The Excellent Work and Inspiring Executive Director of Destiny House

I am at an event sponsored by the Bank of America in Providence where one of my favorite people is being honored. Eleanor "Candy" Brown-McSwain founded Destiny House, an organization that focuses on domestic violence and past trauma in communities of color. DH programs address teen dating violence and the ongoing effect of early experiences of family violence on the lives and decision-making of children and adults.

This is such crucial work and Candy has been working for years on slim financial resources. The BOA recognition and grant will go a long way to helping Destiny House gain the credibility and funding it so richly deserves.

Keeping My Head Down

One of the problems with fashioning oneself as a social commentator is there are societal events that one would just as soon not comment on. Take Professor Henry Louis Gates' recent difficulties. I wanted to wait until all the facts revealed themselves, and maybe they have, so here are a few of my own thoughts on the matter:

• None of us can afford to not know who are neighbors are. Neither can we risk leaving our screen doors unlocked. Who knows who might walk in and ask for proof we live there.
• Barack Obama has revealed himself to be a black man. Yes, it is rhetorically accurate for him to declare himself bi-racial and that his concerns transcend race but in the end, when faced with Prof. Gates situation, and perhaps having flashbacks to his own time at Harvard, he reacted from his African-American gut.
• Ms. Whalen, the woman who called the cops about the potential break-in and the one person who acted responsibly as she attempted to give an accurate, non-hysterical, not racist account of what she saw may have been thwarted by the police's inability to grasp nuance. For the cops, generally speaking, everything, in every sense of these terms, is black or white.
• The focus on racial profiling allows institutions and individuals to avoid addressing historical, systemic racism.

The biggest problem I have had in the last few days is with those white allies here in Boston who call themselves anti-racist. Here is why. Last Thursday a Boston police officer was suspended for sending an email that referred to Prof. Gates as a "banana eating jungle monkey". But the Globe reported on Friday that this is just one of a recent string of racist incidents perpetrated by Boston cops mostly against their African-American "brother and sister" cops. Let me say that I may have missed attempts at public education and community discussion organized by white people for white people, and that's my problem. This was, as Pres. Obama stated, "a teachable moment." Anyone who has lived in Boston knows there is going to be a backlash (who knows how many encouraging responses that racist email received?). It saddens me that I received no announcements of public gatherings, group discussions, or requests for meetings to craft a response to Prof. Gates' difficulties. In this teachable moment I have learned once again that black people have to do all the teaching.

Overcome by Comfrey

After the protracted chill and practically endless rains of the last 2 weeks, it is time to resume wrestling the comfrey ( Symphytum Officinale) out of the back yard. I had hoped to uproot it before it sent out those stalks with their tiny almost flourescent blue blossoms. I am particularly susceptible to their beauty, and have come to understand comfrey as a plant with great healing powers.

Of course there are its uses as an herbal and homeopathic remedy. Symphytum leaves and roots are used as a poltice to treat broken bones and sprains, and has similar uses in homeopathy. Comfrey has some poisonous qualities (as do many healing herbs) and is not to be taken orally. It is said to make really good fertilizer,containing all three vital nutrients, especially the hard (for plants) to find potassium. Indeed, the dirt beneath all that growth is even better than the beds we have been nurturing for the last ten years. I have my own theory about comfrey. I believe it removes toxins from a meeting room -- the emotional, psychic, human kind -- especially when it's blooming, But the stuff is invasive as all get out. It has strangled my strawberries, probably killed my little cherry tree and spread into the ancestral oregano bed. It must be stopped.

Ignoring the alluring blossoms I waded back in, filling one large trash can and half of another. I thought I might get through 2 cans worth until I noticed a bumble bee enjoying the nectar. Foiled! Who am I to interfere with a pollinator? In another couple weeks the blossoms will be gone. It won't re-establish itself that fast ... will it?