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Articles by Dan Kenney
Perspective: Why didn't we ask?
When I listen to interviews with political candidates, I find myself waiting for questions that never come. Will you raise taxes? Will you bring down prices? Will you end the war? These questions matter. But we listen to promises of changes well beyond one person’s reach, then act surprised when the promised land fails to appear. Just once, I would like to hear a debate moderator ask: Did you watch the sunrise this morning? Describe your most recent act of compassion.
Kenney: They are our neighbors
“How long have you lived in DeKalb County?” I ask as a volunteer with the UUCD Overnight Warming Center. It is part of our intake form when someone comes to the warming center for the first time to spend the night. “Oh, I have lived here most of my life.” This is the most common response. On Monday, Aug. 10, at the DeKalb City Council meeting, I spoke about a claim frequently made when our community discusses homelessness: that most people who are unhoused came here from somewhere else.
Perspective: Pay attention to what you pay attention to
Has this ever happened to you? I pick up my phone to check the weather forecast and before I know it I am looking at tiny houses by a stream in the woods. Fifteen minutes later after traveling around the world in reel after reel, and I can’t remember why I even picked up my phone. Those moments came back to me while reading Attensity!, a manifesto from the Friends of Attention.
Letter: Encouraging local stewardship through best management practices
DeKalb County has always taken pride in its rich agricultural heritage and the stewardship ethic shared by the farmers and landowners who care for our landscape. But the high-intensity rain events we’ve experienced in recent years have made one thing unmistakably clear: The way we manage our soil and water today will determine the health of our rivers, streams and communities for decades to come. These storms are no longer rare.
Perspective: In this world of flowers
How wondrous that we live in a world where flowers bloom every spring. That out of all the galaxies we ended up on this planet, where flowers rise from the soil. They bloom in gardens and along roadsides, — even in the harsh deserts of Death Valley and of Iran. Out of dust and heat, something delicate insists on growing and blooming. This spring, our world of flowers is being torn apart. Schoolchildren are bombed in their classrooms. Flowers pressed between the pages of their books turn to ash.
Perspectiva: Jardines de resistencia
Read in Spanish Son tiempos que exigen valentía para que nuestra nación perdure y siga pareciendo la misma dentro de cuatro años, cado uno de nosotros deberá decidir: ¿Qué haré en este periodo de la historia? La administración actual ha recortado más de mil millones de dólares en fondos para los sistemas alimentarios locales y regionales. Han desviado 500 millones de dólares en entregas de alimentos a los bancos de alimentos, justo cuando los precios de los alimentos se disparan un 20%.
Perspective: The Wendigo in America
The monster in the Potawatomi culture is Wendigo who suffers from the illness of taking too much and sharing too little. Wendigo thinking puts the survival of the community at risk by incentivizing individual desire for accumulation far beyond the point of enough. When I read this, I realized we have such a monster living among us devouring our democracy, our freedom. Such as the 900 page “Project 2025” with provisions of the blueprint being put into practice by the present administration.
Perspective: Is our president a populist or a demagogue?
Before the election, we heard a lot of talk about how Donald Trump's populist message resonated with the working class. There was a photo op with Donald Trump wearing a McDonald's apron. He made a lot of promises to all who work and live paycheck to paycheck about how he alone could save them and make their lives better. However, since his election, I have not heard him talk much about the daily workers who keep this country going. A true populist is neither all right or all left.
Letter: Don’t let Dizz’s disappear
I remember when Dizz's was the happening place. Wake up, Laguna. Don't let this treasure go away. No place like it. Start eating here again. Aperitifs, great setting and wonderful staff. Not to mention the food is amazing. Dan Kenney, long ago Mayor
Perspective: Words will not save us, but they can point the way
I wake many mornings to what seems like an endless rain of bad news. I find myself often feeling sad, frightened, or enraged. I am very concerned about the direction our country and this world seem to be headed. And each day I turn off the news and ask, “What is mine to do?” The answer that keeps coming back to me is to be kind, be curious, be courageous, be clear, be compassionate and look for and create beauty. To keep telling the stories that must be told.
Perspective: Gardens of Resistance
These are times that demand courage. If our nation is to endure and still resemble itself in four years, each of us must decide: What will I do in this moment of history? The current administration has slashed over $1 billion in funding for local and regional food systems. They’ve gutted $500 million in food deliveries to food banks — just as food prices soar 20%. They’ve cut $660 million that schools and childcare centers used to buy fresh, local food for our kids.
