a poem I wrote while freewriting with my students today

There can be no knowing
without intimacy.

There can be no intimacy
without consent.

There can be no consent
without trust.

There can be no trust
without familiarity.

There can be no familiarity
without proximity.

There can be no proximity
without luck, or God, or whatever you call providence
that you may or may not believe in.

Yes,
you can know someone
without being intimate,
but that knowledge is not very deep.

Yes,
you can be intimate with someone
without consent,
but that intimacy is not freely given.

Yes,
you can have consent from someone
without trust,
but that consent is not perfectly honest.

Yes,
you can be trusted by someone
without familiarity,
but that trust is not properly earned.

Yes,
you can be familiar with someone
without proximity,
but that familiarity is not truly genuine.

And where you are not genuine,
you will always lack depth.

Intimacy can be stolen.
Consent can be forced.
Trust can be broken.
Familiarity can be pretended.
Proximity can be artificial.

So why go on?
Why wake up in the morning?
Why engage with another human?

Because of hope.
Because of authentic people.
Because of truthful speakers.
Because of patient listeners.
Because of me.
And because of you.

cheating is easy . . .

FIFA's fair play policy: "Winning is without value if victory has been achieved unfairly or dishonestly. Cheating is easy, but brings no pleasure."

I'm a huge soccer fan. Everyone who knows me knows this. But this quote and this time I now dedicate to sharing an idea isn't about soccer. It's about greed in America.

Read the policy one more time. "Winning is without value if victory has been achieved unfairly or dishonestly. Cheating is easy, but brings no pleasure."

Could anyone in America, honestly, have written this? My answer: Nope. Not your local pastor or priest; not your naive, innocent, four year old nephew; not that nice old lady who has lived at the end of your street for 44 years. Everyone is corrupted.

Yes, I believe that, globally, everyone is "corrupted" in the sense that no one is perfect. But in America, land of the free and home of the brave, we could not have even conceived the idea of FIFA's fair play policy. The last sentence, should it have been written by an American, would have been much shorter: "Cheating is easy." And essentially, that would have been our entire fair play policy. It's a "We report, You decide." mentality. Beware the person who tries to make a value judgment on actions.

Cheating is easy. In sport we've seen admitted and guilty dopers awarded for their amazing feats and entertainment. *Big distinction between European sport and American sport – it’s still competitive sport there and not high impact entertainment like it is here.

Cheating is easy. In politics the rules are constantly changing to benefit the group in power, and actions aren’t even hidden. So, is it still cheating? Yes.

Lately, we've seen special interest groups buy votes from politicians eager to line their pockets. Then those same politicians sell their votes a second time through pork-barrel tactics, making sure than no bill passes without the local big businesses (and reciprocally, their own pockets) benefiting from the new bill.

Cheating is easy. In schools we've seen administrators and teachers peak into and change answers on federally mandated high-stakes tests.

In every single scenario, there is one motivator: money. That's how we define "winning" in America.

I want to live in a place, among a people, where FIFA’s fair play policy is believed in, adhered to, and protected.

BP Oil Spill

I'm slowly losing it. To those who live on the Gulf Coast, I apologize for not losing it earlier. I was slow to the party; I heard the news on twitter, kept up with what NPR (via KSMU) was reporting, and listened to my parents' stories about what they were hearing on the news. Now, I'm finally doing a bit more active listening and it's absolutely driving me nuts.

The estimated oil spill is exponentially larger than expected.

The companies involved blaim each other, on a hilarious, kindergarten finger-pointing scale.
Version 1 - Version 2 - Version 3

Major corporations that make BILLIONS of dollars a year, run by people corrupted by this amount of money, act with their "shareholders" in mind. Who else could they really care about but themselves?

Legislators pass bills that siphon money to their districts and states, while disregarding any conscionable advice from experts - claiming that they act with their "constituents" in mind. Who is going to take a stand on a tough issue, tell someone "No" and provide good reasoning for it?

Meanwhile I'm working my tail off, and the seafood that I love to eat won't be available when I head home to New Orleans and the money I need to do a decent job as a teacher isn't avaible. Am I a "stakeholder" or a "constituent" anywhere, to anyone?

I'm scared for myself, for my job, for the kids I teach, for the country I live in. Honestly. This is not good, and it is one manifestation of a problem that is present on many levels across the entire nation. Cheating isn't a bad thing anymore because those in control can change the rules to fit their desires, but that's not how the world works. Sports practices scare me, as a middle school coach. New immigration laws in Arizona scare me, as a Holocaust Studies educator.

Anybody got some good news out there? I'd like to hear it.