In May I submitted a letter to the editor to the Times Union about walking vs. driving Isabel to school. It was a very interesting experience for me to have my neighbors read it, comment to me about it, and even read it at the PTA meeting in my absence. I later learned that by writing this letter some people had actually changed their behavior; they decided to walk their kids to school from the neighborhood, or if they were coming from farther away, to get out of their cars and walk their kids inside the school to greet the teacher in the classroom. This is, I hope, the first of many such efforts.

Black Eyed Susans In Full Bloom July 14. The milkweed was still blooming as was Yarrow and some white Asters.

Tree climbing with Daddy-o Last weekend Dave began teaching Isabel how to climb trees. She has learned to hang on tight and hold the branches close to the tree. Calvin, not to be outdone, also made his first foray into the branches of this hemlock.

The milkweed was just getting ready to bloom on the weekend of July 4th. I can still remember the first time I noticed milkweed as a flower. It was the summer I turned 12. I was taken by how sweet it smells. And then I noticed the intricate blooms. This particular plant had a nice bend in the stem, lending additional grace to the plant.

This painting was inspired by research on Drosophila melanogaster at SUNY Albany as well as some interesting images from Hindu religious artwork. The media is egg tempera on a wood panel prepared with gesso. I use water-dispersed pigments, egg yolks and water to prepare my paints.

For this I believe

I believe in kitchen-table democracy. I believe in small “d” democracy, the kind where parents sit around the table and argue with each other about which candidate they should vote for, the kind when mothers gripe together about the schools not being good enough and plot to start new ones, or they talk to their kids about the Constitution and what it means. I believe in small “d” democratic institutions: PTA's, school boards, neighborhood associations, and the League of Women Voters. I believe in the kind of democracy you can take out on the street, the kind that gets you talking to your neighbors up and down the block and strangers across town too, the kind that gets kids excited and involved enough to get into the voting booth with you and learn to pull the lever.

Last night I attended the last PTA meeting of the year at my daughter’s elementary school, the Albany School of Humanities, on Whitehall Road in Albany, New York. At that meeting, I spoke on the need to allow the child acting as master of ceremonies at the end-of-year variety show to say, “Them was good,” without having her grammar “corrected” by the adults coordinating the program. Another parent at the PTA, felt that such ungrammatical speech was a poor reflection on the child, the school, and the PTA, which sponsored the program. Certainly, I argued, there is a place for proper, grammatical, speech, but so too is there a need to create a place for speech that reflects ethnic background, the popular culture, the culture of youth, and creative use of language, especially in a school community that is diverse, with children from over a dozen countries. Discussion ensued for some time, and ultimately, there was general agreement that children need to learn both, and to distinguish when to use each kind of speech to best effect.

Walking home from the meeting, hanging onto my two-year-old son, with my husband, carrying our five year-old daughter, soon to be Kindergarten graduate, on his shoulders. I felt like a true member of a community, with valuable democratic institutions. The PTA is not democracy with a big “D”, but with a small “d”, the kind I’d learned about as a teenager from parents who took the time to involve me and my peers in public meetings on educational issues that affected us.

One woman, Alison Des Forges, who has since gone on to receive a McArthur genius award for her work with Africa Watch, stands out in my mind. Her high-profile efforts at the UN have been recognized, but perhaps she should also know about the impact she had on those of us she taught the lessons of democracy with a little “d." Alison Des Forges helped me and a group of my peers, when we were just high-school freshmen, to attend a public hearing on an effort to ban several books from the Buffalo School district library.

I don’t remember the details of the objections to the book. They don’t matter now. What matters is that she initiated us into the realm of public participation in decision-making. She led us, with the U.S. Constitution as a backdrop, into the practical realm where decisions are made. She facilitated an opportunity for us to speak in public, be heard in our own communities, and then beyond when our speeches were published in the Humanist Magazine. While we may not have influenced the outcome of the meeting, she gave us our first glimpse at the inner workings of decision-making institutions at the community level, where decisions are made that impact our daily lives and the lives of our children. She showed us that to care is to be involved.

This was a critical rite of passage for me. As a parent now, taking my five-year-old daughter to public meetings, and into the voting booth with me, I realize the significance of being involved from childhood in democratic decision making. She laid the foundation for me to find a voice, the courage to speak, and the practical know-how of getting involved.

Until the meeting last night, I hadn’t reflected much on where I’d learned to speak out and express my opinions at a public meeting. I became even more grateful to Alison Des Forges' kitchen table, a neighborhood meeting place, a small “d” democratic institution, where I learned about little “d” democracy. We must each, when it is our turn, take it out into the world, but I believe –- as Alison showed me -- that democracy begins at home.

Recent photos from this year's garden. On the left is a bleeding heart in May. I particularly liked that you could see this flower from both the front and the side at the same time because of the way the three are pivoting in space.

On the left is a lily that is mixed in with the leaves of several other plants that have contrasting textures" Bee Balm, vetch and the lily leaves themselves. There is a house (?) fly on one of the petals that was walking back and forth along the flower for some minutes.