Perspectiva: ¿Y si pasa algo?
Read in English "¿Qué tal si pasa algo?" Estoy cansado de escuchar estas palabras. He estado involucrado en la coordinación de un centro de calentamiento nocturno en nuestra iglesia para individuos que están sin hogar. Nuestra meta era proveer un lugar con calefacción donde la gente pueda dormir cuando hacía temperaturas peligrosas. Cuando uno abre su puerta para los individuos sin hogar, esos que forman parte del grupo grande que les llaman “los sin hogar” dejas de ver una masa sin rostro.
Perspective: Treating others with dignity is one way to heal America
There is one thing Americans agree on. Over 80% of Americans agree that our nation is more divided than it has ever been in their lifetimes. There have always been divisions in America. Disagreement is part of living in a democracy. The problem is in how we communicate with this disagreement. More than 1 in 3 Americans have permanently broken off a key relationship due to politics. Often these breaks are with close family members. The current divide in America has become a social change challenge.
Perspective: Be careful what you wish for
My parents often told me to be careful of what I wished for. Matthew 7: 7-8, reads, “What you see is what you get. What you seek is also what you get.” People can mend and renew the world by strengthening inside ourselves what we seek outside ourselves. Not by demanding it of others or trying to force it on others. However, if you want others to be more loving, choose to love first. If you are working for peace out there, create peace inside yourself.
Perspective: If your heart is cold, your vision will be distorted
“I am not an alien.” The young woman spoke calmly. “I am a human being just like you.” She told her story of coming to America as a young girl with her parents who crossed the border “illegally” over two decades ago. She spoke at a DeKalb County Law and Justice committee meeting. The topic was a possible resolution to declare DeKalb County a “non-sanctuary county.” I have learned since that similar resolutions are passing like black smoke over our listening area.
Perspective: My blueprint for life, provided by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I first learned about Dr. Martin Luther King when I was thirteen years old. I would eat an evening meal from a tv tray while watching Walter Cronkite. Listening to the latest in the civil rights struggle. Even as a young white boy, in an all-white farming town, in the middle of the middle west, Dr. King’s strong voice reached inside me, stirred my heart, and became etched into my developing character.
Perspective: There is hope in the ashes
When we see disasters like the horrific fires in Maui we tend to see little hope for the people who have had their homes and livelihoods destroyed. However, history tells us there is always hope, even in the ashes. 77 years ago today an advertisement appeared in local newspapers around the country. The call went out for “seagoing cowboys.” Help wanted.
Pespective: Democracy vs. Autocracy, again!
‘What we’re trying to do is identify pockets of independence and seize them.” Said Russell T. Vought, advisor to the House Freedom Caucus. This is the intention of “Project 2025”. “Project 2025” a coalition of 65 right-wing organizations putting in place policies and personnel to recommend to any 2024 Republican presidential winner. If you want an example of America if they succeed, look at the restrictive policies Governor DeSantis established in Florida.
Perspective: The Bend In The Road
Dan Kenney -- June 7, 2021 “The place you’re looking for is up round the bend.” The man said it with certainty. He had traversed that bend many times and he knew exactly what was waiting. I take what I call a “prayer walk” each day. Often on the same path that has many bends. The first time I walked it I was excited to see what was around the bend. Now, I know what to expect, and even though each day it is a little different, and I am a little different, the scene is familiar.
Perspective: A Life Of Unintended Consequences
Dan Kenney's Perspective -- May 3, 2021 Reading the history of food and agriculture in Mark Bittman’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Junk. I have been thinking about how events in history, given our hindsight, seem to have set in motion a domino effect of unintended consequences. How a choice which made sense at the time can later seem a tragic mistake. Take the story of Fritz Haber, a German Jew born in 1868 and a friend of Albert Einstein.
Perspective: Justice Requires More Than An Apology
Dan Kenney's Perspective -- March 29, 2021 As a white male in his 60s, I have many things I may need to apologize for. All my discarded plastic or all my contribution to climate change. And then, there is my white privilege, which came with my birth. Yes, I was born a poor white male; however, I have earned more in my lifetime than many of my male African American peers, most who have worked much harder than me. I am sorry for the system.
