Suburban teachers are figuring out ways to talk about race and racism and their roles in history to challenge timeworn methods for teaching about the past.

Whether such conversations belong in the classroom is a debate raging nationally and has become a political flashpoint pitting parents against teachers, school leaders and one another.

A state task force is working to help school districts improve how Black history is taught in classrooms, while Illinois educators are being trained on new culturally responsive teaching standards.

But Republican lawmakers and conservative activists have criticized diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in public schools, which they view as a means of promoting a controversial concept known as critical race theory.

Originating in the 1970s, the theory is an academic examination of social, cultural and legal issues regarding race and racism in the United States. The framework's basic tenet is that racism is more than individual prejudices and biases; it is embedded within economic and political systems and institutions, perpetuating racial inequities in health care, education and criminal justice.

Illinois' largest teachers unions -- the Illinois Education Association and the Illinois Federation of Teachers -- support using a racial and social justice framework to teach students. That requires educators, regardless of background or identity, to bring "a cultural understanding and a deep self-awareness to their work," the IEA says.

Though currently not part of Illinois' public school curriculum at any grade level, the concept of critical race theory is greatly misunderstood and misrepresented, suburban teachers say.

Some educators say teaching about race isn't theoretical and requires nuance, giving students the historical and contemporary contexts to help them think critically about the issue.

"What critical race theory actually is and how we use it colloquially are not really the same," said Paul Friedrich, who teaches Advanced Placement U.S. history and current issues at Vernon Hills High School.

Paul Friedrich

Friedrich said critics reject the idea of teaching about systemic racist elements in American society because it is seen as an indictment against the white majority.

"It's hard for me to think of something that proves white privilege more than white people making it illegal to teach content that makes them uncomfortable," Friedrich argued. "The very thing that they're criticizing ... very often is proven by the constrictive actions they're taking over the issue of how we teach race."

The 2020 police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd became a catalyst for a national racial reckoning that led to a summer of unrest.

In the fall of 2020, President Donald Trump's administration penned a memo describing critical race theory, or CRT, as "divisive, un-American propaganda." Trump also issued an executive order against federally funded training that promotes racial or sexual stereotyping or "scapegoating."

Conservative groups have linked CRT to Black Lives Matter protests and the LGBTQ movement. It's prompted several Republican-controlled states to adopt laws restricting classroom instruction on race and racism in response to a push for more culturally responsive teaching.

Fourteen states have imposed such bans and restrictions. Since January 2021, 35 states have introduced bills or taken steps to restrict teaching CRT or limit how teachers can discuss racism and sexism, an Education Week analysis shows.

Illinois is not among them.

National and state teachers associations have criticized such laws as overreach and a slippery slope toward censorship.

Many suburban school districts have broached the subject of racial and social justice as part of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training for employees and students to make schools more accommodating.

In Naperville Unit District 203, administrators took heat for a daylong workshop held last February for more than 1,900 district teachers and instructional support personnel. It featured keynote speaker Dena Simmons, a Black educator and former Yale University professor, 12 other presenters and groups of minority students sharing their experiences and personal struggles in school.

A few community members questioned the training after reading an article in the conservative online magazine The Federalist, which noted that Simmons told attendees "our education is based on a foundation of whiteness" and that Americans are "spiritually murdering" students.

Simmons later clarified some of her comments were misconstrued as white bashing and emphasized her talk focused on racial healing, self-care strategies for educators and equity-responsive practices.

But a group of parents was incensed.

John Blakey of Naperville, a member of the parent group Awake Illinois, questioned why teachers and students need implicit bias and anti-racist training, which are part of District 203's equity plan.

"I still don't think there is a lot of substantiation or rationale being given as to what it means in the first place and secondly, why it's necessary," Blakey said. "To solve a problem, you have to define it. It cannot be vague. It cannot be generalistic."

The group has 30 chapters statewide with roughly 20,000 social media followers. Its members have been vocal at local school board meetings speaking against bringing in diversity trainers who talk about sensitive topics such as "white supremacy" and "white privilege," which they believe are CRT tenets embedded in culturally responsive teaching.

"I don't care what you call it. It is divisive education based on race," said Blakey, an adoptive and foster parent of children of different races and ethnicities.

Teaching about race is such "a lightning-rod issue" some teachers probably are hesitant to address it head on, said David Bell, social studies coordinator for Round Lake Area Unit District 116.

Bell said students need a safe space to explore the facts, sources and questions about racism, which is an indisputable part of American history.

"Our job is to help kids make good choices, and part of that is inquiry," Bell said. "Systemic racism ... comes up throughout history; it should be talked about throughout history."

Some school districts and advocates are attempting to reframe the racial conversation by distancing it from the academic critical race theory framework.

Karen Thomas -

Karen Thomas, DEI director for the League of Women Voters of Arlington Heights and surrounding areas, said CRT has been used to hijack the conversation about race in schools when the focus should be on adopting curricula that provide a more accurate portrayal of history and incorporate multiple perspectives.

"(Critical race theory) has no place in elementary school, in high school," Thomas said. "(It) has dominated the conversation ... to pit people against each other and not to get to the real issue, which is that our educational system is not equitable."

Critics of CRT fail to recognize larger inequities within the education system for minority students, said Denise Barreto, a former Lake in the Hills village trustee and Cook County's director of equity and inclusion.

Denise Barreto

"It's a boogeyman and it's a complete distraction from what we should be discussing," Barreto said. "We can spend all this time talking about critical race theory, rather than talking about new ways to fund public education ... new ways of compensation for our teachers given all the trauma that we've all experienced in last few years. Critical race theory ... takes our eye off the ball, of all the other ways our education system is failing."

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Why teaching about critical race theory has become a lightning rod in suburban schools - Daily Herald

There is no doubt that meditation can boost our mind, our mood and health. Meditation can transform the quality of our life. It can help us be peaceful and happy; less stressed, worried and agitated. Inevitably, it also improves symptoms of stress related physical conditions, and reduces pain. It controls depression, and promotes emotional well-being. It increases self-awareness. But unfortunately, most of us do not actually understand what meditation really is.

