Since folks that interact with me on social media seem to love to TELL me (and others) what I (we) believe, I decided to write down what I do and don’t believe. I believe each of the following things, wholeheartedly. ALL of them!
I am writing this not because I am important to you, but because you are important to me.
1. We need our young folks to toughen up. They need to understand that the world will not bend over backward for them. They need to learn to accept criticism.
2. We ALSO need to support them and nurture them. We need to recognize that regularly denigrating someone just creates maladaptations and the outer appearance of toughness. We need to learn how to give criticism.
3. I believe in personal responsibility. I think that we each are required to try.
4. I believe in collective responsibility. I know that we are already connected, and already do depend on one another. This is provable.
5. I believe men and women are beautiful, and sometimes ugly. I believe that our ideas about who we are can become damaging, infectious, and destructive to one another. When I think about women and men, I force myself to think about them as girls and boys. That is where we all start. Let us end the ideas that destroy and promote the ideas that bring us together.
6. I believe that men have spent more time, resources, and energy destroying each other and women than vice versa. I also know that most of these former boys had a mother and many had a father. I believe we must find out why.
7. I believe children are incredibly capable, but also need guidance. The relationship between parent and child is sacred. Do not denigrate that. If you do, we are at least temporarily enemies.
8. I believe commerce is a good thing. I like the idea of making and selling products. I believe that trickle down economics is a lie.
9. I believe that sexuality and gender are exceedingly complex, and disagree with anyone who thinks they are simple. I know there is variance between and within what we define as “male and female”.
10. I believe that some people online are far more interested in showing how smart they can appear than they are in finding the truth about something. I watch them and I can spot it a mile away.
11. I am an economic and political agnostic. I do not “believe” in Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, liberals, conservatives, capitalism, socialism, communism, etc. Not a single one. I believe in evaluating elements and making informed decisions on how we do things.
12. I believe in no religion and all of them. I see beautiful people and actions stem from religious beliefs. I also see great ugliness and destruction stem from religious beliefs. The problem is never being able to consider your own fallibility.
13. I believe in marriage. I believe in being single. I believe in having children. I believe in not having children.
14. I believe in eating vegetables and fruits. I believe in eating animals.
15. I believe in black kids attending HBCUs. I believe in black kids attending PWIs. I believe in people of color and white people being able to attend school wherever the hell they are qualified to do so.
16. I believe in public access to education, and will fight for it with everything I have.
17. I do not believe in our public education system as it is currently run and constructed. I think that every teacher who is playful with kids, nurturing, and gets kids to fall in love with learning is an enemy of the people deciding education policy, and the opportunist sycophants who follow them. I will fight against the latter two groups with everything I have. I see their results every day.
18. I believe in the scientific process.
19. I also believe much of the mechanism of the scientific process has been corrupted not just by profit, but the need for speed.
20. I believe in teaching. I believe in questioning teachers. My students know that every semester I am looking for them to bring me at least one “actually” moment in class. I have had 6 during my time as a professor.
21. I believe in play. I believe in work. I love when things are difficult. I hate when things are difficult but my hands are tied.
22. I believe in laughter. I believe in anger. I believe in tears. I believe in fun. I believe in reflection. I believe in emotion. I believe in logic. I believe in connection. I believe in isolation.
23. I believe in tradition. I believe in destroying traditions.
24. I believe in clothing. I believe in the absence of clothing.
25. I believe in you. Unless you are an intractable asshole. In that case, I believe you need to grow up. Then I will believe in you. Maybe you can. Prove it. Make me a believer and listen to someone else.
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