Kenney: We can’t keep doing this? Food insecurity one year after shutdown
“Something has to change. We can’t keep doing this,” a young woman said as she pulled away with her children in the backseat of her car holding their boxes and bags of food. It has been one very long year since I first wrote about the pandemic’s effect on food insecurity in DeKalb County. It has been a year of broken hearts, grief, losses and sorrow; and at the same time, a year of people coming together to help others, pulling together as only true community can do.
Perspective: A Nation On A Desperate Edge
Dan Kenney's Perspective -- February 22, 2021 It is the desperation, fear, and hatred in their faces that follows me. The pained shouts. The hand-to-hand barbarian combat. The use of blunt objects and murder weapons that were at hand. January 6th leaves me with troubling questions like a family member after a suicide. What drives people to a desperate edge? Why does a person embrace lies over truth? How does a person turn the flag he claims to revere into a weapon?
Perspective: What Would Dr. King Say?
Over the past four years, and past four months, with each new disturbing piece of reality connected to this outgoing administration and each new assault on democracy, I find myself asking, what would Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. say? So, I turned to his writing. In our time of division and bitterness he says: “The one thing about bitterness is its blindness.
Perspective: Those Drunk On Power And Greed May Drive Democracy Off A Cliff
Today the Electoral College meets. Another failsafe in the long process to the transition of presidential power. This year it is more significant given the rabbit-hole our country was drug into 6 weeks ago. Robert Kennedy said, “the work of our hands, matched to reason and principle, will determine destiny.” What happens when those in power no longer operate with principle or reason?
Perspective: My 2020 Birthday Wishes
Dan Kenney's "Perspective" (November 9, 2020). Now, in the second half of my life, with more years behind me than before me, my birthdays have taken on new meaning. Especially this year. My 67th birthday. Everything about this year has been historic, a pandemic, stressful presidential election, and my own two life-threatening medical events. I feel very grateful to be alive and able to reflect back while looking ahead.
Perspective: 'Pity The Nation' Again
Events of the past week reminded of the poem “Pity the Nation” written by Lawrence Ferlinghetti 13 years ago. I believe it captures much of our current America. Pity the nation whose people are sheep, and whose shepherds mislead them. Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced, and whose bigots haunt the airwaves. Pity the nation that raises not its voice, except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Perspective: Live Fully Every Moment
The air is filled with spin words about “opening up and going back to normal.” The coronavirus, like Katrina and other disasters, has put a bright light on what is broken in our country. A fragile food system. Overcrowded prisons. Or how Hispanics and African Americans are always the most vulnerable in times of disaster and every day. The percentage of people who have died who are black or Hispanic is twice as high as the number of people who are white.
Perspective: Disconnection Is Our Cultural Disease
Dan Kenney's "Perspective" (July 27, 2020). From the White House to street corners of Chicago, from 10:00 a.m. Sunday mornings to nightly AA meetings you will find this disease. It is sewn into the fabric of our culture. It cannot be cured with a vaccine nor can your doctor give you a prescription. All of us have experienced it, some of us know it and others are unaware of its symptoms.
Perspective: Time To Move Beyond Adjustments To An Unjust Society
Dan Kenney's "Perspective" (June 22, 2020). May of 1963, at age 10, I sat watching Walter Cronkite report about police officers in Birmingham Alabama turning fire hoses and dogs on civil rights marchers. Including children my age. Today people are still marching for civil rights and protection from the police. 14 years ago I marched with over 400,000 people in the streets of Chicago joining in the peaceful call for a path to citizenship for over 2 million people.
Perspective: We Must Do Better Than Normal
Dan Kenney's "Perspective" (May 18, 2020). The air is filled with spin words about “opening up and going back to normal.” The coronavirus, like Katrina and other disasters, has put a bright light on what is broken in our country. A fragile food system. Overcrowded prisons. Or how Hispanics and African Americans are always the most vulnerable in times of disaster and every day. The percentage of people who have died who are black or Hispanic is twice as high as the number of people who are white.
Perspective: COVID-19 Exposes Flawed Food Security System
Dan Kenney's "Perspective" (April 13, 2020). “I never thought I would have to ask for food.” The young mother said as a box was placed in her car. In the last three weeks over 500,000 Illinois residents have filed for unemployment. We have never seen such a sudden, dramatic increase in the need for food in our region. There are now growing lines at area food pantries. Numbers of those seeking help has tripled. For 70% of them this is their first visit to a food pantry.
