I hate AI on principle because of the impacts on the environment. It is profoundly, negatively affecting our environment, of which we only have one.
As a professor, I reaaaaallllly hate AI because it has made my work harder. (Harder in the frustrating sense, not harder in the sense of “I am struggling but learning” sense.) I may write about that differently another day, but today I am focusing on the environment.
Every week for the last several months I have found myself in a conversation with someone about AI, and most of the time this person has found a new use for it that they are smitten about. I generally make a face (the exact face you get depends on our relationship) and say, “But….the environment….”and the conversation really doesn’t go much past that point. It is not that people don’t care about the environment, it’s that people don’t know the depths of the environmental impact. I know that I didn’t. So I have committed to researching some reputable sources and hopefully my environmental arguments will land better in the future. (I say this knowing that even my computer use, anyone’s basic computer and energy use, also has environmental impacts. I know there are other ways I can live more sustainably too. We are all works in progress.)
Below are some of the highlights of what I learned. Let me know if you want more details and links b/c I can surely send them!
There is also something known as “the green paradox”, explained in this article. In essence, there are ways that AI can theoretically contribute in a positive way to the environment, such as in monitoring deforestation and other ecosystems. However, the authors of this piece recognize that we are far from AI sustainability practices necessary for it to be more of an ally, and that right now AIs carbon and water footprints are growing faster than equivalent environmental benefits.
So, there you have it: the primary reason I hate AI. And while every time I say it, I feel like a 90 year old screaming to “get off my lawn”, I am going to learn to embrace it. Keeping green spaces and a healthy water supply is worth it.
A few weeks ago I learned that it was “Social Prescription Day”, celebrated annually on March 26. I learned of this in the evening of March 26, of course, kind of too late to prescribe myself, or anyone else, something social to do. (If you are new to the term, social prescriptions are “a systematic approach to addressing patients’ social needs by referring them to or implementing community-based interventions and facilitating social connection based on individual need”. You can see this quote in context, and learn more about social prescriptions, by checking out this case/commentary note from the Journal of Medical Ethics.
Anyway, when I was preparing my class for March 27 (a Friday, so a 50 minute class), I decided I could tie in the idea of social prescriptions to my last class of the day: Social Work Practice with Children and Families. That week on Monday and Wednesday we had been talking about isolation that many families experience, the challenges of building social and instrumental supports with families, and the ways that isolation can increase risk for child abuse and neglect at the family and community system levels. So, we spent the first 10 to 12 minutes of Friday’s class finishing that discussion and looking at a program meant to build informal support networks around families. (You can check out the Family Hui Initiative here…very cool!)
And then I told my students they could have the rest of the class time to do something that would either reduce social isolation (if they were feeling isolated) or they could do something to promote social connection with others or among others. I told them I would ask them the following Monday what they had done, so they couldn’t just blow the rest of class off and be done with it.
I had some students who decided to pair up and go take a walk on campus (and it was a lovely day for that, one of our first warm spring days). I had other students who opted to stay in class and do social things with each other: I had brought a basket and bag of things to class with me: play dough, coloring books and markers and crayons, legos, Uno cards, and a puzzle. I had a couple of students take the sidewalk chalk I had bought and go outside toward the sidewalks around the quad.
I played Uno with four students, including one student who has come late consistently all semester and is new to campus this semester. We had to encourage her to join us, but when she did, she came alive in a different type of way. While we played we shared some about our weekend plans, but mostly about who we had played Uno with in the past, so we had a chance to learn about people’s families. I checked in periodically with the other groups who were coloring, building a replica of the campus clock tower out of legos, and puzzling.
The group that took the sidewalk chalk outside appeared at the end of class to return my chalk. One student who is not actually in my class, but had gotten caught up in the activity, came along with the others to return it. He said, and I quote, “that was very satisfying”.
I left class and walked back to my office feeling pretty good about the use of the time, both how it had tied into our recent content and also how it seemed to help give people a little lift. It definitely gave me a little lift.
The next morning I happened to be looking at social media, and someone on campus who works in a different building had come upon my students’ chalk art and took a picture of it. She said she walked around that building twice just to get to see it again. Our “social prescription” day gave her a little lift, and I hope it did others as well.
Whether we are talking about isolation or loneliness, two different but related things, it is clear that it is on many minds and hearts of people, both those who are “helpers” and those who are feeling the feelings (and these may overlap some, too).
