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Author Archive for Mindy Carney

I am a writer and communication professional in St. Louis, Missouri, a crafter of jewelry, a disorganized optimist and most importantly, the adoptive mom of two China-born daughters.

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By Mindy Carney on November 18th, 2009

What we should all wish for our children -

Friday evening, I was fortunate enough to attend the 40th anniversary Founder’s Dinner for the elementary school my daughters attended. My youngest, thankfully, is still there. She only has a year left after this one, and already I can feel the size of the hole left in my life when I no longer have the community behind its Big Red Doors to mingle with every day. This young woman, Brittany Packnett, was one of the speakers, an alumnus of the school who has gone on to make a difference in many more young lives as teacher in Washington D.C. I was in tears as I listened to her, knowing that my girls are being blessed with the same underpinnings of which she so eloquently speaks. This is what education for all children should be about.

[Admin note: See also this related post on Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences]

Education • Uncategorized
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By Mindy Carney on September 30th, 2009

Jon Stewart remains my hero -

As I have not been around DI of late, I thought I’d pop in just momentarily to reiterate my adoration (no, that’s not too strong a word) of Jon Stewart. His show recently won an Emmy and in a poll conducted by Time Magazine over the summer, he was once again named the most trusted journalist in America.

Some find that appalling, that a comedian doing “fake news” would be trusted - but not only do I not find it a surprise, I find it emblematic of what is great about our country. Yep, strangely enough, I believe that beyond all of the nonsense foisted upon us by the fear-mongers and the naysayers and the hand-wringers, above the greed and corruption, the re-emergence of public racism and class-ism that has knocked the very wind out of us over this last year - we, as a culture, have maintained one vital component of our identity as a nation.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
America: Target America
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes		 Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

We still have a senses of humor. Most importantly, we can still poke fun at ourselves.

Stewart takes on the rightwing nutjobs with LMAO-level attacks, but he just as willingly puts Obama and the Democratic congressfolk smack in their liberal places. He brilliantly points out the hypocrisy by putting videos back-to-back in which politicians completely contradict themselves. He forces us to see the political blustering for what it is, and gives voice to sanity in the midst of complete crazy. He makes sure we never forget our humanity.

Last week, he took on the absurdly ridiculous overreaction to the elementary school in New Jersey in which children sang a song about the new President during Black History Month. As he points out, no one complained about it at the time. And Stewart’s lampooning of the way the rightwing media turned this non-story into something murky and evil became especially potent when he pulled out video of school children in New Orleans singing a song in which they THANK THE LORD for Bush and FEMA!!! Good grief. The twinkle in Stewart’s eyes as he reads the lyrics that group of kids sang is priceless.

Carry on -

American Culture • Censorship • Communication • Community • Culture • Current Events • Education • Entertainment • Humor • Media • children • hypocrisy • ignorance
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By Mindy Carney on June 26th, 2009

Census issues

Here’s a topic I haven’t followed well enough, as became obvious to me when I saw this little gem of a video on Huffpo. I had NO IDEA that one of the reasons Those-Who-Hate-Government-But-Want-Government-to-Manage-Religion-and-Reproduction are threatening not to fill out their census forms is the fear of being placed in Internment Camps. Yep, that maven of legislative insight, Michele Bachmann, warns Glenn Beck of the dire consequences we may well repeat from the WWII era. She also laments the missing “are you here illegally?” question (because of course all undocumented workers would ‘fess right up to that on an official government form).

American Culture • Civil Rights • Community • Culture • Current Events • ignorance
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By Mindy Carney on June 25th, 2009

Cultural death in threes -

I am experiencing a rather weird feeling - three cultural icons whose flames burned brightest during my own youth have all been extinguished in the same week. First Ed McMahon, who, for years has been but a caricature of himself, died, essentially of old age, at 86. Not a big surprise, except I wonder how someone who was so vibrant when I was a teen managed to get that old?! A friend pointed out that deaths like his make her feel old, and I get that. But so do the deaths of Farrah and Jacko today - at least for me. Because I can still remember believing that only old people lose contemporaries in any large number - and perhaps because we lost a mom at my oldest daughter’s school to ovarian cancer this month - I’m feeling a bit too close to death’s doorway.