Many people, for instance, seem more preoccupied with their posture while meditating. Their focus is on sitting on the floor, cross-legged, spine erect. Others spend hours searching the net or shopping for the perfect meditation mat, or candles. And there are some who are preoccupied with the music that they want to play to accompany their practice. However, if we do all this, but our mind continues to wander, it is not meditation. To reap benefits from meditation, we must understand what meditation is.

Meditation is all about making the mind still. The mind is a monkey that jumps from thought to thought. It swings like a monkey does, leaping from branch to branch. Sometimes, the mind jumps into the memories of the past, sometimes to the worries of tomorrow. The mind can produce a thought practically every second. This can become a whopping 50,000 thoughts per day. It is the mind that causes us to be depressed.

It causes us to be anxious and stressed, which can ultimately lead to depression, which in turn, can lead to suicidal thoughts or worse, the act of suicide itself. Unfortunately, ending our life, does not end our problems or misery. We will have to return to this world. We will be reborn to settle our unsettled deeds, our unredeemed Karma. Not only that, we will also have to pay for the act of suicide. Therefore, suicide is not a solution to problems or an escape from misery.

What we need to do is to eliminate stress and worry from our lives. How can we do that? By spending time in silence. Thats where meditation can help us. We have to tame the monkey mind. As long as the mind continues to jump from thought to thought, from one worry to another, we cannot meditate. We need to cut the tail of the monkey mind. When we cut its tail, and tame the monkey, the monkey mind becomes a monk. The mind is disciplined. Then, we are in the pink of health, we are in a happy mood, we are relaxed, joyful because the monkey that had been troubling us all this while, has been tamed.

So, how do we cut the tail of the monkey mind? If we look at the word 'monkey' carefully, it has EY at the end. What is this EY? The EY is the tail that is Ever-Yelling and Ever-Yearning. The mind chatters constantly. Meditation is being able to quieten this incessant chattering, and calming that monkey, our mind. The way to calm the mind is through silence. We must make the mind still. It really doesn't matter what position we sit in, where we are whether we are in a cave or our bedroom, or how we are sitting. What matters is: Can the mind be still? Can it be quiet?

Those who are experts in meditation, talk about that state of thoughtlessness which the Buddhists call mindfulness. This state of consciousness is when we are able to watch the mind, we are able to observe it as it jumps from thought to thought.

As we become conscious of our mind and we watch it as it goes here and there, the monkey mind begins to settle down, it quietens. However, the mind will not stop its monkey business, until we discipline it, silence it and eventually, make it into a monk. Yes, if we can reach that state of consciousness, then we can take charge of our life, our mind, our health, our mood. Remember, we must first understand what meditation is. What it is meant to do. What it implies. Once we do, we can be meditating all the time and we can become masters of our mind and our life.

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Guiding Light: How meditation can boost your mind, mood and health - Free Press Journal

Early last fall, Maya Benziger 22 and her fellow Merimanders were talking about plans to return to the stage after a long pandemic absence. What started as a simple discussion about songs and setlists became an existential moment.

We asked, Okay, well, what is our setlist? And then, How did we used to do this? What were our traditions?

Like college a cappella groups around the country, the Merimanders hadnt performed publicly since March 2020. Since then, two classes had graduated, stripping the ensemble of its institutional memory.

I realized that I was one of the few people in the group who actually knew and I realized I didnt want that to end with me, said Benziger.

At that moment, recalls Benziger, it wasnt going to suffice for me to just be another singer in the choir. It was important to step up and become one of the leaders.

Like many of her classmates, Benziger now co-president of the Merimanders has experienced key moments in her Bates experience, where her growing knowledge and self-awareness put her on a springboard, from which she jumped into action and leadership.

Taking on a leadership role was not something she would have predicted at the beginning of her college career. I dont think timid is the right word, said Benziger, but I think I was somebody who was sort of hesitant to go the full nine yards.

What if I fail? she would ask herself. What if its too much work? What if I cant do it?

She came face-to-face with that hesitation when she started working at a Lewiston nonprofit, the Center for Wisdoms Women. Benziger had reached out to Marty Deschaines 75 of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, looking for student employment.

Deschaines, the Harward centers assistant director of community volunteerism and student leadership development, suggested Wisdoms Women, and the next day, Benziger walked over to the center and was overwhelmed.

There were just a lot of people, said Benziger. You walk in and theres 20, 30 women, and everyones having conversations. Back before the pandemic, thered be people in the kitchen cooking, other people would be doing an art class, or chatting over coffee.

The hubbub of the center intimidated Benziger at first but she decided to keep showing up. It just became like almost a home away from home. Theres always people talking, theres always things happening.

The things that I did, the people that I talked to, the stuff that I helped out with, it mattered to that person in the moment.

Soon, she was engaging with women at the center and finding her stride, committing wholeheartedly to the undertaking. She recalls spending a week helping a woman create a resume and practice for job interviews. The woman spoke a little English, and Portuguese, which was close-ish to Benzigers experience with Spanish.

I do a lot of things at Bates and theyre very important in a big-picture, theoretical sense, says Benziger, a triple major in music, history, and politics.

But going to the center was getting to be important to somebodys life in maybe a very micro sense, but also a very real sense, because the things that I did, the people that I talked to, the stuff that I helped out with, it mattered to that person in that moment.

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Video: Maya Benziger '22, from hesitation to the 'full nine yards' - Bates News

Who doesnt love a goodTheMuppets movie? Cranky people, thats who. For this list, were going to count downThe Muppets movies (theatrical releases only, folks) from worst to best, with even the worst one having the bonus of involving Muppets, so it cant be all that bad.

RELATED: The Muppet Show: All 5 Seasons of Classic Sitcom Coming to Disney+

Look, theres a reason that there was a twelve-year gap in Muppet movies after From Space, and I dont think it was because of Miss Piggys contract negotiations. While it does have the advantage of answering the age-old question What the heck is Gonzo? its also the only non-musical Muppet movie and has the disadvantage of starring Jeffrey Tambor and Rob Schneider. Those two men were not meant to star in a Muppet movie, and I think I can leave it at that.

Putting The Great Muppet Caper at second to last on this list guts me just a little. First, because it was the only Muppet movie directed by Jim Henson, and secondly because it starred the wonderful Diana Rigg, playing off of Miss Piggy. A Muppet heist movie should have been a smashing success, but the films premise of Kermit and Fozzie as reporters and the overly focused spotlight on Miss Piggy bog it down. The cast is wonderful and the actual heist itself is fun, and Hensons attention to technical details in some of the scenes is marvelous, but the plot could have been structured better.