The good news is, you can “prescribe them” for yourself, for your students, your congregation, your extended family….be intentional about making time and creating space for interacting with others.
Both professionally as a social worker and personally as a mother and basic human, I care very much that people “find their people”. If you need help or encouragement thinking about how you can find *your* people, here are a few ideas: (1)look in the “Hip <name of your community> facebook page”. I can almost guarantee you someone has asked in the group before “how do I meet people?”. Check out their local advice. (2) If you are a believer, but not active in a faith community, be intentional about visiting some places. Find your fit. (3) Visit your local library, local community garden, local greenway. Read bulletin boards for gathering opportunities and see who hangs out in those spaces. (4) Take the risk and ask someone for coffee or a walk. (5) Volunteer at a cause you believe in, and you will meet some like minded people.
And learn to embrace potentially feeling awkward while you are in new spaces….I am the queen of this. Find someone who cheers you on in this (both the making time for people, the intentionality of it, and the embracing of the awkward).
As 1/2 of “married filing jointly” household that just paid their tax bill the day before it was due, I am a little salty.
Hear me clearly: I would cheerfully pay my current taxes (and pay more) if we had less income and wealth inequality in our country, and if we were taking progressive measures to get there.
I would not be salty about taxes if we invested more in public education (not voucher scams), or if we had more efficient and robust health care outcomes. (We spend a lot of money on healthcare relative to our GDP, but our outcomes are depressing compared to other countries with similar economies.)
I also support continuation of Social Security payments in hopes that I get there some day. I support taking care of our veterans, and more.
I have been taught in multiple settings that a budget is a moral document; we fund what we value.I am not decrying the need to pay taxes. Render unto Caesar. But I would prefer for my renderings to go toward things that are in alignment with the collective good, with love for others and care for creation. We can operationalize that in many meaningful and important ways. What will it take to get us there?
In looking at Center for Budget and Policy Priorities resources tonight, I took the screenshot below. Not only are we spending beyond our means, we are experiencing decimation of public services.
This is a great resource for understanding the basics of the proposed SAVE America Act, from the National Conference of State Legislatures It is clear and fairly presented.
I have let my elected officials know my thoughts in opposition to this proposed act. I am in opposition to it not because I don’t care about fair elections and upholding voting integrity (I care very much) but because there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, even using the most conservative database. In my state, there have been 26 cases of voter fraud since 1982 (and none by undocumented immigrants).
Before posting this, I checked news sources from conservative to liberal, and they are all reporting the same: the president did mail-in voting to cast his own ballot as recently as last week. This, while he calls mail-in voting corrupt and cheating when other people do it. Ponder that while you are looking up the contact info for your Senators (where the vote is now) and making your voice heard.
Late one night this past week several friends sent me links to the stories about Cesar Chavez, a primary figure of the United Farmworkers’ Movement. One of the classes I teach most every fall includes content on community organizing, and I always talk about the tactics and strategies he used in organizing farmworkers.
Thankfully, he has never been the only person I have talked about in this movement. I have always talked about Dolores Huerta as an equal force in organizing farmworkers, though she has remained less well known than Chavez. (Though last fall, at an event on campus celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, I hosted a screening of the 2018 PBS documentary Dolores and most of the students who came were not familiar with either name.)
Vergara, C. J., photographer. (2025) Dolores Huerta, farm workers mural.16th St., Milwaukee, WI . United States Milwaukee Wisconsin, 2025. September 9. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2026162509/.
Anyway…even though I have never focused only on Chavez, I have definitely held his work and his life—so I thought—in honor and esteem. The hunger strikes. The marches. The standoffs in the grape fields. His work was focused, honorable, and justice oriented. I held him in such esteem that I picked his stamps to be on my wedding invitations in 2003, for Heaven’s sake. I definitely would have called him a hero.
I never thought he was perfect. I definitely recognized his humanity. But I never thought he was a rapist and a pedophile. In thinking about this course that I teach coming around again in a few months, I will certainly make the movement the hero, as Huerta says in the NY Times article.
Thinking about Chavez’s “second death” (first, biological and second, moral/reputational), it makes me think of the broader issue of people in power (or even “spotlight”) using their power to sexually abuse others. Not every person in power abuses it in this way, but we have a long list of examples.
Jean Vanier, founder of the L’Arche Community for people with disabilities.
