5 Things / Contradictions

A Note from Bernadette

In between games, I was speaking with a pickleball pal, Fernando. He shared that he published a memoir of short essays from his travels. So I bought it. And got completely absorbed in Fernando's spiritual quest.

Fernando writes, in part: "Perhaps we do not always know what to do in the face of the world's pain, but continuing to look, continuing to feel, continuing to choose not to become indifferent, is already a response…to hold contradiction, to walk between beauty and wound without denying either one."

This summer I'm present for the beauty and for the wounds. I learned how to do that last year.

I'm cheering you on—

Bernadette

This Week's Good Vibes

Illinois Puts Menopause On The Record

The Illinois Menopause Equity and Care Act is law, making it one of the first states to protect menopause related conditions under its anti-discrimination law. Starting in January, employers must offer reasonable accommodations, such as flexible scheduling and temperature control for symptoms. By 2028, larger group health plans must cover an annual menopause visit at no cost for employees 45+. ♐️ Millions of working people have been managing menopause in silence, hiding symptoms for fear of being seen as less capable.

Chaplain Poised To Make Michigan History

Joanna Whaley, a hospital chaplain, won her Democratic primary for Michigan's 2nd House District with 56% of the vote, positioning her to become the state's first openly transgender legislator this November. Before running, Whaley spent 15 years in conversion therapy while serving as an evangelical megachurch pastor. Her primary opponent tried to knock her off the ballot by challenging her legal name change, and the county clerk's office rejected the effort. ♐️ Fifteen years of conversion therapy couldn't take her voice. Now she's using it to help others.

Blindfolded Grad Students Navigate Busy Airport

Eight students in Portland State University's Orientation and Mobility program navigated Portland International Airport blindfolded, using white canes, guides, and wayfinding apps like GoodMaps and Aira. The program trains professionals to teach blind, low vision, and deafblind people how to travel independently, and it's one of only 12 accredited programs in the country. Airport staff trained alongside the students, learning how to support travelers who are blind, low vision, deaf or hard of hearing. ♐️ Independence is the foundation of individual agency.

Angel Reese Gets Her Own Barbie

Angel Reese is now the first Black WNBA player with a signature Barbie doll. The doll wears her Atlanta Dream uniform, her signature leg sleeve, and a Barbie colorway of her Reebok sneaker. Mattel says the collaboration recognizes both her game and her advocacy through the Angel C. Reese Foundation. ♐️ Representation in a toy aisle sounds small until you remember how many kids build their sense of what's possible from what's sitting on the shelf.

Baltimore Rebuilds What Calling 911 Means

Baltimore discovered tens of thousands of 911 callers annually didn't need police, fire or EMTs, they needed help for things like someone in a mental health crisis. Now the city is expanding its mobile crisis teams so trained clinicians and peer counselors can respond instead of officers, backed by $15 million in opioid settlement funds allocated so far. The city is modeling the program on Durham, NC's HEART program, which diverted more than 12,000 calls in four years and found that non-police response led to fewer arrests overall, especially for callers who were Black, men, or ages 25-39. ♐️ Who responds changes who gets arrested.

Good Vibes to Go & Updates

Explore nearly 6,000 newly digitized photographs by Richard Samuel Roberts, a Columbia, South Carolina postal worker who spent his off-hours from the 1920s through the 1930s photographing his Black community.