An SAT Teacher Talks Immigration

Yesterday at a local low-income public high school where I teach SAT prep, we were discussing college class structure when a student asked me, "What's the point in preparing for college applications if Trump kicks my family out of the country?"

I asked him if he had been born here or gone through the citizenship process. He said that they became citizens a long time ago.

I told him that if he is a citizen, no one can make him leave.

That's currently true.

When I posted a condensed version of this story on facebook, one person commented that if he's a naturalized citizen, he has "nothing to fear!!!!" (emphasis added, exclamation marks original).

It isn't his job as a child to know the intricacies of immigration law, nor is it unreasonable that my student took the president-elect of an industrialized country at his word.

I'm not sure what religion this student's family follows, but he may well be Muslim. I told him that he can't be deported, but given other recent events, here are possible concerns:

• He could be pushed or roughed up in public spaces (happened to a friend who looks much like this student).
• The female members of his family could be threatened in public spaces (for instance, in Ann Arbor, someone threatened to light a hijabi woman on fire).
• His place of worship could be attacked or monitored.
• Any of these racist/bigoted events that have happened in Michigan just since the election results were announced.

It remains to be seen whether religious minorities will be forced to register or undergo extra surveillance. 

So there is much to fear for his family (just as there is for mine even though it isn't possible for my marriage to be invalidated), even though he cannot be deported. 

I have felt often lately that there isn't much I can do, but in his case, that isn't true. I can teach him to get a strong SAT score and give him the resources to get into a good university with scholarships. I can help to provide him a pathway to the education and financial stability to support his family no matter where he ends up.

I cannot pretend that going forward, life will be business as usual or that this presidency will be normal. It isn't in my job description to advise students whether they will be deported between taking the SAT and finishing a bachelor's degree*. It isn't normal. Citizens should be able to set a five year plan without considering political volatility. 

 This isn't the last I have to say about the uncertainties this election and presidency create for the youth. In fact, this is a tiny excerpt from one day full of statements that I made that are currently true that may not be true down the line that I'd like to examine. 

I will end with a quote from Autocracy: Rules for Survival. 

"Believe the autocrat. He means what he says. Whenever you find yourself thinking, or hear others claiming, that he is exaggerating, that is our innate tendency to reach for a rationalization. This will happen often: humans seem to have evolved to practice denial when confronted publicly with the unacceptable." ~Masha Gessen

*My comment to the student and comments in this post in general should not be construed as legal advice. I am not qualified to provide that. This blog provides observations and commentary only.

Confessions and an Invitation

When I woke up today, the first thing Rebecca told me was that Trump had won and the Republicans had taken Congress.

And I looked at her, and I said, "Trump has promised to pass FADA [the First Amendment Defense Act - essentially a nationwide RFRA like Indiana's], and he has the Congress to actually do it."

Make no mistake. This isn't an attempt to protect the first amendment. We already have the first amendment. There's no need to pile on or protect. The very language of FADA excludes my family. Mine. Rebecca and me. As in, it does nothing to protect us or our religion or our free speech.

And now I'm sitting in my living room under a blanket writing this. I'm staring at my dining room table where, just a couple days ago, people from multiple religions, races, socioeconomic statuses, and ages sat drinking cider and eating doughnuts. I wish more people had the chance to sit with such diverse groups (and took it).

I am scared. I am grief-stricken.

But I will keep looking at my dining room table that can comfortably seat 12 (and more if they like each other). I will keep my commitment to filling its seats, covering it in homemade dishes, and bringing people together in a safe space. We've dreamed of hosting a Sunday dinner, every week, for anyone who would come and abide in acceptance and love.

I will start this Sunday. I hadn't planned to do it so soon, but we need it now. Please message me if you're interested in participating in a potluck to share the love and share the food.

When I have more than I need, I commit to building a longer table, not a higher fence.

White People: When you say "All Lives Matter"

I should have posted about #blacklivesmatter much sooner.

I've been reading the articles, following the social media threads, trying to understand the movement, and overall attempting, though not as much as I should, to amplify the voices of my African-American friends.

In the process, I have had a few people post on my social media feed that I should be saying "all lives matter," not "Black lives matter."

It was jarring. Especially the day that I posted that Black lives matter because there had been two shootings of black men by police officers it in the 24 hours, and I wanted my Black friends to know that someone cares. Especially because there seems to be a lot of anger and resentment and almost hatred toward the Black community for even saying that there was an injustice.

But here's the really disturbing thing I realized: when White people say "all lives matter" in response to "Black lives matter," they're NOT actually encompassing Black lives in that statement, no matter how much they think they are. If they were including Black lives, they wouldn't really need to say it because no one else said that White lives DON'T matter (there are lots and lots of articles explaining this - I don't need to add to them). What "all lives matter"  really says is, "no, you're wrong. I'm correcting you.

Black lives don't matter. All lives matter. All lives except Black lives matter."

This insistence on correction, on steamrolling, results in an attempt to replace reality. It's as though White people are saying, "black people don't know what they're talking about. They are unqualified to make statements like this. Let me fix this for them and tell them what they really think, what they really feel, what they really know about an issue that primarily affects them."

And the really sad part about all of this is that I am confident that when I post this to social media, the comments thread will continue to do this. It will say things like "no, you really aren't understanding me. Blacks really are wrong, and so are you. Let me just explain 'all lives matter' to you one more time, slowly, and you will see that I am correct and you were wrong." And the implicit result is that it's wrong that Black lives matter.

I haven't posted because I had the luxury not to debate this, just as straight people have the privilege of not justifying their marriages over and over. But White people, we need to do better. We need to think harder. We need to acknowledge that we don't know everything, and especially on this, we don't know more than the Black community.

Black lives matter.

Terrorism and Tending Thyme: Response to Orlando

Yesterday, after learning about the Orlando terrorism of the LGBT and ally community, I shared links to posts last year about the similar terrorism of an African American church in Charleston. The two may not initially appear to be all that similar, other than that they were shootings, but both have hit me very hard.

