by Tom DeWolf | Nov 22, 2013 | History, Genealogy, Other Musings, Politics, Trauma and Healing
Fifty years ago I sat in my 4th grade classroom at San Jose Elementary School when Mr. Monteith, the 5th grade teacher from the room across the grassy space between our buildings was suddenly banging on the window of our room and shouting something unintelligible...
by Tom DeWolf | Nov 19, 2013 | Coming to the Table, Gather at the Table, History, Genealogy, Race, Oppression, Privilege
This post was originally published at Gather at the Table November 19, 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. PBS and documentary filmmaker Ken Burns launched a national effort to encourage people to video record themselves reciting...
by Tom DeWolf | Aug 21, 2013 | History, Genealogy, Politics, Race, Oppression, Privilege
I take a healthy dose of satisfaction when privileged people in power are stifled in their wrong-headed attempts to exert control in clearly damaging ways. Case in point: When Mitch Daniels was still governor of Indiana he attempted to influence the removal of books...
by Tom DeWolf | Dec 31, 2012 | History, Genealogy, Race, Oppression, Privilege
This post is specifically intended for my white friends who (like me until several years ago) have never heard of Watch Night, or don’t understand the significance of its observation on New Year’s Eve; specifically in African American churches and...
by Tom DeWolf | Feb 15, 2012 | History, Genealogy, Movies, Reviews, Trauma and Healing
Throughout history, when the battle has been between Liberty and Enterprise, Enterprise has usually won… Three items of note caught my attention this week… all caught up for centuries in this historic battle. Brown University thoroughly investigated its...
by Tom DeWolf | Jan 15, 2012 | History, Genealogy, Race, Oppression, Privilege, Trauma and Healing
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on this day, January 15, in 1929. To commemorate the occasion I read his Letter from Birmingham Jail that was written in response to a published statement by eight Alabama clergymen in which they claimed his actions...
