News & Current Events

What Are You Listening To? {My Favorite Podcasts} Monday through Friday, I️ make the hour long commute from Ascension Parish to teach in Baker. In the morning my commute is about 45 minutes, but in the afternoon, it’s a different story. I️t can range from 50 minutes to an hour on a good day, but I’ve been in the car for an hour and 45 minutes before. If you live in Baton Rouge, then you know traffic is part of our charm. I️ get asked constantly about my commute and why I do it. I️ love teaching at my school, and the commute isn’t that bad (most of the time). I️t can actually be pretty productive. I️ get some much needed alone time, I️...

For many years, I thought the best way to eliminate racism was to be colorblind and to teach my children to not see color. Social justice was important to me, and it seemed logical, at the time, that if I pretended that we are all exactly the same, the world would treat everyone as such. I remember the moment my heart changed. It was in the aftermath of Michael Brown's death. The Ferguson protests were in the news, and as a Missouri native, many of my friends had a lot to say about it on social media. A friend of mine from middle school who is black, wrote a post about how many times he had been pulled over...

It's time to stop & look in the mirror. Our mothers taught us, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." I am bothered by all the keyboard gangsters out there telling mega-churches and others what they "need" to be doing. I will point out that most of these people posting things like this are doing NOTHING themselves to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey. You know why? Because those who ARE doing something to help don't have time for any kind of finger pointing or being worried at all about what someone else is or isn't doing for them. Instead of looking for who isn't doing something you think they should be doing, start...

I went to bed with a heavy heart last night. The word 'heavy' sounds too light in writing. I can not describe in words how I am truly feeling at this very moment. It is normal to feel angry, sad, frustrated, and anxious when watching the news these days. What is happening in Texas has me on my knees. It was a little over a year ago when I too was standing face to face with the fear of what was to come as I watched the water come closer and closer to our home. It crept up on us as if it were a predator, and we were its prey. Then it pounced. It changed my life forever. My...

I've seen a number of people on my Facebook feed express the sentiment "Silence is consent" regarding the recent events in Charlottesville. And while I do agree, that standing by the side, being silent is consent, I'm not so sure I agree that it applies to Facebook. Here's why. Years ago, I posted on political issues continuously. What ended up happening was that someone would decide to argue the opposite point on my thread for whatever reason (whether that's how they really felt, or they just wanted to be contentious has yet to be decided). Whenever this happened, it would quickly escalate. People who were mutual friends of mine would begin tearing each other apart online. I often felt stuck in the...