The one in Charleston because as someone who grew up in the church, I view places of worship as sacred and safe space. Yes, even as a member of the LGBT community, even though some religious people are critical of my marriage. Churches are a place where people come together around a common goal and try to be more human, to celebrate creation and redemption and fellowship.

The one in Orlando because although I don't visit gay clubs or bars much, there's a comfort in knowing that they exist. They're there if ever I need a place to socialize, to hold my wife's hand in public without fear, to know that no one will say "whomever you love" or "I don't have a problem with" or "judge not lest ye be judged" or any of the other comments that make my marriage seem strange or less than. LGBT clubs are places of acceptance and celebration.

It's unsettling to know that in the span of a year, both types of spaces have been through attempts to terrorize and desecrate them.

And I thought about Motor City Pride yesterday, which I hadn't planned to attend because there's still so much to do at #fixerupperdetroit, which is most of my gay agenda right now. We bought the house and are struggling to rehab it to create another safe space, a place where everyone can come and eat and share.

The most revolutionary thing I could think of to protest the violence in Orlando was to plant my garden, standing in my yard with a shovel and a watering can and a flat of assorted herbs. With every shovel full and every sprinkling, I planned to be around until the end of summer, until next summer, until the house is rehabbed and the space is safe and the world is better. I thinned out the day lilies and irises that came with the house to give the others room to breathe. I pulled on work gloves and pulled up picker weeds that would hurt people or turn people away or choke out my beauties.

How the world would be different if everyone pulled up the picker weeds and planted thyme and sage and rosemary and basil instead.

Mississippi on my Mind

Friends, we recently celebrated the end of state-wide bans on same-sex couples adopting children. Mississippi's ban was overturned, in a victory that will help many children find forever homes.

Those who are not as cynical as I rejoiced.

I hoped for the best. But I knew that the pipeline contained a lot of setbacks, given that there has been an agenda, ever since the Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality, to restrict rights to gay couples as much as possible.

Less than a week after the end of state-wide adoption bans, Mississippi passed one of the most devastatingly homophobic, discriminatory, bigoted, harmful bills into law that the United States has ever seen. It allows medical providers to refuse certain services to LGBT members of the community. It allows state officials to refuse to license marriages, even when it is their job to do so (see my article from when Kim Davis made this a thing). It intensifies housing discrimination.

And it likely means that adoption agencies will discriminate against LGBT applicants, meaning that the state will return to a de facto same sex adoption ban, given this language in the version signed by the governor:

The state government shall not take any discriminatory action against a religious organization that advertises, provides or facilitates adoption or foster care, wholly or partially on the basis that such organization has provided or declined to provide any adoption or foster care service, or related service, based upon or in a manner consistent with a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction described in Section 2 of this act.

I can't speak for the LGBT community in Mississippi, so I don't know how they feel about being refused service at restaurants or florists.

Here is what I can tell you.

Children with special needs are overwhelmingly stuck in the foster care system and group homes in the United States. When they are adopted, they are much more likely to find a forever home with a same-sex couple. So are children above the age of six. So are ethnic and racial minority children. Straight couples generally* do not prefer to adopt children from these backgrounds. Preventing gay couples from adopting hurts those couples - but it hurts these vulnerable children waiting for families more.

Rebecca and I are not interested in visiting a place where we could be refused service at a lunch counter, or where the legislature and governor are more interested in protecting discrimination than finding homes for their children.

In fact, yesterday, Rebecca vowed never to set foot in Mississippi, even en route to someplace else. I wish I could say that Michigan is substantially better, but my home state seems to be in a race to the bottom right now.

*Yes, I know people who are anomalies here, and I'm sure you do too. Of course, one possible solution would be for all straight people to adopt special needs children so that there are none left for the gay couples to need to adopt. This isn't happening and is unlikely to start, though I would be thrilled to see many of my straight couple friends consider adopting out of the foster care system.

Land Bank Strikes Again: This Time it's Worse

Edit: I'm waiting for more details to come in about this.  Action steps #1 and #2 still apply. Action step #3 should be put on hold until further notice.


Remember my Open Letter to the Detroit Land Bank Authority that so many of you read and were appalled at? Remember the struggle we had a month ago to make sure that #fixerupperdetroit stayed ours? Remember the problems I articulated with the land bank?

The land bank strikes again, this time at something INFINITELY more important than #fixerupperdetroit. 

You see, even worst case scenario, if the Detroit Land Bank Authority had taken my property away and I had ended up homeless with ruined credit, it would just be me.

Now, a Detroit institution very near and dear to my heart, one of the reasons we bought in the city in the first place, a group that has helped me think and love more deeply about food and money and friends, a group that feeds neighbors, stabilizes the community, preserves the environment, and keeps me posted on how much #detroithustlesharder has been hurt by discriminatory Detroit Land Bank policies.

How?

The Detroit Land Bank has been selling side lots to try to stabilize neighborhoods. This in itself isn't a problem. Having lots owned by residents of the community is beneficial, as they are more likely to be maintained.

However, many lots were already being maintained by neighbors or urban agriculture groups. There actually were policies that approved this type of behavior (it gets complicated to explain, but suffice it to say that Detroit benefited). Faith Farm CSA was one group in a large network that was helping substantially to maintain neighborhoods, feed people, stand in the food desert gap, educate people, and farm sustainably. In fact, they have distributed more than 2.5 tons of food to the needy.

I heard months ago that some of the parcels they were maintaining (but they didn't own) were up for sale with the land bank and they were trying to file to get them permanently. At that point, Rebecca and I went all in, bought a community-supported agriculture share, and determined that we WOULD be living in the city by the time it started, whatever it took. #fixerupperdetroit ensued. Faith Farm had at least some of the cash in hand they needed to purchase the lots that they should have had precedence for.