Perspective: Stand Up And Be Counted
Dan Kenney's "Perspective" (March 9, 2020). April 1st, 2020 is fast approaching. This year it is not an ordinary April Fool’s Day. This April 1st is Census Day 2020. The day that has been designated for everyone to be counted. Everyone regardless of your citizenship status. Everyone is counted regardless of age. And you will be counted where you are living on that day.
Perspective: Time To Do What Is Right
Dan Kenney's "Perspective" (January 27, 2020). I write this as the Senate takes up articles of impeachment. By the time you hear this it may be over. Whether the President is removed from office or not, this process, and the last three years, have brought a deep dark truth out of the shadows. What troubles me more than the president’s behavior is all of those who rationalize his behavior, those who say it doesn’t matter.
Perspective: Finding Hope At Christmas In A Divided America
Dan Kenney's "Perspective" (December 23, 2019). As I write this it is a cold clear night. It is also the night our President was impeached. A sad day for our Country regardless of your political view. It has been a day of bitter bickering and angry politically based debating, a day of us versus them, which has left me feeling sad and anxious. When you hear this it will be two days before Christmas.
Perspective: A Culture Of Affluence And Greed
Dan Kenney's "Perspective" (November 18, 2019). Jim Cramer, former hedge fund manager and now television personality giving investment advice to millions said, “What’s important when you are in that hedge-fund mode is to not do anything remotely truthful because the truth is so against your view, that it’s important to create a new truth to develop a fiction.” Harvard Business School students are told, “Speak with conviction.
Perspective: The Death Of Small Family Farms
Dan Kenney's "Perspective" (October 14, 2019). "In America, the big get bigger and the small go out," said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. Perdue made these comments at the World Dairy Expo in Madison Wisconsin, which touts itself as America's Dairyland and has lost 551 dairy farms in 2019 and a total of 1,654 dairy farms lost since January of 2017. More than one farm a day for the last three years.
Perspective: First, Listen. Always.
Dan Kenney's "Perspective" (September 9, 2019). “First, shut up and listen.” And “If people don’t ask for help leave them alone.” Ernesto Sirolli recommends this when seeking to transform a local economy. Too often we seek to save. In doing so we are patronizing, insulting and doomed to fail.
Perspective: Thousands Will Lose Benefits
Dan Kenney's "Perspective" (August 2, 2019). “I’ve never done this before,” a woman tells me as I help her sign up for food assistance at the Grow Mobile pop-up pantry. “My husband has been ill, and I had to quit my job to take care of him.” One of millions of stories. There is so much going on in Washington. You may have missed this proposed change put forward by the Trump administration. The USDA is proposing changes to qualifications for SNAP benefits.
Perspective: I've Never Seen A Spring Like This
Dan Kenney's "Perspective" (July 1, 2019). “I’ve been farming 60 years and I’ve never seen anything like it.” A farmer said to me recently. He was discussing the wet cold spring which prevented planting of corn at its normal time. When I was growing up on the farm my father always said to have a good crop the corn should be knee high by the 4th of July. In the past decade the corn has usually been nearly shoulder high by the fourth.
Perspective: Protecting The Ideals Of America Goes Beyond The Battlefield
Dan Kenney's "Perspective" (May 27, 2019). More than 660,000 American soldiers have been killed in battle since the birth of our Country. Each year on Memorial Day we pause to remember those who have died in protection of our American Ideals: The ideals of democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity, and equality. Yet, the protection of these ideals goes beyond the battlefield to all of us. Abraham Lincoln warned. “America will never be destroyed from the outside.
Perspective: The Endless Struggle To Save Our Earth
Dan Kenney's "Perspective" (April 22, 2019). “Only when the last tree has died, the last river been poisoned, and the last fish been caught, will we realize we cannot eat money.” -- A Cree Tribe Proverb from 350 years ago. In 1762, after coal was discovered, Pittsburgh began to be known as the “Smoky City” or as “Hell with the Lid Off.” Still there were people who believed the smoke was good for their lungs and helped crops grow.
Perspective: Government Debt? Blame The Poor
Dan Kenney's "Perspective" (March 18, 2019). “It’s like they don’t want us to get ahead.” An African-American friend said to me recently as I gave her and her son a ride so they did not have to stand in the cold March chill waiting for a bus. As a single mother with two children she struggles to keep food on their table. Her teen age daughter found a $9 an hour part-time job trying to save a little for college, and then the household was hit with a cut in benefits.
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