I was never a big fan of Farrah, but I know several men who, as boys, would glaze over just staring at her poster on their bedroom walls. She and her fellow Angels were early purveyors of girl-power - except it was the toxic kind, a power that came primarily from great bodies, beautiful faces and big hair. Oh, and yeah, they could kick butt against the bad guys, of course. Theirs was a cultural impact similar to Barbie’s - a completely unrealistic picture of femininity to strive for, girls! But still, they were women in formerly man-held roles, and they were part of my girlhood, for better or worse. Farrah, of course, was always the top angel. Not a role model, although back then some tried to paint her as such; just an icon, replete with faults that became more apparent as she got older and the media more intrusive. Like her or not, I am saddened by the long suffering she had to endure up to her end.

As for Michael Jackson, I simply don’t know how to feel.

American Culture • Entertainment • Featured • Health • Media • music
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By Mindy Carney on June 21st, 2009

Happy Father’s Day -

- to all the men out there raising honest, compassionate, inquisitive children.

- to all the dads who aren’t afraid to show their children how much they love them, all the men who model participation and positive values, good health and a passion to learn.

- to the fathers who say no when they need to and who teach their children that mistakes are part of the journey; the dads who forgive, who tell stories and know how to laugh at themselves.

- to every man who makes sure his children know, without having to ask, that he will be there for them, in form or spirit, whenever he is needed, for the rest of their lives.

- and to the other fathers out there, somehow, may they learn how important their presence could be, and find a way to get there.

American Culture • Communication • Community • Featured • Friendships/relationships • Health
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Medicating the kids . . .
By Mindy Carney on June 16th, 2009

Medicating the kids . . .

As a parent, I have participated in many discussions regarding the medication of kids for a variety of reasons. I have friends who have kids with serious problems for whom medication has been a godsend, allowing them to function with relative normalcy. Kids who were unable to participate in a typical classroom for one behavioral issue or another.

We’ve also had many discussions about the problem of over-medicating children, and how some schools push for difficult children to receive behavioral meds, whether they truly need them or not. How some of those adult medications should perhaps not be so quickly prescribed for children. We’ve talked about education reform, changes in teaching methods and school culture and administrative philosophies that would allow for wider ranges of learning styles. I’ve heard parents rant about how unfair it is for their well-behaved child to not receive the same level of attention as the “problem kid” in the class commands, and I’ve seen them answered by the parents of said problem kids with an invitation to trade shoes, just for a day.

Current Events • Environment • Featured • Food • Health • Human animals • Medicine • Psychology Cognition • Science • Technology
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By Mindy Carney on June 01st, 2009

Frank Schaeffer lays, and takes, the blame for murder -

I found this an interesting response to George Tiller’s murder. Frank Schaeffer, a reformed evangelical, argues that the hate speech continually spewed by the religious right regarding abortion set the stage for George Tiller’s murder, and other abortionists before him. He still expresses disgust at late-term abortion, and while I am more likely to agree with that, I do believe there are situations in which that choice is the only one that makes sense. Painful, horribly so, but sometimes the only choice is.

American Culture • Bigotry • Communication • Current Events • Good and Evil • Language • Medicine • Religion • Reproductive Rights • hypocrisy • ignorance • law and order
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By Mindy Carney on June 01st, 2009

Glorious colors wash over Sydney -

Wow. I am so wishing I could hop a plane to Australia right now - and not just to visit Hank. Check out these photos of the light show currently on display in Sydney. What a beautiful artistic expression!

Art • Community • Inspirational • Noteworthy • photography • travel
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Darfur, lest we forget -
By Mindy Carney on June 01st, 2009

Darfur, lest we forget -

Bob Herbert, in the NY Times, wrote this week of a new report on the continuing human catastrophe in Darfur. In describing why he reported on what, to some, is old news, he reminded us “about the dangers inherent in indifference to the suffering of others. Stories of atrocities on the scale of those coming out of Darfur cannot be told too often.”

Community • Culture • Current Events • Featured • Good and Evil • Health • War • ignorance • law and order
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By Mindy Carney on May 31st, 2009

Abortion Doctor George Tiller Killed at Church

George Tiller, a Kansas doctor who performed abortions, some of them late-term, was shot this morning as he entered his church for services.