Now Faith Farm has been notified that someone else, someone who wasn't already doing all of this maintenance, was successful in purchasing the side lots, and the farm will have to move everything to a new location. This will cost them a lot of time and money, just like when we were staring down our unreasonable rehab agreement.

I made this risotto with ingredients from my Faith Farm share. Their veggies always inspire me to cook my best!

Faith Farm eggs are absolutely delicious. You'll never eat fresher. Because their chickens eat a more varied diet than commercial chickens, their eggs are richer, creamier, and more flavorful.

This Faith Farm tomato was exquisite. Flavorful, juicy, the perfect counterpoint to fresh mozzarella and basil.

Here is what I am calling on every reader to do:

1. Financially support Faith Farm CSA by purchasing shares for this summer.

You can purchase a share for yourself or for an urban family (Faith Farm makes sure families with children and seniors in their neighborhood have fresh foods whenever possible). The food is absolutely top notch, and pickups create an opportunity for you to meet new people, learn new things, and visit their chickens and turkey. Although the amount might seem like a lot up front, when you divide it out for 18 weeks, it actually is a very reasonable price for a weekly local, organic grocery budget. And it's not a handout. It's a hand up. You will be investing in something that is directly changing Detroit neighborhoods. Faith Farm still has a chance to buy other lots from the land bank to continue production, but they need to make sure they have the resources to do so. Our direct support is essential.

If you can't buy a full share, consider donating what you can. Some of you offered to support a Gofundme for our legal fees, and I trust that you will put that money to good use now that #fixerupperdetroit is in the clear but another important group isn't.

2. Volunteer at a Faith Farm workday

If you are around Detroit and have time, Faith Farm organizers are looking for help, especially if you have access to tools and equipment. This is a great chance to meet new people, get your hands dirty, and see permaculture in action.

3. Contact the land bank to complain*

You can comment about Faith Farm on the Detroit Land Bank Authority facebook page or leave a negative review, tweet @1DLBA, or call (313) 974-6869. The land bank is already suffering from negative publicity due to actions that have targeted homeowners like us.

*Please hold off on this as we await further details.

My heart is breaking that such good people doing such important work will have to allocate resources they don't really have because of the bureaucratic failings of their city.

DPS, MBA, disaster: Sickouts came from somewhere

I attended GMAT training this weekend and last weekend. My employer was looking for a few more instructors, and I had put in interest, since it's similar to one or two other tests that I teach and would allow me more flexibility.

 But the other reason that I am attending GMAT training is that I am trying to figure out next steps. I am planning to go back to school eventually, probably when Rebecca finishes her residency, and I am considering what degrees I could best to leverage to improve Detroit.

There are many options, given that Detroit has many problems. For a while I considered a Masters of Public Health, so that I could address the environmental issues facing the children of the city. For a while I considered a law degree so that I could make sure that students with special needs were receiving the services that the law guaranteed that. There was a time when I thought that an Ed.D. in something related to education was the best choice, or perhaps a PhD in second language acquisition.

I haven't completely ruled out any of those choices. All of them sound interesting, and do much to research and apply new concepts of problem-solving. I know people with each of these degrees, and I deeply admire the work that they are doing.

However, there is a new field of study that I am considering after pondering what degrees I've been seeing used in decision-making lately.

Robert Bobb? MS in Business Studies.  Roy Roberts? Bachelor's in Business Administration. Darnell Earley? Master's in Public Administration (and Ph.D. in poisoning entire cities). None of the emergency financial managers had a background in education (although Robert Bobb did attend a school superintendent training program created by business mogul Eli Broad).

Governor Snyder has a JD and MBA. 

What degree do many of those controlling the vast majority of the wealth in Detroit have? Business degrees. Administration degrees.

My wife pointed out, at one point, that even in Flint, people with PhDs, DOs, and MDs were ignored for months when they insisted that Flint children were being poisoned by the water. They've also been ignored when they've insisted that the children in Wayne County are being poisoned and shortchanged. Given how long med school is, add some residency, add a high level of difficulty for those doing residencies particularly at urban hospitals, and it is very puzzling that the state has ignored those with that kind of degree, but they did.

And so I believe that I may need to get an MBA to get people to listen to me. Given my nontraditional background for business school, I feel that it would be important to my application to have a very, very high GMAT score. So I went to training to learn more about the test, because I doubt my background in education will count in my favor if the state is unwilling to listen to educators about things like school conditions and curriculum.

After all, what could a teacher know about the business of schooling?

Open Letter to Detroit Land Bank Authority

Dear Detroit Land Bank Authority,

(Back story for this post can be found here: Land Bank, Red Tape, MI Hate, #Fixerupperdetroit Googles Squatters Rights,   and Why Detroit Can't Have Nice Things.)

I saw my wife for 20 minutes today. I drove home between shifts to see her because I didn't think I could wait to discuss this with her. I woke her from sleep because she is currently working nights as a family med resident saving lives at Henry Ford. She is also helping to organize medical care for homeless people in Royal Oak.

And she is trying to get #fixerupperdetroit ready to live in.

Of the 20 minutes I saw her today, I think we were either yelling or crying for about 17 of them. She is overwhelmed and doesn't know how she is going to keep on for another week and a half of night shifts. This is what your seizure notice has done to my wife, my beloved wife who does everything for everyone else, who persisted in buying a home in desperate need of repair from a seller who couldn't care less about the house or the neighborhood.

We spent 68 days trying to close to get this property away from the seller. Then we spent weeks setting up demolition, hiring someone to do landscaping, meeting the neighbors, and uncovering antiquated sewer lines, electrical dangers, plumbing leaks, and fiberglass insulation.

I'm sorry that the neighbors complained that the house was a nuisance before we bought it, or that your crew driving by noticed it looked vacant, or whatever caused you to post the sign, since you don't seem to have the story straight, but it turns out it takes time to turn around a 1928 home.

We're working at it. We have to - our mortgage requires it. Our current living situation requires it.

