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I don’t know about your upbringing, but I spent enough time in church to hear the story of Joseph’s many coat of colors many times and how his brothers sold him into slavery. Never, though, have I seen this story through the lens that Jospeh may have been Autistic until now. This exploration shows how disabilities and diversity can chemically react with the heat of adversity to create the powerful energy that saved two ancient adversarial cultures from starvation and famine.

The League of Extraordinary People is excited to announce the free, February Town Hall! This town hall's topic is Adverse Childhood Relationship Experiences: The Connection Between Child Development and Chronic Illness. Reserve your spot at www.bit.ly/tloepfeb You can find more information about TLOEP at www.tloep.org! Alfred White is the founder of The League of Extraordinary People. After nearly 38 years of experiencing homelessness, Alfred swallowed a 1/4 ounce of crack cocaine in 2004...

As I share with you some of the multiple authors’ insights from the journal article, I would like you to think about what you know about physical and emotional abuse and neglect. Then think about how human relationships, especially with a father or father-figure, are affected and see if you agree with the authors’ conclusions when it comes to a person’s worship of, relationship with, or picture of God.

Formerly enslaved individuals helped found Ebenezer in 1886, and its roots in civil rights activism predate King. His grandfather, A.D. Williams, was the church’s second pastor, and he helped start the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP. The church’s historian Benjamin Ridgeway tells TIME that King’s father, known as Martin Luther King, Sr., was an early advocate for Black police officers in Atlanta and equal pay for teachers as a pastor at Ebenezer. But Martin Luther King, Jr. helped raise the...

By Brittney Martin, The Imprint, January 6, 2021 Tara Hutton remembers how the little girl she had been fostering for a year began acting out on the day a new social worker came to their house in Magnolia, Texas. As Hutton and the social worker talked, the girl kept interrupting and trying to get Hutton’s attention. She insisted on bringing her Play-Doh outside, despite knowing it was an inside-only toy. Though the girl likely couldn’t explain why she felt rattled by the appearance of a new...

While the 5,000-page $900 billion COVID Relief Bill ( H.R. 133, Div. M and N) fell short on some fronts (e.g., did not provide direct fiscal relief to cash-strapped states and localities), it does provide $82 billion in Education Stabilization Funds for states, school districts, and higher education institutions—crucial support for education as students return to school after the holiday. Funding of this magnitude makes a trauma-informed COVID response possible, giving advocates the...

Little Richard called himself, over and over again, the architect of rock and roll. Many take this assertion to mean that he thought of himself as an influence in the genre, but as Tavia Nyong'o argued this spring after the artist's death, influence is " perhaps too weak a word ." Others think Little Richard meant he created the genre, but that is a misunderstanding of architecture. Architects don't create sui generis: They gather and create ideas based on what's already there, even if...

By Gene Nichol, The Charlotte Observer, December 28, 2020 It doesn’t happen as often as one might wish. But, on occasion, you can still be surprised by what someone says. For example, earlier this month, the Donald Trump-appointed Chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, explained to the Senate Banking Committee: “Disparate economic outcomes on the basis of race, have been with us for a very long time, they are a long-standing aspect of our economy, and there is a great risk that the...

By Tom Szaroleta, December 25, 2020, Florida Times-Union. JACKSONVILLE, Fla — While most trees are losing their foliage for the winter, a live oak in Riverside is blooming with messages of hope, grief and love. The Community Tree is in the front yard of the Yellow House art gallery at 577 King St. in Jacksonville. For the next few months, people are invited to stop by, jot a message on one of the 3-inch-by-4-foot ribbons and hang it in the tree. The idea for the project came from cultures...

Dr. Moore with her 19-year-old son, Henry Muhammed (photo by Henry Muhammed). By John Eligon Lying in a hospital bed with an oxygen tube hugging her nostrils, the Black patient gazed into her smartphone and, with a strained voice, complained of an experience all too common among Black people in America. Susan Moore, the patient, said the white doctor at the hospital in suburban Indianapolis where she was being treated for Covid-19 had downplayed her complaints of pain. He told her that he...

By Rohan Preston, Feeling Fit, December 19, 2020 The decades may have helped the wound to close over, but you can still feel the hurt under his words. Gardener and social worker Kenny Turck was in grade school when his big sister committed suicide at 21. An outspoken daughter of Litchfield, Minn., the Crow River community that her family had called home since 1875, Kathy Turck was gay and the victim of a horrific assault. "She was raped by four men, and the judge blamed the assaults on her...

Southeastern ACEs Connection and national CTIPP leaders on the quarterly leader call welcomed guest speaker Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz (top left) for their quarterly call. Also among those present were (top row l-r) Carey Sipp, Jesse Kohler, Jesse Hardin, (second row, l-r) Patti Tiberi, Mebane Boyd, Jen Drake-Croft, Dan Press, (third row, l-r) Mimi Graham, Christopher Freeze, Margaret Stagmeier, (fourth row, l-r) Emily Marsh, Liz Peterson, Alyssa Koziarski and Janet Pozmantier. Also present was...