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Showing posts from December, 2015

My "Annie Oakley" childhood

When I was growing up, guns were an everyday part of my life.  We lived in the middle of 3200 acres of wooded land, and we were poor. My father was a hunter, and he shot deer, ducks, pheasant, quail, rabbits, wild turkey, geese, and probably a few things I don't know about or remember. Meat didn't come from the grocery store, it came from the freezer in the barn. Beyond hunting, my father loved competitive target target shooting for the sport of it. He owned handguns, and he took the time to teach both my mother and me how to shoot accurately and safely. My parents belonged to a gun club, and their friends were people--often couples--who also competed. I remember at least twice going to the National Pistol matches in Camp Perry, Ohio for our summer "vacation." It was a far cry from roller coasters at Cedar Point, but as an only child, I didn't know the difference. Did anyone get upset about a six-year-old shooting at targets? Not that I remember. Even when...

Almost There

It’s December 23, 2015, and in 7 days I will be formally retired from a nearly 50-year-long work life. So far, it’s okay. I’m likin’ it. Because it’s nearly Christmas, not much has changed. Working in higher education, I’ve become accustomed to the ebb and flow of semesters, summer teaching, and holidays. This feels like most Christmas breaks, with one exception; there’s no voice in the back of my consciousness reminding me to write my syllabi for the spring semester, set up an assignments calendar, and make sure that textbooks have been ordered. Well, the voice is actually there, I’m just ignoring it and smiling to myself. I really didn’t realize how burned-out I was after this year. The combination of guilt because I couldn’t do enough to teach my students, guilt because I couldn’t spend more time with my grandchildren, guilt because I couldn’t volunteer more, and all the other sorts of guilt that women of my age accumulate, finally caught up with me. I’ve taken the past t...

America's public health is in peril

On this day, several--maybe three--shooters shot 14 people and injured 17 others in San Bernardino, Cal. The shooters attacked Inland Regional, a social service agency that cares for those with developmental needs. In America, we've reached a time where barely a day goes by without one of these mass shootings, so I feel very sure when I say that America's public health is in great danger. I am filled with rage that this can happen in MY country, filled with rage that any person feels compelled to do this, and filled with a great desire to solve this problem and get it done and over with. I'm smart, organized, capable, experienced, and trained to lead, so why can't I--or for that matter--others smarter than me--come up with a way to stop this? As an academic, I turn first to research. There's some, but it offers no answers. Jonathan Metzl (both MD and PhD) and Kenneth MacLeish (PhD), wrote in the February 2015 issue of the American Journal of Public Health  about...