The sequel to 2011s The Muppets, Most Wanted deals with the gang getting back on their feet after a hiatus, meeting Tina Fey, and having Kermit kidnapped by an odd Russian imposter-frog. While its not a bad movie, and Fey and Ricky Gervais are excellent choices to star alongside the Muppets, it lacks that real Muppet spark that was so evident in its predecessor. Again, bogged down by an overly complicated plot and a very bizarre Kermit imposter, this film, like Caper, could have been so much more.

Ill admit, Im biased. I love the original book of Treasure Island. I also love Tim Curry, and the Muppets, and so Im willing to overlook minor gaffs and other issues, because its freaking Tim Curry and the Muppets! As pirates! And legitimate sailors. But no one in the history of ever has read or watched Treasure Island because they were interested in legitimate sailors. In addition to the excellent cast, Treasure Island has wormed its way up the list for several insanely catchy musical numbers including Cabin Fever and A Professional Pirate. While its not the most faithful adaptation of the classic, the story works well with the added Muppety charm.

The last Muppet movie before the death of Jim Henson, and often seen as the concluding entry in the trilogy, Take Manhattan is a true gem. Basically remixing the plot of the original movie and substituting Broadway for Hollywood, Kermit gets the band back together and sets their sights on the stage. Rizzo the Rat takes a lead role, and the Muppet Babies are seen for the first time, while Miss Piggy shows off the technical marvel of being a rollerskating puppet. NYC is a great backdrop for the Muppets shenanigans and fun, which keeps it from feeling stale.

Also known as The Great Muppet Comeback (Okay, no its not, I made that up) 2011s The Muppets is what brought the fuzzy crew back into the spotlight after over a decade of home video releases and moderately successful TV shows. Following in the footsteps of previous movies, Kermit sets out to reunite the Muppets with some help from new friends, while also dealing with a conniving businessman. The tongue in cheek humor and self-awareness are all perfect, and the soundtrack being stuffed full of catchy musical numbers and classic songs like We Built This City only makes it better.

If youd told me that Jason Segel, from How I Met Your Mother, was going to make a Muppets movie, Id have probably searched for the nearest table to hide under. This movie being not only good, but good enough to restart the Muppets franchise was an unexpected but utterly delightful surprise.

Often called the most faithful adaptation of A Christmas Carol, the Muppets and Michael Caine work oddly well together. Caine as Scrooge is perfect casting, and his stick straight delivery and demeanor through the whole thing only enhances the fun and joy that both the Muppets and his co-stars are having as kind, Christmas-loving folks.

The songs are catchy and the duo of Rizzo and Gonzo as narrators and Charles Dickens stand-ins works perfectly. While Kermit is out of focus more than usual in this film, the Muppet ghosts work hard to fill his shoes. Its festive, an excellent adaptation and shows the range of both the Muppets and the filmmakers behind it all. As the first Muppet film made after Jim Hensons death, its hard to imagine hed be anything other than extremely proud of his team and creations.

You cant beat a classic! Well, maybe you can, but not on this list. Snagging the number one spot is the original The Muppet Movie. This musical, technical extravaganza is pure fun from start to finish, featuring appearances by literally every single Muppet in the repertoire. While the framing device of the Muppets watching The Muppet Movie is great, the plot centering around Kermits dream of moving to Hollywood to become famous and bring joy to people is a touching parallel to Jim Henson himself, bringing the heart of the film as well as the laughs. Lest we forget, every song in this film is amazing, in particular The Rainbow Connection.

Every Muppet gets a chance to shine, and the celebrity cameos are all witty and brilliant, though that guy with the ventriloquist doll creeps me out. More than anything, The Muppet Movies theme of chasing your dreams and living life with your friends, despite the obstacles that come your way, is one that will always resonate with people and what truly makes this a timeless classic.

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From Treasure Islands to Alien Encounters: Ranking The Muppet Movies - ComingSoon.net

What looked like a funny-in-a-bad-way, watered-down version of Keeping Up with the Kardashians turned out to be a sad-in-an-awfully-depressing-way show about the culture and industries that have been built by the Internet.

Influencers are a sort of morbid fascination for me, particularly the way in which they revel in almost-celebrity lifestyles without quite ever reaching the pantheon of A-Listers. They dance, they sing, they act, and theyre almost always incredibly mediocre at it. So, when I saw that Netflixs show Hype House a show about, well, Hype House came out, I was curious; what is it about these people that enamors hordes of teenagers to watch every ten-second video that they produce? What started out as a guilty indulgence very quickly became a bleak insight into the influencer industry, and the pitfalls of modern self-commodification.

In a piece for The Atlantic, writer Rachel Monroe writes that Charli DAmelios success is in large part due to her relatability and attainability, managing to telegraph an ordinary kind of specialness, an attribute which can be applied to DAmelios fellow Hype House members. These people are all conventionally attractive (and for the most part, White), though never overwhelmingly so. Theyre not supermodels, theyre the popular kids from high school, which is what these people reminded me of as I watched the show: suburbanites with too much energy who love doing s to impress their friends and girlfriends. (Coincidentally, Jack Wright, one-half of a TikTok duo made up of him and his twin brother, and a member of the Hype House, began attending the same high school as me during my senior year.)

Take Alex Warren for example, a member of Hype House who got his start on YouTube, making controversially David Dobrik-esque vlogs, but was shot into the spotlight upon joining Hype House on TikTok. His old vlogs, or at least the ones still up on his YouTube page, consist of him and his two buddies Patrick and Calvin making d jokes and screaming at the camera for four minutes straight. Watching these videos is like being dropped in a middle-of-nowhere suburb; it reminds you of high school, of that one group of boys that were too loud and too annoying, but just charismatic enough to get away with it. Theyre relatable, but most importantly, the image theyre selling is attainable. Any teen with an iPhone and an internet connection could be these guys, and thats probably why they blew up. And so emerges what my girlfriend has dubbed The Plight of the Influencer: what do you do when the most special thing about you the only reason youre famous is that youre not special?

