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Poem: Be Anything
I had such bright hopes and dreams when I believed I could be anything I tried strived over-achieved if thoughts manifest reality the American Dream wouldn’t be unreachable and life would be different all I truly wanted was freedom to be me without threat, violence shame or compromise how tragic being me proved to be the hardest thing ~ LaShawnda Jones, 2020
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Terry Ann: Woman. Seed. Fertile Ground. Inspiration.
In the summer of 2018, I began working on a portrait and prose book project about womanhood. That summer I returned to my hometowns Gary and Milwaukee and asked friends, family and old connections to pose and share some words about their womanhood experiences. When I began sketching out the project my mom was not top of mind. As the project morphed into various incarnations, the hope was to pull others in along the way. But the more women I talked to and the closer I got to women who had been close to her, the more Mom began to dominate my thoughts. I can’t ask my mother what her…
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Living without permission
Choosing to grant myself permission to live on my own terms. Deciding to embrace the fear of doing such even as I continue to forge ahead. For a spell now, I’ve been bombarded with examples on why living without permission is so important for our overall well-being.
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Pamela Turner: Two for the Carnage of One
Do this in remembrance of me. It’s psychological warfare physical murder spiritual bondage. Our sanity means nothing to the intentionally persistent assassins of our humanity. Our humanness has no value in the confrontation of violent entitlement& and moral disregard that assumes murder of “others” is the white person’s right – a privilege awarded to hunters; a prize for the domineering. I cried out to Jesus, only to be consumed by His weeping and grief. I raged at Democracy, only realize my own invisibleness. I shouted out to my neighbors but their thundering silence shamed me! I too may be America, but who is America? What we’ve become is who…
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A Message of Remembrance on Passover
Dear Colleagues, As we look ahead to the beginning of Passover, I want to share a bit of JDC history. Tomorrow – the eve of Passover – is the seventy-sixth anniversary of the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. In 1943, April 19 was the night of the first seder, just as it is this year. Seventy-six years ago, a band of brave Jews made a last stand against the murderous Nazi regime. They launched this historic act of resistance on the same night that they celebrated the miracle of Passover. As members of the JDC family, we should remember the role JDC played in the ghetto. A JDC professional…
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All Is Meaningless (ACAD: Ecclesiastes 12)
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.
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All Is Meaningless (ACAD: Ecclesiastes 11)
Just as you do not know how the breath comes to the bones in the mother’s womb, so you do not know the work of God, who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hands be idle; for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
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All Is Meaningless (ACAD: Ecclesiastes 7)
Wisdom gives strength to the wise more than ten rulers that are in a city. Surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning. Do not give heed to everything that people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you; your heart knows that many times you have yourself cursed others. All this I have tested by wisdom; I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me.
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All Is Meaningless (ACAD: Ecclesiastes 6)
There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy upon humankind: those to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that they lack nothing of all that they desire, yet God does not enable them to enjoy these things, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous ill.
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All Is Meaningless (ACAD: Ecclesiastes 5)
As they came from their mother’s womb, so they shall go again, naked as they came; they shall take nothing for their toil, which they may carry away with their hands. This also is a grievous ill: just as they came, so shall they go; and what gain do they have from toiling for the wind? Besides, all their days they eat in darkness, in much vexation and sickness and resentment.
