tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55969185555650137382011-12-18T14:39:18.303-05:00M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.comBlogger201100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-51478067730870706062008-12-16T20:57:00.003-05:002008-12-27T22:24:36.516-05:00

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-11513607056714800312008-11-06T22:28:00.007-05:002011-07-11T15:06:56.521-05:00

Tuesday, election night. I’m more nervous than I’d imagined. I play word games on Facebook rather than watch news updates of election results. At 10:45 pm, my daughter phones me from Buffalo, NY. “Mom, mom, he did it! We finally elected a black president!” I’m thrilled to hear this news from my 27 year-old bi-racial daughter. Wednesday morning, I head into school, still elated. I give a thumb

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-43902230858623618182008-09-05T19:12:00.013-05:002011-07-11T15:08:58.157-05:00

Today, while driving home from work at 6:15pm, I paused for a moment at a traffic light that had just turned green. Behind me, the driver of a big, black pick-up truck laid down on his horn. I acknowledged him in my rear view mirror and drove through the intersection. Well, he continued to blare his horn and inched right up behind my bumper. "What the f- is his problem?" I wondered. So, I calmly

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-85498623617256355612008-08-07T15:38:00.003-05:002008-08-07T15:47:48.428-05:00

After the fiascos of the 2004 election, I feel strongly committed to having some level of engagement with the election process for 2008 that is greater than simply pulling that lever behind the voting booth curtain. So, I am blogging on MyBarackObama.com to explore different issues that will arise and be addressed during this election year. You can see my most recent blog writings there. I'll

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-13135649505196653082008-07-15T16:10:00.005-05:002008-07-15T21:31:14.760-05:00

This past year, I have asked my students to write "This I Believe" statements based upon NPR's series. While teaching summer school, I incorporated the assignment into a larger project and presentation required for students' final exams. To model how the project should be presented, I finally wrote a "This I Believe" statement of my own. While I have many beliefs, the one conveyed in the

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-28680677600150265542008-04-20T10:18:00.001-05:002008-04-20T10:21:14.232-05:00

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-19580065111445810372008-02-14T20:21:00.003-05:002008-02-14T20:28:54.010-05:00

I recently received an email from a former student who has been in the military for the past six months. She is currently overseas, although not in Iraq. She just turned 18 this past summer. Her email read:“Sorry it took so long to reply. I've been going through a lot of things here lately. One of my supervisors who I think is racist turned me in to my commander bc he assumed that I was a

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-43573748270457249272008-02-06T19:15:00.000-05:002008-02-07T08:51:13.881-05:00

Lately, I've been working on helping my students to develop class blogs. I've discovered that letting teenagers be teenagers can work wonders for their self-motivation. Their class blogs provide them with a public forum to discuss issues of importance to them, to express themselves, and to learn about their classmates. It's amazing how one can feel that it's "them against you" as the sole adult

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-13871494542180383902008-01-13T10:33:00.001-05:002008-02-15T07:12:40.089-05:00

“I play this 1966 Fender Telecaster, but you’re still gone.” Nathan Bell (1966 Telecaster)I’m currently listening to In Tune, On Time, Not Dead, the music of Nathan Bell. Nathan’s an incredibly soulful, wise, and hard-hitting lyrical musician who currently resides in Chattanooga, TN. On the track “Manuel Jacket” he sings, “Maybe I should have bought that jacket, the one that would have changed my

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-43546790524400725472008-01-01T13:51:00.000-05:002008-01-01T13:53:48.550-05:00

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-22694400723964637302007-11-14T19:10:00.000-05:002007-11-18T23:05:34.212-05:00

Since my last post in August, I traveled back up to Pennsylvania where I attended a genealogy conference at Kutztown University. The conference featured a keynote address entitled "Emigration from the Palatinate of America in the 18th and 19th Centruy: How Emigrants Described Their Impressions in Their Letters" given by the German scholar, Roland Paul. Other speakers discussed Pennsylvania