Well, if youre Warren, you exploit the dreams and aspirations of your significant other in a futile attempt to combat dwindling viewership. In the show, he makes a point of how his videos have been receiving less and less engagement from audiences, something that worries him quite a lot especially because he spends up to seven times my yearly rent on his videos in any given month. The formula of his videos hasnt changed, its still just a group of bros being dudes in front of Warrens camera except now they live in a big mansion and drive around in G-Wagons. The relatability and the attainability of his videos have been lost, most likely a contributing factor to his loss in viewership. This pushes Warren to stage a fake wedding with his girlfriend and fellow Hype House member Kouvr Annon. Its painful to watch as Kouvr confesses to the camera and to her friends that getting married is something shes wanted for a while, and something shes talked to Warren about, only for the latter to turn around and exploit their relationship in the name of content creation. And while Warren is certainly not free of any criticism when it comes to the ethics of this content creation, his ludicrous spending and the extremes to which his job pushes his personal life should be seen as a symptom of the system. YouTube and TikTok pay their creators based on engagement; a sort of sliding scale rather than a fixed regular salary, the nature of which makes it difficult for any of these kids to feel comfortable taking a break, and which often pushes content creators to things like, say, swinging their friends around from an excavator.

In episode six of the show, Thomas Petrou, a founding member of Hype House, pays for a retreat to Joshua Tree which he hopes will jumpstart content creation among the stagnating members of the collective. This is a hot-button topic for Petrou, who throughout the show is asking members of the collective to post more content, only to be ignored. Its hard not to feel bad for the guy though not because his teenage employees are being teenagers. Its mostly because Petrou has convinced himself that he and his gang of industry disruptors have gamed the system, that social media works for them, and that thats whats made them so successful. Hes proselytized himself into the cult of The Hustler Mentality. But as the show continues, it becomes painfully obvious that this is not the case. Petrous constant breakdowns and consistent anxieties about losing everything hes worked for betray the idea that hes in control. Just as Warrens exploitation of his relationship is a red flag about the influencer machine, so is Petrous inability to step away from work. These kids are not hustling. Theyre burnt out and driving themselves into the ground. This isnt to say that posting a couple of ten-second videos a day is hard work, but rather that the economic model that this form of entertainment operates on is unsustainable. These pseudocelebrities and their careers are not built for longevity; they exist on platforms that encourage users to move on to the next interesting thing as soon as the current trend becomes boring. The influencer industry creates pressures that are detrimental to those who exist in it, and it should concern us that more and more people are aspiring to it.

In his piece for Harpers Magazine, writer and university professor Barrett Swanson catches TikTok star Baronscho during a refreshing moment of self-awareness: The scary thing is you never know how long this is going to last, and I think thats what eats a lot of us at night. Its like, whats next? How long can we entertain everyone for? How long before no one cares? The quote speaks to the hyper-consumerist nature of the internet, and the ways in which it has exacerbated the pre-existing anxieties and worries surrounding child stars within the traditional entertainment industry. The Hype House is a show about our generations child stars, one that set out to give us an inside look into the decadence and possibilities that this new industry brings; instead asserting that this show, and the industry it provides insight into should not exist. Its a bleak image, one of teenagers and twenty-somethings playing at being celebrities, the ever-tightening grip of the algorithm wrapped around their necks.

Image courtesy of Netflix.

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I Wish the Hype House Show Wasn't Real - The UCSD Guardian Online

I don't write a ton about the Lions. My depression is severe enough. I don't need to dive any deeper into that nonsense, but it's a story now. Matthew Stafford is going to the NFC championship. Not only is Matthew Stafford going to the NFC championship game, but Matthew Stafford just upset Tom Brady on the road to get there. There are a lot of Lions fans who are happy for Matthew Stafford. I am also. The guy busted his ass and wasted most of his career with a trash organization. But despite how glad I am about his success in 2021, his current run is an indictment on what is indisputably the worst organization in the history of sports in the Detroit Lions. I came into the season feeling that Stafford's inability to win a playoff game Detroit was 20% his fault and 80% the organization's fault. I have changed that opinion. It's 100% on the Lions. In the future, when people say who the most tortured fanbase in sports is, there is one answer and one answer alone. It's the Detroit Lions.

"But the Jacksonville Jaguars are so bad. They'll never turn around." Shut up. Four years ago, the Jacksonville Jaguars were like one play away from going to the Super Bowl.

"O, the Cleveland Browns are so terrible." The Cleveland Browns have the exact number of playoff wins over the last two years that the Lions have had over the previous sixty.

It's human nature to be excited for Matthew Stafford right now, especially if you are a Detroit Lions fan, but we have to have some perspective here. For 12 years, the Detroit Lions had an MVP caliber QB. They had a transcendent, Super Bowl-winning caliber quarterback. And for a dozen years, they gave him a few good receivers, no offensive line, no running game, and they gave him a good defense one time. That's organizational malpractice at a level that we've never seen before. I'm the biggest Tigers fan that I know, and there are people out there who believe that the Tigers wasted Justin Verlander's career, or wasted Miguel Cabrera's prime, or wasted the early peak of Max Scherzer. But you know what? Those guys won MVP and Cy Young awards. They made deep playoff runs. Should they have won a World Series? Of course, and the fact that they didn't is one of the most significant failures in sports history, but at least they approached the mountaintop. The Lions with Matthew Stafford never took a step towards the summit. I did not expect to get this vindictive at any point, but I hope Stafford wins his next two games. I hope he wins the Super Bowl, and I hope next year he wins the MVP next year and repeats as a champion.

One of my favorite quotes from "Batman Begins" is when Bruce says, "People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy." I hope this is the dramatic example that the Lions need. They have drafted poorly, and underdeveloped talent, but the only thing worse than never having talent is wasting talent, and Matthew Stafford wasn't a talent. Matthew Stafford was special. He still is. And I know Lions fans are going to be upset about this blog. "Chris, we don't need to be reminded of how awful we are." Yes, you do, goddammit! It has nothing to do with the fans. Lions fans are fantastic. They're passionate, and they're loyal. The fact that the Lions have any fans left even though they cheer for a garbage organization reflects just how dedicated and great Detroit sports fans are. But sometimes, they need to be reminded of the abyss they've been looking into for decades. And this has no reflection on the current administration. I quite like Brad Holmes, and while I have serious question marks about Dan Campbell, the man has a self-awareness to him that no Detroit Lions coaches had in the last, I don't know, 50 years. I'm not blaming them for the sins of the past. But at the same time, the organization must understand the depth of its failure. For 12 years, the Lions had a quarterback with generational talent, and they seemingly went out of their way to make him look worse than he was. I hope the Fords hang their heads in shame.

