That’s what SHE said: mercy as a response to terror, what it takes to forgive murder, the protests at University of Missouri, interview with a transracial adoptee, garlic, parenting advice and more…

LET MERCY FOR REFUGEES BE THE RESPONSE TO THE PARIS ATTACKS | theestablishment.com

Margaret Covid makes a compelling argument / plea to France’s president to respond with mercy as opposed to the current response which is to shut the country’s borders, effectively sealing the fate of thousands of refugees suffering in refugee camps as the weather turns…”Why is Hollande using the refugees as hostages, condemning them with his border closure to a death that is slower but no less certain than that of a head chopped by a guillotine, or that of a concert-goer blown up by a grenade? He only helps the terrorists. ISIS and those in the West who hate the refugees want the same thing: martial law, state control of discourse, the spreading of Islamophobia, and a global atmosphere of suspicion and discord. In such a world, ISIS gets its youthful cannon fodder—those disaffected by the climate of hate and brutal racism—and the Front Nationales, the Ukips, all the soft and hard white supremacists of the world, get their white utopia, where a refugee child cannot migrate but guns and money can.”


HOW DO YOU FORGIVE A MURDER? | time.com 

Survivors and families of the deceased victims of the Charleston AME Church murders talk about what it takes to forgive a killer. Despite the continuos atrocities of violence steeped in a history of racism, for some, forgiveness and faith are the only way to move forward…”At the heart of that struggle are two complicated subjects: history and forgiveness. The murders at Emanuel must be fitted into the long and tangled history of race relations, racial violence and oppression that stem from America’s original sin. The accused killer, who published a manifesto of white supremacy before setting out on his hateful mission, made sure of that. At the same time, the forgiveness expressed by some surviving family members left as many questions as it answered.  Can murder be forgiven, and if so, who has that power? Must it be earned or given freely? Who benefits from forgiveness – the sinner or the survivor? And why do we forgive at all? Is it a way of remembering, or of forgetting?”

http://www.instagram.com/jean_jullien/

AP NEWS GUIDE: A LOOK AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI’S ISSUES | abcnews.go.com

This week, the president and chancellor of the University of Missouri resigned over their handling of racial incidents prompted by escalating student protests, a one-student hunger strike, and 30 of the university’s black football players who threatened a boycott of football related activities to show their support.  Here is a breakdown of what is happening at the University of Missouri.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH TRANSRACIAL ADOPTEE, ANGELA TUCKER | fostermoms.org

In honor of National Adoption Month, fostermoms.org sits down with Angela Tucker to discuss her documentary, Closure, as well as her experience as a transracial adoptee. Tucker’s search for her birth mom as well as her foster parents who cared for her the first year of her life is the subject of Closure.  She shares some of the important decisions her adoptive mother made in order to help her foster her own racial identity, an identity she became keenly aware of when she left her home and was a black girl in a very white world…“I believe that some parents truly do not see skin color when it comes to providing loving and safe care for a child, but this world we live in certainly is not colorblind. Thus, it is imperative that Caucasian parents understand their own identity  (white privilege, white fragility) prior to bringing another child into their home. Failing to view the racial and/or cultural differences as an aspect of emotional safety is neglectful parenting.”   

WINNERS: THE BEST PARENTING ADIVCE IN SIX WORDS | parenting.blogs.nytimes.com

The results are in from the sweetest to the most ironic to the twitter handle most in need of sleep. A preview: “Pay attention, but not too much.” – Judy