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-80835264767482862652007-08-05T20:07:00.000-05:002007-08-05T20:24:23.590-05:00

As a young girl, I spent much time in the home of my maternal and late grandparents William and Lillie Ann Foltz Mammosser. Lillie Ann is one of the daughters of Lillie Augusta Hornberger Foltz of Gouglersville, PA and William Henry Foltz of Terre Hill, PA. My grandmother was raised in Wayland, NY, but I believe that she was born in Gouglersville. This I will need to research. Anyhow, I had

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-57954997074988020322007-07-13T11:48:00.001-05:002007-07-18T21:38:51.192-05:00

I spent a week with my boyfriend camping at Four Quarters Farm in Artemis, PA. Situated in the Alleghany foothills on land that is bordered by a horseshoe-shaped creek, the farm stretches from high meadow down to wooded slopes that level along the creek. Tom and I set up camp just across the gravel road from a turn in the creek. Sunlight poured through our tent in the afternoon. At night,

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-45188650347773538622007-07-02T21:57:00.001-05:002007-07-13T11:47:01.756-05:00

"Isn't Gated Community an oxymoron?"Have you observed that most of the people who live in gated communities aren't even from that community?

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-87957422745138056002007-04-29T08:22:00.000-05:002007-04-29T09:54:55.856-05:00

There is a poem, a piece that will find its way into this space. But, my soul feels agitated because I am stagnant in the egotistical belief that I can connect without taking a moment to be still in the presence of God - as God speaks to us in stillness.We each have a way of being in our lives that connects us to the greater purpose of us all. That is the only way to be: When I feel disconnected

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-9453049510117299412007-02-18T10:06:00.000-05:002007-06-13T21:55:46.551-05:00

Following three years of waiting, nudging, and attempts to acquire restitution, I have, at the least, received a letter of regret from the City of Tybee Island for the “obvious misunderstanding that occurred.” In all fairness, I recognize the legal hindrance that prevents a more formal and candid apology for my “unfavorable experience while visiting” the Tybee Island Beach on August 17, 2003.

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-13883817626949279412007-01-22T13:07:00.000-05:002007-01-22T23:33:28.582-05:00

The Durham County Department of Social Services has offices in an adjacent restored tobacco warehouse on the other side of our complex’s parking lot. Clients and applicants pass through this lot, a shortcut to the bus station across the street. When I’m out, I say “Hello” to those with whom I can make eye contact, which is far fewer than I’d like for it to be. I live in a city developed by the

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-8707969058284906532007-01-03T11:39:00.000-05:002007-01-04T08:48:05.818-05:00

PERIHELION: According to astronomers, at 3 p.m. today, this planet upon which our bodies reside will be at its annually closest point to the Sun (91,400,000 miles away or about 1.5 million miles closer than average).In today’s Asheville Citizen’s Times, Bob Hayward, an astronomer at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute in Rosman, explains that “the average distance of the Earth from the Sun

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-11803897063964248902007-01-01T19:40:00.000-05:002007-01-03T12:07:09.460-05:00

New Year’s Resolutions Resolved1. Be truthful.2. Believe that truth matters above all else.3. Bake a blueberry pie and enjoy with a cup of fresh brewed coffee.Resolution:The finest of detail that can be distinguished in an image.Resolve:To render parts of an image visible and distinct.(American Heritage Dictionary)

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5596918555565013738.post-41573126244931726462006-12-02T10:45:00.001-05:002009-05-02T21:21:17.895-05:00

When I was a young girl, I had a close girlfriend named Sasandra. Sasandra and her mother Rhodessa had escaped a house fire; Sasandra received third-degree burns on her lower legs. I never noticed the scars. One day, Rhodessa penned a note for me in red ink on vanilla colored paper. I have kept it ever since."Because you are so unique, I believe the 'goddess of gold,' Sasandra, plucked from her

M. Jae Petersonnoreply@blogger.com0