Honestly I could keep going but it is too depressing.
Clearly, there’s a broader issue to teach about here beyond community organizing strategies. How do we hold people in power accountable to just and right behavior? How do we hold systems accountable for censoring/stopping humans when they abuse/hurt others? What are the systemic/organizational traits that make it less likely a “leader” can abuse their power in this way?
I think this is one of the questions I will challenge my students with this fall as they prepare to work in non-profits, government systems, schools and more: How do you create a strong culture of safety in your workplace? What would you notice that it would tell you it is effective? What are the yellow or red flags that would tell you there are causes for concern?
A couple of days ago (8/25) was the 100th anniversary of the first Black labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. This is an example of a union that fought a long time to win increased wages and other rights, and is also a good example of co-occurring struggles for labor rights and civil rights more broadly. Seeing a reminder of this anniversary made me think a bit about other labor struggles that led to today’s progress…as well as the labor-related struggles we still face.
I always hope student have heard of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and their work with organizing farm workers, but if they haven’t, here is a helpful overview. There are also documentaries on their work and biographical films about each if you want a different genre to explore!
The Zinn Education Project also has great resources on teaching labor history, including lesser known organizers and people who were thrust into organizing because of their particular context…a great reminder that any of us could be/should be ready for “such a time as this”.
For several iterations of teaching a course on Poverty in the US, I used a book called A People’s History of Poverty in America. (Author is Stephen Pimpare). I stopped using it because I needed a newer book with more up to date statistics, but if you are looking for a book on the history of poverty in the US, this is a great one. Anyway, the picture below was on the cover of this book, and I always asked students to tell me what they were seeing. This illustration from William Balfour Ker is entitled “From the Depths”. Showing this picture and alongside data on income and wealth gaps could make for a very interesting labor-related discussion as well.
In all seriousness, though, I want my students to enjoy their day off from classes but I also want them to recognize the roots of labor day, and the labor struggles that still need people standing in solidarity.
Over the years I have written several social media posts about Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation Day, but never anything here, so I decided to put them all in one place in hopes that others find them useful for their own knowledge building or teaching. I was in my late 20s before learning about this day, from Dr. Vanessa Hodges, who at that time was a professor of Social Work at UNC. She later became my dissertation advisor and heaven granted her a lot of patience with that. I am so thankful for all she taught me, including about Juneteenth.
First up, a friend and colleague (Dr. Carmen Reese Foster) wrote this opinion piece for The Tennesseean (our Nashville newspaper) a few years ago on needing to move from performative acts to taking actions that address systemic racism. There is a lot of power in this piece, with the reminder that while Juneteenth was declared a federal holiday, the results have looked more like Juneteenth napkins and picnic ware at Walmart as opposed to policies that lead our nation to equity in income, housing, education, and more.
Reverend Dr. William Barber’s prayer and charge for Juneteenth is another powerful thing to watch and reflect on. You can see it here on Youtube. “Juneteenth can’t be merely a form of celebration but also consecration. When we remember it must be so that we understand that we can’t relax and we can’t retreat”. His exhortation and history lesson on slavery as an American original sin…not just a southern problem, is especially important. It is particularly chilling when he lists insurance companies and banks that insured and built wealth for enslavers…companies that are still around today (and were built on money from enslaving people). Also, stop saying Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. Reverend Barber is a truth teller. “You passed the holiday but you won’t restore the voting rights…and you won’t pass living wages….or you won’t pass police reform….nothing but hypocrisy”.
Here is a podcast episode from Cite Black Women, recorded a couple of years ago, about the origins of Juneteenth. I learned so much about timeline of emancipation days, what happened in Galveston, connections between Juneteenth and “watch night” services, connections with early policies and the establishment of Black communities in Oklahoma, and more.
Below is a photo of Harriet Tubman. Abolitionist. Leader/conductor of the Underground Railroad. Student of stars in the nighttime sky. Seer of visions. Spy for Union forces. A woman with a disability (inflicted upon her by a slaveholder). She was a woman who didn’t stop. She was a believer and a faithful witness.