There are so many owners who aren't working at it. The person who owned our house before us (and who, rumor has it, owns multiple other properties). The person who still owns the house we spent the summer trying to buy. You'd be better off going after them. You claim, in fact, that you are going after them. In that case, why is a friend still fighting to execute a purchase agreement on a Parkside home, a house that has been vacant without climate control for multiple winters now? In that case, why didn't you seize our Greenacres property when our seller had it? The house was featured on Curbed in October 2014 and had been vacant the whole time. Why not go after the negligent landlords? You've got 99 problems, and we ain't one.

My dear wife cannot bear the thought of signing an agreement that would in any way allow you to take our home. After the fight we've had to buy it, signing any paperwork that would create even the tiniest possibility that we will not keep it is untenable to her. And I don't blame her. We've seen a lot of examples of government and corporate overreach in Michigan lately. We've been the victims of unfair housing laws already. She's not irrational for believing that you really might take our home.

I'm hoping that this is a misunderstanding, and that if I keep explaining to you, you will understand that we are not the enemy, we are not negligent, and we also are camels whose backs can't take another straw.

Every minute we spend fighting with you, every dollar we spend on legal fees is a minute and a dollar that isn't spent actually fixing up the property. Your actions are counterproductive. You are wasting your own resources and my resources, and I will not be silent.

So shame on you. Shame on you for terrifying my gentle wife who is already sleep deprived and overwhelmed. Shame on you for going after easy targets like us, who are law abiding, instead of focusing on the real problem. Shame on you for prioritizing certain neighborhoods over others.

Regards,

Committing in the Mitten

Land Bank, Red Tape, MI Hate: #fixerupperdetroit lawyers up

Today's post was going to a charming tale about how demolition makes a better story in a 30 minute HGTV show, where it's like five minutes and over, and only shows the exciting parts, than it does in real life, especially when the people doing it have other jobs.

Here are the pictures you would have gotten to see:

Panoramic of our fully gutted kitchen.

This window apparently used to be much bigger, or even a door? Not sure.

This is where our ground floor lavatory will go.

The dumpster is starting to fill up!

Panoramic of our street. Isn't it lovely with a light blanket of snow?

Rebecca deserves mad props for having pulled up this much tile, leveling cement, and hardwood. This is down to the subfloor now. What were those holes for? Not exactly sure. Plumbing or heat, maybe.

It's been a lot of work getting everything hauled to this dumpster!

Did I mention I'm proud of myself for hauling out so much rubbish?

Instead, I'm writing an update about the land bank story line. For back story, see: Why Detroit Can't Have Nice Things and #fixerupperdetroit Googles Squatters' Rights.

I heard from the lawyer recently and explained the situation and that we're on a renovation mortgage and would be happy to provide documentation of that so they can close our file.

She wrote back to say that she must follow a specific procedure. The "easiest" option is for us to sign a rehab agreement. That seemed reasonable-ish -

if you ignore the fact that entering into an agreement with an entity that operates very slowly, doesn't correspond with other agencies before acting, uses a lot of vague requirements, doesn't exist in most cities, could take away your house, and doesn't have to notify you of situations before acting is unreasonable -

until I read it.

And then I started thinking about our timeline for renovation for the bank, and the timeline they laid out, and how much paperwork and verification we already have to do to keep our renovation mortgage working, and how much we've already inconvenienced our contractor, and how busy we are with just what we've agreed to now, and how impossible it can be to file paperwork with the city, and how much paperwork this would require.

The nuisance complaint isn't even because of us. The neighbors would retract it in a heartbeat if they could.

So I called a real estate attorney and we will see what he says.

This is why people don't buy homes in the city. It's not that the homes aren't beautiful - many are. It's not that the neighbors aren't great - they are. It's the amount of red tape and the way services are delivered.

Detroit, MLK, & Rosie the Riveter

Continuing #demoday necessitated channeling Rosie.

Demolition is starting to wear on me, though I love visiting our house everyday and feeling that we're making progress. There are a LOT of nails in the kitchen floor that make taking up the original hardwood (which is beneath tile and leveling cement) difficult and also impede shoveling the debris.

I never thought I could hate an inanimate object as much as I hate plaster. Unlike drywall, which mostly comes down in large pieces, plaster comes down in small chunks, or worse, dust, and has to be shoveled up and then swept up. 

So I'm reminding myself that I can do this. Today, that resulted in the above picture - living the Rosie the Riveter narrative that I, as a woman, can complete physical labor that was traditionally men's work. Rosie was actually from metro Detroit - Ypsilanti, I think. 

You know what else happened in Detroit? MLK's first rendition of the "I Have a Dream" speech.

Which is sort of a juxtaposition, particularly now, when DPS school children face such harsh learning conditions, in part because they live in a city where the majority of students have a certain color of their skin. A city where many, many of the people with the same color skin are unemployed, underemployed, or employed in jobs with such low wages and such poor working conditions as to be comparable in many ways to sharecropping. These jobs result in many living in the poverty so rightfully condemned by MLK as a result of discrimination. MLK called the US out for defaulting on its promise that all citizens had the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Detroit is in default. Michigan is in default. 

As I stood today in my kitchen, my second kitchen, because I also have an apartment while I gut the #fixerupperdetroit kitchen, I was, and always am, profoundly aware of the privilege of purchasing a home. I am so deeply grateful, but I wish all Detroiters, all Michiganders, could experience homeownership, could have jobs with enough dignity and wages to afford a home. 

I wish all of my students believed that "we can do it!" I wish they all had hope in MLK's dream. Many do. But some see the default, the discrimination, the poverty, and it feels insurmountable to them, and I don't blame them. 

We have not followed through on MLK's demands (yes, they were demands, and he was a radical). We have not fulfilled the goals of the African American civil rights movement. 

We still can, and we must. We must, for today's children. They deserve so much better than what they're getting.

