18 Comments
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Fran B.'s avatar

Safe travels. Let the striped zebras know you come in peace and hoping you find your stripeless zebra kin.

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Cindy's avatar

Don’t worry, Holly. I’ll save you a seat by the fire ! Always room for another…😊

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Lisa's avatar

Safe travels!

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Jennifer Colyer's avatar

Thank you for this. It really brightened my morning.

Signed - a true Heathen.

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Suzette Ciancio's avatar

Thank you, Holly, for the laughs, and the reflections. Safe and fun travels! Looking forward to your next letter!

Will you be chauffeuring the striped zebras? 😁

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Dave's avatar

Great commentary. My feelings exactly. Safe travels.

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Charles Meadows's avatar

This is so great!

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Chayse Phenton's avatar

Thanks Holly. I wish you would just say what you really think. 😉. I understand the frustration. We have a now-granddaughter who was in Job Corps doing well and climbing out of her homeless life, gaining valuable job skills. A good program. A week ago she was given 12 hours to leave the center which closed abruptly. Along with others in the program, she is now homeless, this time in NYC, along with 60,000 other people in the city. She is resilient and independent wanting to find her own way. She calls to keep us updated and we help as we can. Last week, in order to better understand the issues, I asked Gemini Pro to help me write a research paper: "A Multidisciplinary Examination of Gender: From Ancient Interpretations to Modern Scientific Understandings." The 32-page paper is quite interesting, complete with biblical references and scientific and cultural studies. (I can share if interested) Today, my own Mother-God rest her soul-a former SBC Associate pastor with the HMB in the Appalachians in the early 1940s would not be accepted by the SBC today. Looking forward to reading your book. I enjoy your snark and sarc! AND, the truth underneath. Enjoy your time in Africa.

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Holly Berkley Fletcher's avatar

Sorry to hear about your granddaughter:( may she find home in every sense.

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Tracey Henley's avatar

“On so many things, God has given me new eyes, even though he also gave me the old eyes that saw a lynching and thought it would be a fun occasion for a picnic.”

And to take a bunch of pictures and sell them to people as mementos and postcards. Here’s your souvenir from North Carolina/Alabama/South Carolina/Georgia/Florida/Louisiana/Arkansas, etc!

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Julie Price Carpenter's avatar

This is hilarious and sad at the same time.

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Mary Liz's avatar

Thank you for the satirical romp, Holly! Safe travels to you.

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Kate Fall's avatar

Have a wonderful trip and I can't wait to hear about it!

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Tracey Henley's avatar

“That’s what a committed Christian I am, that I would go do my racism somewhere with malaria and tapeworms. NO GREATER LOVE. “

Ok, I laughed out loud. It’s so true!

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Jeff's avatar

Genius satire, would be great as a TED Talk. Bon Voyage!

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Terry Mc Kenna's avatar

I listened to the Ezra/Sarah discussion but I think while Sarah means well, she is oblivious to how it feels to hit the wall of scolding that is inflicted if you get it wrong. Or if you disagree.

,

For example, when a news reader says pregnant people.. i shudder because that pretends that the pregnant person is not in the end a woman who stopped male hormones and let pregnancy happen. so this includes normal breast development with pregnancy.

It remains problematical to consider trans persons identical to those born of the sex. If we were doing descriptive biology we would have at least 4 sexes male, female, male (B) and female (B). I say this not to crush the hopes of trans folks but to suggest that we don't really know whether a trans woman really is now as weak as a typical woman or is male muscle attachments don't still grant and advantage. We don't even know if the loss of muscle mass on trans woman takes them all the way to a typcial woman or are they still stronger.

I say the remembering being a 5'10" boy at age 12 and suddenly my size changed things. I was too big to play fair with my age peers in football. And I hit a baseball much farther.

My voice had not changed... so I was still a boy.

Midget League football in our town screened me out - I was too heavy by age 10 for the weight limit.

Even the notion of correct language is worrisome. As if we all should get a catechism and follow it. But we don't. Thus terms like cis gender are a problem.

We don't expect correct language when a person discusses taxation, or the farm bill. but somehow expect people to use all the right forms regarding what is still a rare matter.

So when Sarah pointed out a legislator who was worried that his daughter could get clobbered by a trans girn on a sports field... why does she expect it not to be a question.

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John Hawthorne's avatar

Anticipated the Saved! gif from early on! Which makes me think that after you’re back you should do a RazzleDazzle where we all watch that movie. Have a great time back “home”.

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Holly Berkley Fletcher's avatar

I remember I was kind of offended by that movie when it first came out…Now I think it was spot on.

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