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Matthew Stafford's Playoff Success Is Further Proof That The Detroit Lions Are The Worst Organization In The History Of Sports - Barstool Sports

In December, I quit my job as a current-affairs radio producer at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. This month, I wrote an open letter, explaining that I felt a pervasive woke ideology and an obsession with identity politics coupled with a lack of interest in broader issues had created a climate in which it was difficult to do good journalism.

I was concerned that niche stories like non-binary Filipinos upset about a lack of LGBT terms in Tagalog, or a list of offensive words Canadians should avoid using, including brainstorm and lame had become editorial priorities, while issues that affect people nationwide, like the housing crisis, the opioid epidemic and wealth inequality, went underreported. I was also concerned about a lack of alternate viewpoints on stories, such as vaccine mandates, school closures and lockdowns, and the Dave Chappelle Netflix controversy.

Over the years at the CBC, I came to find our coverage increasingly ideological, and increasingly lacking in critical thinking, but my repeated efforts to push back from within accomplished little. The atmosphere at the network felt stifling and driven by groupthink, with a narrow range of viewpoints represented.

I have since received letters from across my country, and yours, from journalists with strikingly similar experiences and strikingly similar concerns. Ive also received many, many messages from members of the public who had, for exactly these reasons, tuned us out.

So, what is going on in our newsrooms? Why has a segment of our media shifted dramatically left? Why has the liberal press adopted a woke ideology thats largely unpopular with the public? And why does media leadership have so little self-awareness about any of this?

A number of pressures bearing down on newsrooms are worth examining.

Most significantly, the business itself is under threat. In recent years, weve lost subscribers, advertising dollars, and audience to social media, throwing traditional business models into turmoil, and resulting in layoffs and outlet closures. At the same time, the digital media revolution has produced an army of young, inexperienced writers willing to work for next to nothing, dragging down writing rates, devaluing our work and over-simplifying the dialogue.

Then theres the fact that outrage reliably generates online engagement and therefore dollars. Financial incentives drive angry, polarizing content. Outlets increasingly target consumers on either side of the political spectrum and cater content to these echo chambers. In doing so, they abandon the aim of speaking to a broad audience and of a shared conversation.

Then, of course, you have the pandemic. Anyone whos reported on it will tell you how exhausting it is. Many of us went from covering a mix of stories to covering COVID day in and day out, often from the isolation of tiny city apartments, doing our best to absorb the devastation, loss, and sweeping societal change without the buffer of newsroom camaraderie, or, in some cases, any face-to-face social support whatsoever. Many are tired and burned out.

Add to all of that, theres the changing nature of our workforce. What used to be a working-class trade has evolved, particularly in the United States, into an elite profession. In part because the business itself is so precarious, journalists often now come from wealthy backgrounds, are educated at elite schools, and live among societys decision-makers.

As a group, we have vested interests in maintaining the status quo, and little contact with those who do not share our perspective.

If all of that was not enough, hiring and training practices are more and more shaped by woke ideology, selecting for journalists who are on board or at least willing to go along with it.

Twitter, too, exerts undue pressure on newsrooms, delivering the illusion of societal consensus where one does not exist. And cancel culture enforces a climate of fear. The consequences of speaking out against woke ideology are significant. Jobs and reputations can be lost, along with livelihoods; few journalists are in a position to risk this. The vocal minority thus overpowers the many in the middle. And curiosity is supplanted by a public performance of certainty.

Over the years at the CBC, I came to find our coverage increasingly ideological, and increasingly lacking in critical thinking, but my repeated efforts to push back from within accomplished little.

The way out begins, I think, with all of us asking ourselves a question: What if were wrong?

If we might be wrong about a story a narrative, a collection of established facts, a viewpoint, an analysis, a whole approach to journalism or politics the natural conclusion is that we need to talk to more people, to understand more deeply. We need to incorporate more views, more dissenting voices, more educational and economic and political backgrounds. We need to hear more, think more, discern more, contemplate more.

If theres a possibility that we have it wrong, we can give up, too, on trying to influence public behavior and get back to trying to tell the story as thoughtfully, and accurately, as possible.

This approach would also, hopefully, engender the small, daily acts of courage that this extreme moment necessities. If we might be wrong, then of course we must speak up, question, investigate, rethink, reframe.

Its a simple shift, and it certainly wont solve things. But it might be just enough to convince audiences to stick around while we engage in the messy business of correcting our course.

Tara Henley is a journalist, podcaster, bestselling author. Twitter: @TaraRHenley

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Ex-CBC journalist reveals why 'woke' media is broken and how to fix it - New York Post

ROUND HOUSE THEATRE 2022-23 SEASON - EQUITY VIDEO SUBMISSIONS Round House Theatre

CONTRACT LORT Non-Rep $739 weekly minimum (LORT D)

SEEKING Equity actors for roles in Round House Theatre 2022-23 Season (see breakdown).

INSTRUCTIONS SEE PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS IN BREAKDOWN. Please email you submission with the subject line EPA submission DMV LOCAL or EPA submission Out of Town, accordingly. Deadline: Mon, Feb 7, 2022

SUBMIT TO casting@roundhousetheatre.org

PERSONNEL Artistic Director: Ryan Rilette Managing Director: Ed Zakreski Casting Director: Sarah Cooney, Associate Artist Casting & Producing (viewing submissions)

OTHER DATES See breakdown for production specific dates.

OTHER http://www.roundhousetheatre.org Equitys contracts prohibit discrimination. Equity is committed to diversity and encourages all its employers to engage in a policy of equal employment opportunity designed to promote a positive model of inclusion. As such, Equity encourages performers of all ethnicities, gender identities, and ages, as well as performers with disabilities, to submit.

BREAKDOWN

All roles will be understudied.

