on Racism

This is an excerpt from a chapter in my Teacher You Look Like a Horse book. This chapter covers how I made changes in children who came to class with vocabulary such as Jap and the N-word. By age five, they were well taught by adults. I will donate this book to any school district interested in knowing how one person handled racism in the classroom.

interview: on poetry and being home bound

This is an interview with  Asian American Curriculum. Hope there is something here for you. Thank you ….

file:///C:/Users/Frances/Desktop/Asian%20American%20newsletter%202020.htm

Arden Fair Mall: $$$$ over Common Sense

Arden Fair Mall: $$$$ over Common Sense

 

Arden Fair Mall banned me from walking the perimeters of the mall. I’m the only walker, see photo. I walk three feet away from Arden Way sidewalk. It’s so much safer. This has been going on for two months.

I spoke to their Corporate Office and tried to tell him:

1. I wear a mask.
2. I’m the only walker
3. An elderly man with a walker walks about 100 feet back and forth about five times in one corner of the parking lot. He, too, is banned.
4. Many mall workers do not wear masks.
5. Two city buses park in the mall and their passengers do not wear masks.
6. Food delivery drivers to restaurants do not wear masks.
7. I often need to walk three feet over to their parking lot when I see bicyclists or someone walking toward me on the side walk, or see a homeless person sleeping near by.
8. I’m forced to walk over to their lot when their sprinkling system sprays over sidewalks onto the street or when their workers are working near the sidewalk.

I’m yelled at by security guards when I’m on their ground except for one who ignores me.

I called their corporate office and before I could explain, he began to describe the two new shops that will  be added to the mall and how I will enjoy the mall when it opens. I interrupted him and asked, “Is your answer yes or no to my request?”

He said, “No, because we do not want you to infect others.”

He confirmed my belief that most corporate offices are not human, they are robots who only see dollar signs. Human needs do  not compute in their system. This would have been a good time for Arden Fair Mall to dig deeply into their humanity and common sense to help resolve human problems instead of seeing people as incoming dollar signs.

The mall opened yesterday and I’m not going near that mall; they might infect me.

Children! Rule Our World For Us!

I think this story deserves another reading….

Do you remember Tyler; my little friend with the big heart from Montana? When he heard someone had stolen the sunflowers from our front yard last year, he asked his grandma to send me seeds from his garden. He sent me four large sunflowers, all seeded. I sent him the following letter a few minutes ago.

Dear Tyler,

This week, my friend Red was digging the front yard. We turned our lawn into a flower and vegetable garden.
That’s where we planted our sunflowers.
After he put all the starter plants in, a little girl, about age 6, stopped by. Her mother was in a wheelchair.
This is the conversation:

Girl: Are you planting sunflowers?
Red: No, these are all vegetables.
Girl: That’s a tomato plant.
Red: Hey, you’re very good. You know your vegetable plants.
Girl. What’s that?
Red: That’s Swiss Chard. When these vegetables are ready, we’ll share them with you.
Girl: How about the sunflowers? Last summer, I saw your sunflowers so I went home to draw one and I drew one that looked just like your sunflowers.

Tyler, I wasn’t going to plant sunflowers this year because California is having a terrible drought. We even have Water Patrol to see that we don’t waste water. But after I heard that little girl, I took out your sunflowers and planted them. I also sent some to my friend in Hawaii. So your sunflowers will soon bloom in California and in Hawaii.

Tell Grandma to take you to Hawaii to see your sunflowers in bloom.
I will send photos when they are in bloom. We just planted them.

Are you having a good summer.
You are my sunflower friend.
Love, frances

The sunflowers, they bloomed.

Join us tomorrow April 25

Ill be on at 4, Hawaii time, 7 p.m. CA time. If you care to join us, please check in at the following half an hour or earliar.

https://bluejeans.com/622577920/4630?src=calendarLink

 

Earth Day

I am Earth

Do not poison me

Do not pollute me

Do not smog me

Do not drought me

Do not insecticide me

Do not tamper me

Do not Hybrid me

Do not Monsanto me

Do not rape me

Do not kill me

I am Earth

I am you.

frances kakugawa

6 Feet is not safe, it’s not a magical number

6 Feet won’t protect you.

In Sunday’s NYTimes,  it’s clear by illustrations that a sneeze from a person with Covid-19 can cover a person 6 ‘ away. No one seems to know where this 6 ‘ protection came from as research hasn’t been done.

WHO says 3 feet, CDC says 6 feet, MIT says 25 feet.

MIT says a sneeze can reach someone 22-25 feet away. First they said it’ not airborne, now they are saying it is.

Until the facts are in, I plan to go with MIT and leave the guess work to the White House.  Better safe than sorry. I suggest you do the same .

Stay safe. frances