DPS Sickout, CPS, and "If You See Something, Say Something"

Teachers are mandatory reporters. That means that when they receive their teaching certificate, it mandates that if they see signs of child abuse, they must start the chain to notify child protective services.

Essentially, every day at work, DPS teachers are staring down conditions that are tantamount to child abuse. Unsafe drinking water. Lack of sanitation. Inedible food. Falling ceiling tiles. No heat on cold winter days.

Here's the thing about mandatory reporting. Teachers aren't required to mention something to someone and then go about their business. They're required to make sure the report goes through and an investigation is properly handled. They don't do the investigation - that's the job of the social workers and other staff at child protective services. They don't remove the children from the situation. But they take action.

In this case, the investigation was mishandled, or didn't happen. Previous emergency financial managers knew about these conditions. I know they knew, because Robert Bobb visited the school I worked at while we had no custodial staff and only half the bathrooms worked - in 2009. He knew, and he did nothing to improve conditions. The rest of them must have known too. And they did nothing.

It isn't the job of the teachers to glue ceiling tiles back to the ceiling. It isn't their job to fix the plumbing or the boiler. But it is their job to report until an investigation is taken seriously. It is their job to protect their students.

If the administration didn't act, and it was illegal to strike, what choice did teachers have but to call in sick until something got done? Who was going to speak out for the children? Should teachers have called CPS on behalf of every single child until CPS had to pull every child from school?

CPS doesn't have the resources to do that. Nor should the conditions at schools be tantamount to child abuse or neglect.

Update: #fixerupperdetroit Googles Squatter's Rights

Today, I googled. I googled the phrase "squatter's rights Detroit," in fact.

Yesterday, I told you that we received a sign on our door from the Detroit Land Bank Authority that we had three days to call their number or we risked our home being seized.

We called twice. No one answered.

So I sent over some documents, Rebecca took this afternoon off, we gathered up some paperwork, contacted a bunch of people, and tried not to collapse under the weight of another straw on the camel's back.

I called the land bank today and sat on the phone answering and asking questions. The woman told me their attorney would call in 5-10 business days with instructions. I asked if I needed to fill out forms, if I needed to get money together, what I had done wrong, if I could see my file, if they're going to try to take my house. She repeated that the lawyer would call in 5-10 business days.  I told her that my demolition day is scheduled for fewer than 5 business days from now. She said I could keep working on the house. I tried to explain to her that I don't want to work on a house if they're going to take it away. She told me that she can't give me any information, nor is there a website or other set of documentation that explains protocol.

At this point, this process is starting to seem pretty undemocratic.

I've been suspicious of the land bank for a while now, but that's another post.

So I started googling. I was trying to figure out how to establish occupancy, because I've read that an eviction is harder than a seizure. We wouldn't really be squatters, since we have the deed and have paid for the property and so forth, but I thought it might help. (It didn't really.)

Then Rebecca filed our property transfer affidavit and principal residence exemption and changed her Secretary of State address to our house.

I called two different lawyers to see what I should do. I can meet with one of them on Friday, and I think he can help if it comes down to it, though that's another set of fees that can't go toward actually REPAIRING this house and then occupying it, which I'm pretty sure is supposed to be the land bank's goal.

And then, I contacted a friend who works for the land bank, and she was able to pull our records. She confirmed my suspicion: the neighbors had filed a nuisance complaint against the previous owner for neglecting the property. That's fair. They had been mowing the lawn and pruning the trees for him. He hadn't done any repairs in a long time. The garage is falling down, and there was a pile of trash in the backyard.

My friend is pretty sure the complaint will either be dismissed or that we'll have to agree to rehab the property (which is what we did when we took out a renovation mortgage, so I guess that's fine). I wish the land bank would have actually looked at the property, though. It no longer looks like a nuisance.

It looks like it's in process.

Just like most of us.

Bureaucracy: Why Detroit Can't Have Nice Things

Rebecca found this on our door today. 

Instead of "welcome to the neighborhood, could you use any help?" the land bank is threatening to seize our house because it looks vacant/unkempt.

It looks less unkempt than it did. Whoever posted this sign didn't see that all of the invasive trees have been removed from the backyard, along with a pile of refuse the previous owner had left piled up. 

Nor did they look inside to see that we have pulled up the carpeting, opened some of the walls, and disconnected the outdated/unsafe plumbing from the kitchen and upstairs bathroom.  

Never mind that our house just sold a month ago, or that we took out a mortgage with renovation funds, or that they received all back taxes on the house within the last month, or that we had a water meter installed so that we can pay our fair share, unlike the previous owner. Checking any one of those records would show that we aren't derelict owners.

I was just starting to feel better about this process, to think that many we're set up to get through this without more drama caused by the seller's ineptitude and moral bankruptcy. We attempted to call the number on this poster - twice - with no success.

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. This is the level of failed bureaucracy Detroit is working with. This is the real reason people are afraid to move to the city, or that people move out if they can - it's not that all of the housing stock is in terrible shape. Some of it is great. It's not that the neighbors aren't nice - they are. 

It's that people are concerned, rightfully so, about city services. They're concerned that different agencies within the city don't coordinate with each other. They're concerned that the city doesn't have its priorities straight. 

I hope they get this sorted soon, because there are so many wonderful things about the city. I don't want to miss them because my house was seized.

(Side note: we're going to file a bunch of paperwork with the city and call an attorney tomorrow, and we will call the land bank repeatedly until someone picks up. I also faxed them a copy of our deed and renovation plan. None of that tedium makes for a good blog post, though.)

Gov Snyder: Sacrificing Children to Idol of Capitalism

I've been following the Flint water crisis for months now. With my background in education, I take lead poisoning very seriously, as it can cause really serious lifelong damage. And at this point in time, it's preventable. Yet Rebecca sees it in some of her pediatric patients because landlords don't take it seriously, and now many of Flint's children suffer from it because Governor Snyder and his emergency financial manager/dictator decided that saving a few dollars on water was more important than providing potable drinking water to an entire city.