Dates: 2/21/23 Rehearsals begin 3/30/23 First Performance 4/11/23 Opening 5/7/23 Closing

Equitys contracts prohibit discrimination. Equity is committed to diversity and encourages all its employers to engage in a policy of equal employment opportunity designed to promote a positive model of inclusion. As such, Equity encourages performers of all ethnicities, gender identities, and ages, as well as performers with disabilities, to submit.

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Audition for ROUND HOUSE THEATRE 2022-23 SEASON at Round House Theatre in Submission on 01/21 - Broadway World

Nine participants from eight distinct clinics completed a semi-structured telephone interview. Participant and clinic characteristics are presented in Table 1. The majority of participants were based in hospital-affiliated clinics and considered food security to be very important. They reported using both formal and informal mechanisms (i.e. through patient dialogue with no formal screening tool) for screening for food security. The most frequently used codes are in Table 2. The most frequently used codes described staff involved in screening for food insecurity, changes in community resources due to COVID-19, improvements in interventions for addressing food needs, acceptability to patients, and onsite and offsite interventions.

Initial screening for food insecurity was most likely to be carried out by an intake nurse or front office manager using a form that included standard questions on food, nutrition, and other social determinants of health. Some respondents noted that food was part of a general resource screening while others only mentioned screening for food. Intakes were usually completed at the time of the first prenatal care visit.

We have a universal prenatal intake process, where someone coming into care for pregnancy, would first have a visit with a registered nurse who fulfills the role of prenatal care coordinator. She does ask questions about... It's a resource security question, I think is how it's phrased like, "Do you have what you need at home?" And then she'll give the examples of, "Do you have shelter? Do you have electricity? Do you have running water? Is it safe? Do you have food to eat?" So it's a question that's along those lines. And then she also asks people about their diet, what they might typically eat in a day. And if they have any restrictions on their diet or things that they avoid. --Physician A

There was some variation as to whether screening was standard, i.e. developed externally for use across facilities; clinic-specific, i.e. developed by staff within the clinic; or informal, i.e. motivated staff asking about food or resource insecurity but without consistency. The intake was administered on paper or an electronic tablet, either by a clinician or self-administered. Even if a standard form was used, its implementation could be ad hoc depending on the clinical workload. At times, follow up was done by a prenatal care clinician as a supplement to the initial intake. Several options were mentioned, including follow up by a prenatal care nurse, midwife, or physician in reviewing answers or the problem list generated at the initial intake; additional screening and meeting with a social worker; and follow up with community health workers.

Inconsistency in follow up beyond the intake was noted by several respondents, often attributed to staff workflow and the patient load. The consensus was that it was better to have someone assigned to carry out the initial screening because it was more likely to be completed for every patient, although there were also benefits to having multiple staff/clinicians engaged in the process:

Its helpful to have multiple people who are responsible for asking this because it establishes that as a culture that this is an important part of healthcare. Physician B

Additional follow up or screening was clinic or provider-specific, where some were more proactive than others. Clinic readiness to implement food insecurity screening varied, with some reporting a smoother uptake process than others due to clinic level management and workload:

It's been at least 10 years that the clinic has had a prenatal care coordinator, nursing position And I think it was not difficult to start because it philosophically aligned with the way the clinic is run. It's a very team-based, multidisciplinary clinic, so having a nurse intake coordinator, I don't think, was a heavy lift when they implemented that. --Physician A

I think that they would be open to hearing about something like that, but I'm not sure that they would want to add something like another assessment onto the already long list of assessments that everyone is responsible for. --Social Worker A

Perceived embarrassment and stigma associated with being food insecure, especially for patients who are already parents, was reported as a barrier to screening accurately for food insecurity.

I think some of them are not completely honest, you know, because theyre ashamed, or, you know, theyre worried that they cant provide food for the children that they may have, afraid that we might may call DCYF [Division for Children, Youth and Families] on them. Clinical Nurse C

Responses varied with some reporting better outcomes from face-to-face conversations rather than over the phone or on a tablet, especially if other social issues were present. In-person screening was also seen as being more helpful for asking follow up questions about the capacity of the woman or family to access and prepare food.

And how are they going to store that food? Are they living with a friend? Are they living out of a hotel? Do they have a refrigerator? I think there's just a lot of assessing that needs to go on in conjunction with food screening. Like, do you have a clean place to prepare the food? Should we be giving it by a food bank? Do you have the means to cook it? They may be living in a hotel and they only have a microwave. --Clinical Nurse A

In terms of achieving honest perspectives, allowing for privacy during the intake (either one-on-one with a clinician or self-administered) and giving time to develop a trusting relationship with clinicians were seen as relevant factors for improving communication.

We find sometimes, the first visit with the nurse that's their first time here, you're just meeting the person for the first time, it takes a little time to develop a relationship, have them feel comfortable. So they will see myself or the other nurse that works here and then they'll see the social worker and it's a couple weeks later and then the provider will see all of that information. And then the provider will again ask, but she won't ask everything again. She'll just, if I identity that that woman has domestic violence or has no money for food, does not have resources in place, then she'll follow up again. So we're all trying to get the same information and making sure that the woman feels comfortable talking with us. --Clinical Nurse B

Integration of food security with other social risk screening was generally seen as a helpful way to identify women with needs.

I do the ones for people that have a substance use history, even if that's just marijuana...so I pop in just to see how they're doing. And those are questions that I always ask, "Do you need diapers? Do you need food? Anything going on with housing?" All those questions are questions that all of us always ask people. --Social Worker A

We're asking about food. We're also asking about personal safety, depression and housing stability. And to be perfectly honest, I think people are less self-conscious about answering questions about food than they are about the other things --Social Worker B

One consistent area of improvement noted by several respondents was more frequent screening throughout pregnancy. Additionally, improvements in screening tools and processes were desired, both for capturing more patients experiencing food insecurity and for ease of use and appropriate referral:

If somebody had sort of like a plug and play kind of program and was like, Use this questionnaire, identify these resources and refer to these resources, check in one week, three weeks and 12 weeks or whatever. Then I feel like that would be a lot easier than trying to develop it from the ground up because to be honest with you the nurses and the physicians are not trained in this so much. --Physician B

I think having a very specific screening tool would be helpful, to define what severity is this? Is it a patient not having access to purchasing food, or what level of severity of that? Like, do they know where their next meal is coming from or, do they just not have enough funding to buy healthy food, or they're eating more processed food? I think if we could get into specifically what the food needs are, it would be easier to refer them based off of that. --Clinical Nurse A

Respondents also talked about more detailed assessments of food practices and dietary quality to identify specific areas where more targeted interventions may be needed.

