Diversity – Carole J. Garrison

Fever Signs

I take the temperature of people entering our health clinic. Anyone over 99.5 degrees is sent away. If we took the temperature of America, or even that of the world, we would be SENT AWAY.

I’m an infidel. I’m Jewish. I’m an American, and I’m a woman. Any one or all of these factors put me at risk when I visited Iran in the summer of 2004. To my Iranian friend’s more religious relatives, I was an unwelcome guest.

“The Kindness of Strangers”

“I don’t know how to thank you…” He turned momentarily from his reunion and replied, “Don’t thank me. Just pass it on.”

Roaches: A story of Reflection and Understanding

Those who buy this anti immigrant rhetoric would squish this family in the same way that I’m contemplating killing this bug. So I don’t do it.

A Christmas Story

the joy is not in the keeping but in the giving

The Paranoia of Diversity

I, for one, am much more alarmed about the increase in smoking, vaping, and gratuitous sex and violence in movies and TV series, regardless of ratings.

WHY ARE YOU SURPRISED?

Their prejudice runs deep and primordial—its etiology in our genetic history stretching back to pre-historic times. I’m not surprised and not optimistic, unless our national leaders can stop pretending they know who the enemy is and address the real problem—us.

The Hajj

The entry fee into this community was not money; it was TRUST.

United We Stand

When the flag once again becomes a symbol of hope and promise for all, it will really become a symbol of America.

The Black Church and Me

Then a colleague of mine, who was pastor of the “quiet” Black church downtown, invited me to attend a service. He said it was quiet because it wasn’t a Holy Roller church; however, it was anything but quiet by UU standards—or even Jewish norms. The choir was magnificent . . . as were the hats the ladies wore.