Read the story here - and then someone explain how one justifies murder again?

American Culture • Current Events • Medicine • Religion • Reproductive Rights • hypocrisy • law and order
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Does Gingrich think racism is evolving?
By Mindy Carney on May 31st, 2009

Does Gingrich think racism is evolving?

I loved this op-ed piece over at Huffpo by John Ridley - “Note to Newt . . . ” - regarding Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor’s supposedly racist comment about the perspective of a Latina woman in a 2001 speech. Ridley is right on target with his comparisons of “old racism” and “new racism” - as if a comparison can even be made. Mostly, Newt and his ilk just seem annoyed that “they” just don’t know their places these days. Not women, not minorities, not gays . . . life just isn’t as simple when everyone goes off and thinks they’re just as good as the good ol’ white guys.

Sotomayor’s point was essentially that anyone who has seen the system from the bottom up has a deeper experiential perspective from which to draw when discussing said system. That doesn’t make her every thought on it correct or best, but overall, her perspective has more to draw on than that of a privileged white male who never had to fight for his place at any table, let alone on any bench.

I don’t discount white males, by any means, and neither did she. Lots of them, present company included, are wonderful, open-minded, intelligent and fair people. By calling her comment “racist,” Gingrich has merely shown he has precious little understanding of what racism is really all about.

American Culture • Bigotry • Civil Rights • Community • Current Events • Featured • Language • Politics • hypocrisy
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My comfort zone lost its sense of peace -
By Mindy Carney on May 26th, 2009

My comfort zone lost its sense of peace -

As was alluded to in a recent comment from Erich, my house was burglarized a couple of weeks ago. I’d enjoyed one of those rare, delightfully spontaneous evenings; after a dance recital for my daughter, I ran into a date I hadn’t seen in awhile who invited me to a club to listen to music. Said daughter and her sister were off to their dad’s for the weekend, so I was free to stay out. We had a lovely time and I headed home around 11:15.

As I turned my key in the front lock and opened the door, I saw movement. I looked up just in time to see a kid run out of my bedroom, glance back at me then run down the hall toward the kitchen, away from me. In that moment, I snapped. Instead of backing out the door to safety and calling 911, I barreled straight toward him, screaming at the top of my lungs. Screaming at him to get the $%#^ out of my house - him AND his com-padre, whom I heard running down the back stairs. They both ran out the back door, one crossing the alley and running between the houses, and one running down the alley. I screamed again, ran back to my car and raced around the block hoping to spot one or both of them. No luck. I was sobbing with rage; I could not believe this had happened - again. I called 911.

American Culture • Bigotry • Communication • Community • Culture • Education • Featured • Friendships/relationships • Good and Evil • Saint Louis • Uncategorized • ignorance • law and order
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By Mindy Carney on May 24th, 2009

Parents Support Transgendered Child

An eight-year-old child in Omaha, Nebraska, the middle of three boys, has told his parents throughout his life that he is a she. Since he learned to talk, he has said, daily, that he is really a girl. His parents have come to believe him, and are letting him begin the next school term in a new school, as a girl, with a new name.

Ben-turned-Katie will not be allowed back in his Catholic elementary school. According to the priest in the parish, since the Catholic Church believes a person is born one gender and cannot change, his appearance at school would lead to too many questions and cause discomfort for the other children.

It might, of course. Certainly it would raise all kinds of questions, yes. Hard questions, the kind that parents aren’t sure how to answer. My guess is, though, that if the school called in an expert on the subject and held an assembly in which the child’s situation is explained in brief and concrete terms and the other children were allowed to ask any questions they had, parents were allowed to attend, etc., the issue could be handled and put to rest. Children that age are amazingly accepting, and what a wonderful life lesson it could be. That is how it would be handled in our school - or similarly, somehow - one of the many reasons we are there.

In watching the video, I was struck by the dedication of these parents to their child. I am so relieved, on Katie’s behalf, that she has this kind of support. In conservative Nebraska, this can’t be easy. I wish them well, and thank them for being the kind of parents every kid deserves to have. Unconditional love at its finest.

American Culture • Bigotry • Community • Culture • Education • Featured • Health • Human animals • Inspirational • Psychology Cognition • Religion • Sex • ignorance
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