So it is one of the resources that we give out to patients when they're newly pregnant, is like this is what healthy eating looks like. It's a nice one that you hang up on the wall that has the food group, how much calcium they should be eating for their pregnancy. So it's a great reference to say like, from this food diagram or food pyramid, are you able to eat in all of these tiers? If they're stuck in the process green one, then we need to make a referral so that they can get, and protein and stuff like that. --Clinical Nurse A

Clinic staff were hesitant to ask about food insecurity if they were not aware of what interventions were available for their patients. Respondents tied screening for food security to strong interventions that address patient needs once they are identified.

But we've noticed that providers are a little more willing to engage with the social needs questions if they have some idea of what the patient is then going to navigate, to be able to get that need met. --Physician A

The primary means by which clinics addressed a food need was through an internal referral to a clinic-based resource specialist, social worker, or other clinician. Clinics benefited from having a clear referral process in place. In addition, some claimed they were better positioned to implement internal referrals because the clinic placed a greater value on food security as part of health care. For internal referrals to be successful, respondents emphasized the importance of a dedicated resource specialist at the clinic.

And if they need to fill out paperwork, she will help guide them and help fill that out with them, which is great, because I think half the time when you try to give a patient resources and make referral, I think the most intimidating part of that is them trying to figure out how to self-navigate through that. And us we can go online and try and figure out what that process is, but having that resource specialist, like she knows what the paperwork is, she knows who the point people are for that resource, and it's just super helpful to have her and know exactly what the process is. And patients are more likely to follow through with that if they have someone helping them through it. Otherwise, they know food banks are out there, but they don't know the 20 steps between knowing that they're there and actually getting food from them. --Clinical Nurse A

Respondents also noted a desire to offer onsite food provision services. Providing food directly to pregnant people while at the clinic for an appointment can help to address urgent hunger needs and overcome transportation and accessibility barriers to community resources. Some clinics had services in place to provide food to patients, snacks during appointments, or cafeteria vouchers.

I mean I have had people say, we need meat and produce, because that's all we get at the food pantry are non-perishables and canned goods. So that's something that we're fortunate to be able to have milk, and sometimes eggs, and frozen meats, and stuff to give to people because they aren't able to get all that stuff a lot of times. --Social Worker A

External referrals to community resources were another means by which clinics addressed food needs among pregnant patients. The most frequently cited resource for pregnant people was the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Clinics relied on easy referrals and strong relationships with WIC to help people access these benefits.

Actually, whether a woman identified concerns about food or not, I would always make a referral to WIC, and for food stamps, and facilitate the initial appointments. Let's see. And I got to tell you, that of all the referrals that I made, that was the easiest referral. That was the smoothest referral that I was ever able to make to anybody because the WIC clinic had somebody who would answer the phone, schedule appointments, ask questions, and then follow up. So that was pretty seamless. --Social Worker B

Respondents noted a need for more accessible services in the community, including better hours at local food shelves. Referrals were more effective when there were strong relationships in place between the clinic and the community organization. Respondents also commented on a need for better coordination between clinics and various community resources.

We have a ton of community resources and a lot of really well-meaning people and we all have the same goal of supporting these moms. We're trying really hard to get all of these resources together in a way where there isnt overlap or gaps. And the thing is that some of these resources are independent, some of them are church based, some of them are state supported, some of them are based on grants. If the grant goes away, they go away. Then we've got the nonprofit hospital. And so what we're finding is there's a lot of bandwidth, there's a lot of goodwill. But we wonder about, is there a way that we could more efficiently coordinate all of it? --Physician B

Transportation was noted as a key barrier that should be addressed when making referrals to community services.

I just feel like once you ask about food insecurity, I feel like from there, it will... There may be other needs. Okay, then here's this food pantry. And then it's like, Yeah, I understand the food pantry is there, but I don't know how to get there, or I don't have internet. I feel like there needs to be someone, like a case manager, being able to provide other supports and services as well. --Care Coordinator A

Another barrier for patients was lack of awareness about available services. Respondents discussed having lists and information about community resources that could be shared with patients and a dedicated staff member who could maintain relationships with community partners and keep up to date about their services.

I think the biggest one is just them not knowing what's out there. Like a lot of them aren't aware that there are food pantries. There's so many like in the community that are near them that they don't even know exists. They don't know that they qualify for WIC or SNAP. So I think it's just like, there's not really a general knowledge of the resources that are out there for them. --Resource Specialist A

Other barriers were related to communication challenges due to patient stress associated with the experience of food insecurity as well as cultural differences leading to varied understandings of food insecurity between clinicians/staff and patients.

I think there's also the psychic challenge of always having to be aware that you have food insecurity. I think that it is depressing and it is exhausting and it is anxiety provoking. And I think that folks get to the point where they just don't want to think and talk about it. And I think that's hard too." --Physician B

The only thing I could think of that could be a barrier is the women that come from a different country. If it's part of their culture not to really share information about that or language barrier, we could be missing some of that with them. Its hard for me to know if we are if they're not being forthcoming about it. --Clinical Nurse B

In general, respondents felt that patients had a relatively high degree of acceptability for discussing food needs with their care team. They noted that patients generally felt comfortable asking for help when they needed it, especially when there was trust between staff and patients.

And I think that's where it comes in that my role is important because I'm the connection for them at the clinic. They see me and talk to me on a regular basis, so they're comfortable talking to me. And that goes for a lot of the other case managers too. If it's someone that they see on a regular basis, then that person is comfortable and has an easier time asking for support and knowing what's available. So again, it's the setting of our clinic just kind of lends itself toward that community friendly relationship, I guess. --Social Worker A

Commitment at the clinic level and staff buy-in facilitated the process of screening and intervention. Clinics that recognized food insecurity as an important health issue for their patients were better able to develop trusting relationships with patients and address their needs.