I can't help but think of this passage of the Bible, from right after the Christmas story we all recently celebrated:

Matthew Chapter 2

16 Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance. 17 Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: 

18 “A cry was heard in Ramah— 

weeping and great mourning. 

Rachel weeps for her children, 

refusing to be comforted, 

for they are dead.”* 

According to the Bible, Mary and Joseph received divine guidance to flee so that Jesus wouldn't be among the children killed. (*Background, if you need it: Herod was a brutal leader who feared that the Jewish messiah would overtake his reign. Since he liked his power and money and didn't care who was hurt, he ordered the murder of any child that could possibly meet the criteria.)

I have heard the pro-life group ask, "What if Mary had aborted Jesus?" Yet the same politicians have eroded democracy, promoted austerity and poverty, and de-prioritized children and families all over Michigan.

So let me ask: What if Herod's soldiers had murdered Jesus? What if the leader who didn't value the life of a toddler from a community unlike his had succeeded? What if his thirst for power, wealth, empire, subjugation, colonization had been fruitful?

How many potential leaders have been killed or maimed in the Flint water crisis? (Not to mention all of the other forms of pollution and poverty for so many of Michigan's children.)

How long must there be weeping and great mourning in Michigan communities?

Abigail Fisher, Affirmative Action, & Nepotism

My social media feeds have included a quite a bit about a Supreme Court case - Fisher v. University of Texas - regarding affirmative action (a topic I also address in a previous post). It is not the goal of this post to provide background on the case, though you can read more here, and many have offered very worthwhile commentary on the need for affirmative action, the hegemony of White privilege, and the racism inherent in the US education system. Check out #staymadabby for more.

I stand by my earlier assertion that we need affirmative action.

And I want to bring up something people keep missing.

I want to give you insight to another tool being used in admissions, one many might consider unfair if it weren't so pervasive, so ingrained, that we don't even notice it. And it heavily benefits Whites.

Yes.

And it isn't exactly racism, even. Though it does end up perpetuating systemic inequality in addition to the racism involved in the funding of K-12 schools, colleges, admissions, and other factors. That is, it is one of many problems, but it is one that seems largely ignored.

I mention nepotism in the title of this post. In fact, nepotism is a much larger factor in admissions than anyone would like to admit.

How so?

Have you ever noticed a little box on the admissions application to almost every program in higher education? It's labeled legacy, or it may say, "do you have a family member that has attended this institution? Or program?"

It's a box that I have never gotten to check. My family members did not attend institutions that had the majors or programs that I needed, so I didn't get to. Many say this box is not that important. They say that it gives only a minimal admissions boost, or is used only for data collection. But the statistics don't lie. Legacy consideration, according to a Harvard study referenced in the Chronicle of Higher Education, may drastically improve an applicant's chances. In fact, some studies suggest that legacy status may be the equivalent of adding 160 points on the SAT (on a 400-1600 scale, as was typical before 2005 and will be again in 2016). Let me tell you, given my line of work, that I know test scores: 160 points is a LOT.

Abigail Fisher would have gotten to check that box. Her father and sister both went to UT. So in fact, one could argue, and I believe Abigail Fisher believes, that she deserved a spot partly because her family had attended that institution before her. And she wanted to continue that tradition. It seems innocent enough.

But she already had an advantage in admissions to an elite institution that many students wouldn't, and disproportionately, students from racial minority backgrounds wouldn't. Given that institutions of higher education were segregated until relatively recently, and that admissions legacy policies benefited White students for a long time after, White students actually still have an admissions advantage that no one is discussing. Because if your grandparents, or your parents, your aunts and uncles, could not get into the school of their/your choosing due to racial bias, then you automatically have a disadvantage.

And this makes it ever more important that we use affirmative action to make sure that seats are given to the students who cannot check the legacy box. Those who would like to ban affirmative action policies by arguing that they prevent the most qualified applicants from attending a school should ALSO be complaining about the legacy policies.

How strange that they complain about policies that benefit racial minorities and are silent about policies that favor Whites.

Stop calling women irrational; It's just lazy

I've been female all my life.

So for a long time, I didn't realize how many beliefs I held were socialized to be appropriate for me, as a female, but weren't necessarily true, or weren't things male members of the population thought about. Once I started realizing that the rules are different for males and females, I started noticing that males don't necessarily realize that. A few friends have posted this link about that very state of affairs. I was shocked how much it resonated, despite the fact that I'd consider myself generally fortunate.

The TL;DR version of that article is that because men don't experience sexism or may not see how pervasive it is, they don't understand why women are upset by it or how much it affects us. The author explains that all women (#yesallwomen) have to de-escalate situations or work around their gender on a daily basis in a way that makes them deeply aware of their femininity in a way men may not have to persistently carry their masculinity. She also optimistically suggests that if men saw this more or we told them about it, they would be different.

I have a post percolating on the number of moments in a day that I choose not to do something because it is on the list of behaviors that would get me victim-blamed if I were assaulted. It includes activities such as stopping to help a motorist with the flashers on, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, wearing pencil skirts, and sitting in my car to make a list after I've gotten in. Yes, at some point, all of those have been suggested as choices that could increase the likelihood I would be sexually assaulted. None are moral failings.

I also have started mentally noting when I do things at work that I'm fairly certain I wouldn't have to worry about if I were male. Picking clothing carefully - even things appropriate in an office environment could draw comments from male students (and somehow adolescent males get even more a pass on appropriate behavior), softening comments, adding the word "just," being meticulous about paperwork and not seeming "hard to manage." It's a lot of little things.

I have even brought this up with male coworkers or posted about it on social media and had debates with male friends.

And I'm concerned.

I'm concerned that many of them, even when women explain, disagree. I'm concerned that they continue to call women "crazy" or "irrational" -

because it's easier to disregard women's comments as unfounded or unimportant than to consider that the rules are different (and worse) for women.