In a different century, she would have been the original owner of the t-shirt “Nevertheless, she persisted”. You can read more about her online at Zinn Education Project. I also learned more about her life by reading the fiction book The Water Dancer where the character Moses is based on Harriet Tubman. For kids, there are several choices, but when my girls were emerging readers they liked the book about her from the “Who is” series. There are any number of places where you should be able to read about Harriet Tubman. Why I am writing about her today, however, has to do with the “changes” that the National Park Service has made to some of their websites talking about Harriet Tubman’s work as a Conductor on the Underground Railroad. You can read more here from CNN. Thankfully the NPS hasn’t scrubbed all references to Tubman, but the question is, why would they need to scrub any?
I don’t love linking to that, and I almost didn’t, but one of the things I keep coming back to is the importance of checking out sources. It is easy to hear something and think “it can’t be that bad” or even to hear something else and then have a nuclear response. I always try to check sources rather than just believing a headline, And I try to model that for my students. I talk to them about the importance of fact-checking. I ask them to be critical thinkers about a topic. We ask ourselves “How might we be wrong about this? Who is this serving? Who is this marginalizing?”
When I was in college, one of the few things I watched religiously each week was A Different World. I loved Whitley and Dwayne Wayne and Jalisa and Walter and Kim and Freddie and all the rest. I watched the show in its entirety while it was on, and I have watched it occasionally in reruns over the years when I have come across an episode.
A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of being on the campus of Fisk University for a day. It wasn’t my first time on campus, but it was the longest time I had gotten to spend there, and it made me think of how I learned about Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the first place. As you might have guessed, I first learned about what an HBCU is through my love of A Different World all those years ago.
Photo of Fisk University Chapel. Taken by the author in 2023.
While on a break between sessions at Fisk, I started writing in my notebook a list of all the things I could remember learning from A Different World. This list includes things relevant to college student life, like internships and facing up to your fears with hard courses, “stepping”, and more about pledging and Greek life for historically Black fraternities and sororities. I learned to appreciate the music of Heavy D and was introduced to who Dorothy Height was. I learned about the power of student activism, including the choice and consequence of having a sit-in in the University President’s Office. While I had learned about apartheid in my AP US History class, I learned more about what we could do about it in the US from the show, such as divesting in certain companies and why students would push the Board of Directors of their university to do that, even if it meant a loss of scholarships. The show also dealt with topics that I can’t remember other shows discussing in that era, including racist stereotypes, colorism, the Rodney King verdict, microaggressions, and long term impacts of enslavement.
I know there are more things I am forgetting…that break between sessions at Fisk only lasted 20 minutes. But thinking about just these, it is clear to me that my life (personally and professionally) was shaped in ways I could not have imagined when I sat in my dorm room each Thursday night. (Thankfully the other show I religiously watched, Knots Landing, didn’t have a fraction of the impact.) I know there are ways in which some of the episodes fell short, but even with shortcomings, I feel this was a powerful show that helped me understand more about race, racism, culture and other social issues.
Are there shows now that are shaping college students in this way? Though I am a professor, I don’t hear my students talk a lot about shows they are watching. What are the current shows that tackle hard social issues? I would love to check them out, for my own viewing and also think about how to incorporate pieces of them in my classes.
I think this is also a reminder to me of the importance of putting good things into my brain. I am not above a beach read or a 90s era rom-com, but it is good to be challenged with the media I consume. I hope in 30 more years to be talking about something I am learning now, or about to learn.
This year we are teaching the same theme in the ILC: an introduction to trauma studies. Even though the core of our ILC stays the same, we change activities and readings up from year to year a bit to make sure we are bringing new energy to the work. This year, we decided to take a block of our two classes to show and then discuss/process the documentary Daughters. I had never heard of it until my colleague told me about it when were planning for the semester, but apparently it was quite the hit at Sundance last year. It is now on Netflix, making it easy to show in class. If you don’t know anything about it, the quick summary is that it is about a group of daughters and dads who are getting ready for a dance. The fathers are incarcerated and most have not seen their daughters in years. The ones who have seen them have mostly seen their daughters on screens. Only one had had a “touch visit” within the past two years at the time of filming.
Since the ILC is structured so that the students have the two linked classes back to back, we started the documentary in her class and got through all but about 15 minutes of it. We had the 15 minute break between classes and then walked to a different building for my course, watched the rest of the documentary, and then asked the students what connections they made between the film and the topics we have been learning about in the ILC. The connections they were making and the questions they were asking were powerful. They made connections about attachment and attachment disruption. They made connections about family systems (roles, stress points, boundaries) and ACES (adverse childhood experiences).
Teaching (toward) the Beloved Community 