I actually just really think it's the staff commitment and the team that works here really knows that it's important, nutrition is a very important part of pregnancy and promoting optimal outcomes for pregnancy and health families, so it's really just been a part of our program here since the beginning It's a very small office and I think that patients feel that and feel comfortable with us so they will reach out to myself or the social worker and say, I'm really struggling this month, I don't have money enough to get this or this or this. So we will put them in the right direction, supplement with that gift card if we have to, but it's really just been part of our clinic and training here. --Clinical Nurse B

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Missed opportunities to improve food security for pregnant people: a qualitative study of prenatal care settings in Northern New England during the...

Every great urban filmmaker has a personal metaphysics of the city, a sense that the synergies and mysteries of urban life can find their ideal form in images. Thats what Pola Rapaport reveals in her first feature, Broken Meat, from 1991, which is showing, starting Wednesday, on Metrographs virtual cinema (with her introduction) and is also streaming on Vimeo.

Its a film in a particular and too often narrowing mode: a documentary portrait of an artist, the poet Alan Granville, whose work doesnt appear to have attracted much attention beyond the movie itself. Broken Meat is the title of one of his works, which Rapaport reads, during a train ride, early in the film. The poets obscurity itself comes off as something of his lifes work, his self-chosen destiny, as he describes his lifelong hero, Vincent van Gogh. Considering a reproduction of a self-portrait that adorns his wall, Granville says that van Goghs gaze is not disturbed but steadfast, and that the artist awakened Granvilles first awareness that a person could lead an undiscovered life. Granville acknowledges that he himself is largely an unfulfilled poet, with no realistic hope of recognition, and the gap between his vast literary aspirations and his actual circumstances is the documentarys anguished drama. As realized by Rapaport, Broken Meat is a virtual film noir in documentary form, with an appropriately bold, expressive, howlingly harsh aesthetic, and echoes of the 1947 drama Nightmare Alley, with its shuddery final repartee about its fallen hero: How can a guy get so low? He reached too high.

The poetry that Granville delivers, or improvises, onscreen in the course of the film yields glimmers of ravaged beauty salvaged from the depths of unspeakable pain. According to the movie, he led something of an anti-charmed life: he describes being held in the state psychiatric hospitals Kings Park and Creedmoor and subjected involuntarily to shock treatments, and later falling into homelessness. He shows Rapaport a site in Riverside Park where he used to live and fear assault every night; at the time of the filming, he was in a grim residential hotel with childproof window guards fixed to the door panels for security. This is where I dwell, like a monk in his cell, he tells Rapaport, whom he calls Pola Pie. He was a heavy user of cocaine, possibly addicted to it, certainly dependent on it. His early life was marked by his mothers apparent mental illness; when he had no place else to go, in 1981, he moved in with her upstate. He speaks, mysteriously, of helping her to kill herself, and of being haunted by her death and consumed with a sense of impotent guilt.

In poverty, frustration, isolation, and the torment of memory, Granville delivers himself and his life to the camera with liberating energy, hearty antics, and fractured glimmers of ecstasy. He projects his wild creative power throughout the spaces of the city that he inhabits in body and mind, and the city in turn seems to concentrate both its crushing might and its orchestral glory on him as he passes through it. Broken Meat is one of the great cinematic city symphonies, a genre dating back to the silent-film era. Rapaport, working with the cinematographer Wolfgang Held (theyre married), films Granville and New York, together and separately, with a sense of devoted and tremulous awe. The movie is a sort of mutual celebration of the poet and the city that fuses cautionary terrors with rapturous exaltations, and evinces an awareness that the two are inherently inseparable. The peep shows that dominated Forty-second Streeta view that was formerly his through the window of another grim residenceare seen at street level, as are the doorways of flophouses, with passersby filmed in slow motion to capture the hidden aura of grandeur and pathos in their daily rounds.

For all of Granvilles evident misery, he loves comedy and enacts it free-spiritedly both for and with Rapaport, as in a sequence at a thrift shopwhere shes buying him a winter coatwhich starts with a travelling shot through the stores vast piles of unwanted merchandise, including discarded baby carriages, and which carries an air of enduring loss, and dissolves into antics as Granville chases Rapaport with a floppy rubber hand. On a visit to an incongruously placed park near the site of Creedmoora visit that sparks Granvilles anguished memories of his appalling abuse therehe and Rapaport ride a seesaw, from which he falls off raucously. A visit to a cemetery (filmed in a series of soulful tracking shots) gives rise to Granvilles exuberant speculations about life and death and the consolations of the afterlife. The city waterfront, which Granville visits with the filmmaker Robert Attanasio (who was collaborating with the poet in a ten-year project), is his virtual stage for confessional reflections and sardonic street theatre.

Granville is first seen sitting naked on the floor, looking into the camera. Rapaport films travelling shots up the length of his unclothed body, from angles that display its grizzled textures and its clean curves, and whichthrough film editingshe likens to the craggy grandeur of mountains. Granville is obscene, enraged, comedic, self-centered, and self-aware, in thrall to literature and seemingly even more tortured by the inability to read than by the inability to write. Throughout the film, Rapaport brings Granvilles voicespoken into her microphone or into an answering machine or delivered into a streetside pay phonetogether with visions of New York, of the Manhattan cityscape as seen from car windows on highways, of the grand latticework of bridges, the eerie isolation of tunnels, the mighty banality and collective energy of street views over road barriers and from overpasses, the faded gleam of luncheonettes, the cold and mighty vistas from the shore over the East River. These visions, filmed in moody black and white, have an air of timelessness, like vestiges of a distant, mythic age of urban heroism from which Granville has fallen, even if only in his own imagination.

Rapaport both directed and edited Broken Meat, and it is, among other things, one of the most thrilling displays of film editing that Ive seen in a while. She joins the sense of the citys overwhelming weight and abraded surfaces with the poets raw physicality (and the jaunty and mournful jazz score by Vincent Attanasio and Stuart Kollmorgen) to elevate the unbearably ordinary to ineffable heights. The films everyday yet rhapsodic images, assembled with bold juxtapositions and jolting yet poised rhythms, lend the dual portrait of the poet and the city an air of eternity.

Original post:
Broken Meat, Reviewed: An Astonishing Dual Portrait of a Poet and His City - The New Yorker