You may have heard that for months now Texas has been enduring a drought. That was obvious at the Willow Trace Pond in far north Austin when I visited on July 21st. The water level had dropped enough to drape algae over little stumps that had been underwater, as had most of the algae. Once the air dried out the algae it lost most of its green coloring, as you see above.
Not draped but dropped, presumably by a child and not by water, was the little toy figurine that I found on the ground near by. I guess the black dots were intended to identify the big cat as a leopard, even if no leopard ever sported such regular spots or wore such a bright yellow coat. The nondescript ground-hugging plant the leopard had bedded down on belongs to the spurge family and is in the genus Chamaesyce or Euphorbia.
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The other day I came across a post by Wesley Yang entitled "Yes, Things Are Really As Bad As You've Heard: a Leftist Schoolteacher Struggles To Say Aloud the Things He Regularly Witnesses That Are So Outlandish They Sound Made Up By Right-Wing Provocateurs." The craziness described there isn't encouraging, nor is the reality that the writer Yang was talking about feels the need to remain anonymous. At least the fact that some people are calling out the craziness in their ranks is encouraging.
Here's the anonymous writer's penultimate paragraph:
Like I said before, I'm a leftist myself; I have a real and abiding commitment to racial justice in education. Do I like having to make the same points as pundits who want me kicked out of the classroom too? Of course not. But it's precisely because I think racism and poverty are so rampant in this nation, and our obligation to respond so overwhelming, that I can't keep pretending these ridiculous DEI schemes aren't hurting the children we owe so much to. They are. It's happening, right now.
You're welcome to check out the full article.
© 2022 Steven Schwartzman
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