Today is April 22, 2020.  Earth Day.   Many years ago, in what seems another lifetime as a High School English teacher,  I spent Earth Days trying to convince 5 periods of High School Seniors to love the poetry of Wordsworth, and Byron, and Shelley, and Keats.    These Romantic poets,  who wrote of love and … Continue reading The Pandemic Earth Day

Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of my mama's death.  As I sit down to write, I know that I am not the first and will not be the last to experience the indescribable loss that we feel when we lose our mothers.   I get it, and I think for all of us in this … Continue reading the liquor store always has boxes…

Today was my first Mother's Day without my mom.   June 6 will be the first anniversary of her death, so I am slogging through the first 365 without her and I am almost to the end of the "year of firsts" without her.   So today, on Mother's Day, I think about the funny card and … Continue reading The Best Worst Mother’s Day ever

Our public school CLASSROOMS must be sacred.   All schools must make every effort to ensure that what goes on in the classroom is simply pure and powerful instruction.   The classroom should be a haven of LEARNING and nothing more. Today, the public school classroom is where children are getting their meals, catching up on their … Continue reading Make our classrooms sacred!

My youngest child is a beautiful, smart Junior at the University of South Carolina. Her biggest fear in the world is being kidnapped.   When she was young, she insisted that the tooth fairy leave any money or prize on the kitchen table in exchange for her tooth, and she made me swear that I would … Continue reading Forever to Thee, Samantha Josephson

It is January 6th, 2018.  As I write this, I see snow in my back yard that has not melted from a fast and furious snow "storm" that hit on January 3rd.   I am warm, and I am fed, and I am drinking hot tea from my Keurig.  I had to use bottled water in … Continue reading Water, Water, everywhere…

Mom and Dad - sorry for the ugly word in the title, but I am emotional blogger.  I always have a jillion things running around in my head, but these days, the only time I feel compelled to sit at the keyboard and bang it out is when I am angry.   And I am … Continue reading Law Enforcement…the Law…Politics…and a really pissed off mom.

Veterans need a lot of things, and they deserve even more than we can give them.  That sounds so cliché and I have erased it about 16 times.  It doesn’t say enough.   It doesn’t say it right.   I wish I had a phrase that would just knock your socks off when I said it.   I … Continue reading Veterans Affairs: Let’s RIGHT this wrong, now.

I really do want 15 minutes on the floor of the House or the Senate.  In SC or in Washington, DC.  I won't be picky.  "They" say that most people fear public speaking more than death.  Not me.  I fear failure more than death, and I love public speaking.   I have a teacher voice … Continue reading The Refugee problem is not the problem…

I have been a writer for years. I majored in English in college,