Some of those social media debates have resulted in a male friend victim-blaming consistently and then messaging me later to tell me that after thinking about it, he realized he was wrong. And getting that message was great - as a teacher, there's little more rewarding to me than helping someone have an epiphany - but getting there was exhausting. Being told I was wrong about my own experience (and that there was something better to handle it that I didn't think to do already) was really, really hard.

And I've had similar conversations with no epiphany. I've had similar conversations where I defended my actions or the actions of my fellow women, tried to explain the underlying reason for a behavior men didn't understand, only to be laughed at or discounted because the male person had never seen this. And having to defend myself, being laughed at, being told I'm irrational or silly or wrong - I should be used to it as a woman, but somehow it's worse when I'm trying to share an experience like this, when I'm being vulnerable and trying to let a man into the club of people who understand the female experience, and he decides it's easier to say that what I'm doing doesn't make sense.

No, I get that he wouldn't do that thing.

It wouldn't make sense for men to do or say many of the things I do or say. 

 That doesn't mean that it's irrational for me to do it. And dismissing my choice and my planning and then subsequently victim-blaming me when I fail to prevent an undesirable situation or don't de-escalate something successfully makes me disinclined to continue going on trying to let men into the club. After all, according to the rules, vulnerability is a moral weakness committed mostly by women. According to the rules, men's perspective is more important than women's.

And honestly, it's not my job to educate those who seek to oppress or discredit me. It's not my job to leverage anecdote after anecdote and statistic after statistic to convince someone that I deserve to be treated like a human being. I sometimes choose to. But that information is out there on the interwebz, available for men who truly want to be enlightened. If I choose to share my personal experiences, it is a gift to the man in my company to be trusted enough that I am trying to bring him into the club. It is not an obligation. Failing to provide an experience that strikes a chord doesn't mean I am less deserving of consideration.

So men, don't call me irrational when I do something you don't understand. Women, don't accept or perpetuate that label. It isn't accurate.

Calling women irrational when they protect themselves isn't considered or strong or rational.

At best, it's lazy. At worst, it's dangerous.

Dear Houston: You Just Cut off your Nose to Spite your Face

Most of my readers have probably already heard that Houston voted down a measure barring discrimination for a variety of groups, including (but very much NOT limited to) the LGBT community. If you haven't, read the HuffPo piece here.

I could write about the constitutionality of voters deciding whether people should have rights (hint: a majority voting to oppress a minority isn't constitutional, and it's not what the Founding Fathers intended for democracy). I could write about gerrymandering, the attempt in many places to disenfranchise certain voting blocks, or the inaccurate campaign to convince voters that this measure was somehow about allowing men in women's bathrooms.

Instead, I want to point out the hypocrisy of this single-issue-voter, reactionary conservative mindset to withhold protections from the LGBT community, share which other groups are left vulnerable, and assert that this will have an impact on the perception of Houston and the willingness of young professionals to relocate there.

So, here's the list of other groups who are now unprotected in the name of allowing people to discriminate against my group, and reasons this is horribly hypocritical:

Race - if we want to say that everyone has an equal opportunity, that racism no longer exists, or that White privilege isn't a thing, then no one should be bothered by this. If you're still trying to protect people's right to discriminate based on race, well, then, admit that the Civil Rights Movement isn't over.

Age - If you say you love senior citizens, if you're opposed to physician-assisted suicide, if you believe that the elderly have much to offer and should be protected, well, why wouldn't protecting them make sense? And if you believe "kids these days" need to work hard, why wouldn't you want them to have opportunities for employment and safe housing?

Pregnancy - Big one here, Houston. If you're pro-life, you have to be pro-pregnant women. Protecting them from discrimination in employment and housing might be the single easiest thing you can do to reduce the rate of abortions.

Sex - again, do you want to admit we still need feminism? Or do you want to pass something that you're effectively arguing is unnecessary, in the name of getting protections for the other groups on this list you purport to care about?

Color - see Race comment.

Disability - if every life matters, then protecting the disabled is our duty as humans, and as adherents of any religious background.

Military Status - our military serves every day to protect us. Isn't it time to protect them? If this measure would keep even one active member of the military or veteran from homelessness, wasn't it worth passing?

National Origin - Houston is an incredibly diverse city. Kind of thought y'all would want to keep that up.

Ethnicity - see Race comment.

Religion - believe it or not, the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and this would actually protect all the Christians that the right is claiming are under attack, if they really are.

Sexual Orientation - So this was what you supposedly actually objected to. I obviously disagree, but that's not the objective of this post.

Gender Identity - See Sexual Orientation comment.

Genetic Information - You know who has different genetics? People with certain predictors of breast cancer. People with Down's syndrome. People with Huntington's. If the Right is actually pro-women and pro-women's health, pro-life, pro-disability, again, why would they pass up the opportunity to protect such groups?

Marital Status - this is a critical one for many women. Marital status has been demonstrated to be a point of discrimination in situations like hiring and promotion. Again, if you're truly pro-women, pro-pregnancy, and pro-life, why not pass this?

Family Status - want to truly be pro-family and promote family values? Preventing discrimination here would be a key step. Allowing employers or housing offices to discriminate against those with children isn't pro-life, pro-pregnancy, or pro-child, since guess what? Most pregnancy end with a child and a change in family status.

I have already spoken to people who refuse to move to Michigan because of a lack of these kinds of protections. In fact, my wife and I refuse to relocated to Texas given the disregard for civil rights there (and maybe you think that isn't a loss, but I happen to know you have a shortage of people who can care for pregnant women, and my wife is a family med physician with a lot of training in managing pregnancies and deliveries. I also know that you have a teacher shortage, especially in ESL and bilingual, and I'm looking to get back into public school education.).

So maybe, if you could set aside the details about people that you don't like and look at the bigger picture, you would see a world that's a little more just, a little kinder, and a little more principled.

