencils and colored in coloring books.
In the winter and or spring, not sure which, I discovered a new wave of adult coloring and is my usual way, I became obsessed and purchased a few of the new adult coloring books and spent a tidy sum on colored pencils and markers, still purchasing all three.
The new wave of coloring books speak of reducing stress. And for me they do that as well as pushing me into a more focused realm. I have purchased far too many coloring books, but my current favorite was a gift from my co teacher's wife, Dr. Who, my oh my. I have four coloring books created by Johanna Brasford, wonderful drawings to color. I also two books by Daria Song which depict a little girl discovering the inner workings of a clock guarded by a fairy. Many have a seek and find piece to them, but that is secondary to the drawings. What I love about Dr. Who, besides it is Dr. Who, is that the images are each on separate page so that I can color using my pencils or markers. The others print on both sides of the page so that I have to first color with a pencil on the other side of the page that I want to use my markers. I like how the markers are more vibrant than pencils.
The coloring books help those of us who are not artists, or at least don't think we are, manifest into artists for a time. The act of creating and giving life to the black and white drawings is what refreshes my brain and body. The act of coloring pulls me in, much like books do, but in the case of coloring I am creating.
When I read I usually, if it is fiction, create the characters in my mind. I choose actors to give a face to the characters in the book, some books pop out as animation Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book is one that came to fruition in animation, I'm not sure why. Now I am going to have to get back to the book, the characters are in my head now and pounding for me to get back to reading.

Hermiston Community Livability Asset Committee

At least I think that is what the committee is called. I applied for membership in this committee and even got an interview. But alas, they did not want my opinion. It was a long shot and that I even got an interview sort of impressed me. I have always felt the Hermiston hierarchy was an enclosed system unwilling to listen to outside voices.
I cannot attend City Council meetings, during the school year, so what I know is from what I read in the paper. I think I will have to pledge to myself that I will do my best to attend City Council meetings on days when I don't have night school.
What I read in the paper tells me that on many occasions the Council listens to Community input and then does what they want to, seemingly ignoring Community members who have differing opinions. Don't get me wrong, I have found many of the people here to be very welcoming and friendly to this vagina carrying liberal feminist. That isn't to say that I don't cringe every time I see a Confederate Battle flag flying in front of a house or speeding down 395 accompanied by the Gadsden Flag in the bed of a noisy lifted diesel pickup.
The area is so beautiful and I have found a way to calm my nerves and Feng shua my brain. I have taken up photography, a former loved hobby. I go out on evenings and take sunset photographs, which is a bit challenging once school starts and the days get shorter. My weekends are free and sometimes I even wake up early enough to catch a sunset, which will change when we fall back in November.

I have to drive about five miles to get a sunrise photo like this, but its worth it don't you think? The beauty is why I wanted to be on the Committee, to try and drive Hermiston into becoming a destination rather than a drive through to Pendleton or TriCities. I hope the Committe can do some good things, but I fear the whole process will become unfocused and more about branding and signage than becoming a real destination.

School and Life

I have been neglectful, again, of this blog. My teaching duties and the associated work has kept me from updating about anything.

I had a very good conversation with a former student about gun control yesterday. While it initially started out on his part attempting an attack on what I had said. I think we had a very good back and forth about gun control, mental illness, and responsibilities.

The tragedy that hit a Community College to the west and south of where I am now, has fueled so much vitriol, shaming, and anger that that is all I am going to say about it right now. My heart goes out to Roseburg and Umpqua Community College.

Dachau?? Hungary stopping the refugees.

Germany is now using Dachau to house refugees and Hungarian police are demanding "papers" from anyone who looks vaguely middle eastern. 1000 refugees an hour are crossing the Serbian Croatian border. There's rumors of dissolving Schengen. This is WW2

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/19/the-refugees-who-live-at-dachau 

 https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/09/new-satellite-images-show-hungarys-rush-to-keep-refugees-out-of-europe/

The story from Amnesty has a great image of before Hungary put up the fence and after.