Mold, Leasing Office, Homelessness: The Mess You Didn't See

I swore, at some point, never to be homeless again. I've been homeless twice - not the kind everyone thinks of, sleeping on a park bench, but homeless nonetheless. I couch-surfed or slept on people's floors. I was blessed to have a network of people to stay with and a car, but having no permanent address or key is still very difficult, more than just logistically. I've written a little about this before, once in a list of bad days before the very worst day, and then the second worst day, happened.

We thought once Rebecca became a doctor that we were safe. And then something happened recently that brought back the fear of coming loose, possessions in once place, us in another, and I realized there is never a guarantee that you won't become homeless, no matter how hard you try (unless, maybe, you are the 1%?). A large percentage of Americans are one missed paycheck away from homelessness. We're better off than that now, but recently, we had a roof leak that lead to my closet molding. At first, it was just inconvenient, but Rebecca and I both have mold allergies and knew that it was probably a matter of time before we started reacting. I diligently informed the maintenance about this, about every other day for a week, until I woke up Saturday completely congested.

And having sneezing fits - debilitating ones. I spent the day exhausted, but didn't really put it together until Rebecca got home and started up too. We're allergic to our bedroom.

I called maintenance, again, to let them know, and called them again the next morning. No one was helpful, and no one came (it had been more than a week since the initial leak). One of them pointed out that if it was unsafe, we shouldn't go home to our apartment and should inform the office that we are withholding rent until the issue is resolved (he probably shouldn't have done that, but it wasn't an actual option since the cats were still there anyway).

And I sat down on the floor of the church multi-purpose room, where I had stepped to take the call, and sobbed, quietly. And thought of all of the things I would have to do - find a spot for the cats, figure out how to pack clothes out of a closet that kept me from breathing, stop the mail, contact the health department, figure out what to do with the contents of the refrigerator, start making calls to find out who had space for one or two more people, let my employer know not to mail any materials to me . . . I thought about the fact that I had no idea how long the homelessness would last this time, that I didn't want to move to a new apartment now just to move to our house in a few months, that I didn't know if I would ever feel safe in this apartment again now that we know that the leasing office doesn't care about us.

Some would say this is an overreaction. Those people haven't been in this situation. They haven't been homeless. They don't know that planning ahead and orchestrating everything might be the one way to end up with a home again after and all of your things still intact, if it's possible at all. They may not know what it is like to listen to an authority figure say one thing and know that it actually means that your health, your life aren't worth urgency, aren't worth a rush order, aren't even worth a phone call.

And readers, I know you think that I'm strong. Many of you have told me I'm brave. But you didn't see me crumpled into a puddle of tears on that church floor, trying to decide whether to go home or not. You didn't see me yell at the leasing office staff because I was so frustrated that a severe allergic reaction wasn't considered an emergency. I was less kind than I want to be. I extended less grace than I hope to.

Someone came today and sprayed the mold with bleach. I don't know if it will help, but I hope it will. It doesn't change the feeling that we don't belong in this building, and it's time to stop renting. I know that owning a home is difficult, and owning a historic home in need of TLC is more so, but at least it will be my decision when to call a mold abatement crew and which one. And we will also have more space to shift things into or other places to stay if one room is impacted.

And maybe that is where I am finding some of the joy of almost being a homeowner: in that it will be much harder to evict me, in that it will be harder for someone in charge to tell me I don't matter, in that I can then extend a welcome to others who are in a messy living situation. 

Because we all have messes people don't see, and sometimes we don't ask for or receive help before they get worse.

Dear Ben Carson: Who's a Homophobe if You're Not One?

I stirred up a lot of controversy with my post Speaking the Truth in Love, about those who deny their bigotry while insisting that the LGBT community should have fewer rights than everyone else. In it, I assert that people believe

• "that it's not possible for "nice" people to be bigoted..." but "if you believe that discriminating against people based on their presence in any minority group is okay, particularly if you believe that solely because you cannot imagine the world otherwise, you are a bigot....the honest thing to do here is for you to acknowledge that your position is prejudiced. The honest reaction is that you prefer to be prejudiced and accept the label of bigot/homophobe."

So I'm calling Dr. Ben Carson out as a homophobe and asking him -

Who is a homophobe, if you are not? What is homophobia, if you personally do not espouse it? Is the only way to be a homophobe to actively physically assault members of the LGBT community? Or to support imprisoning them/killing them? 

Don't believe me that he is a bigot? Read this and tell me if he could be otherwise:

• “Obviously you don’t understand my views on homosexuality. I believe our Constitution protects everybody regardless of their sexual orientation or any other aspect. I also believe marriage is between one man and one woman. There is no reason you can’t be perfectly fair to the gay community.” 
• “They shouldn’t automatically assume that because you believe that marriage is between one man and one woman that you are a homophobe. This is one of the myths that the left perpetrates on our society and this is how they frighten people and get people to shut up. That’s what the P.C. culture is all about and it’s destroying this nation.”
• Also, Carson signed the National Organization for Marriage’s presidential pledge, which demands support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, the reversal of any policy that recognizes same-sex couple’s marriages, 

• and the end to any nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people. 

(this is all cited from a Think Progress article about Ben Carson's views of non-straight sexual orientations). 

Advocating the removal of rights from gay people via creative legislation is bigotry, especially now that the Supreme Court has ruled. Believing that people should be fired solely for being (or even just seeming) gay is bigotry. Believing that people should be denied housing simply for being gay is bigotry.

As I have already said, I don't hate bigots, but I do have a problem with the bigoted lifestyle.

And I don't think bigots should get to represent or lead groups they are trying to hurt.

Statement about Spring Valley High

Unusual concision from me:

Society just taught a room full of students that violence brings power and is the way to get what they want.

Society just taught them that it's okay to hurt people when people do something they don't like.

Online commentary has been justifying violence against women for minor offenses, so we're teaching women that future violence against them is their fault, they deserve it, and they shouldn't report it to the police, because the police will also hurt them.

That is the message this incident sends.