Last March, I was invited by Christine Pearl ’11 to facilitate a book club session on my second favorite Toni Morrison novel, “Beloved.” The session was an extension of the efforts of the nonprofit organization Red Wine & Blue, whose mission is to empower and...
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It’s Black History Month and NC Republicans Introduced a Bill to Limit Teaching of Black History
Renee Sekel, a Cary mom who works for the NC chapter of Red Wine & Blue, a group that seeks to mobilize suburban moms to get involved in politics, also opposes the bill. “I think most parents—and most kids—want our schools to teach accurate and complete history. ...
Stateside Podcast: The parents on the other side of the phone
On the night of the shooting at Michigan State University, students faced four hours of a shelter-in-place order. During that time many students were in communication with their parents; texting and calling them. On the other end of the phone, parents had to manage...
Reproductive rights advocates tell legislators to reject more abortion restrictions
Janice Robinson recalled a scary time when she was a pregnant 15-year-old in South Carolina, almost 50 years ago. Her mother took her to have an abortion. Her mother took her not to a medical doctor, but someone unlicensed and working in secret. Robinson said she...
After Oxford, gun violence advocates felt helpless. But there’s hope for change in Michigan now.
Kelly Dillaha, the mother of twins who attend MSU and were barricaded in their room just off campus during the mass shooting, said the school could not have done anything differently to prevent Monday’s violence. What would make a difference, she said, is gun reform....
‘We all ran for our lives’: MSU students describe mass shooting as a never-ending nightmare
Michigan State University students are angry. Yes, they are traumatized; yes, they are overwhelmed with grief and sadness. They know they will need mental health support in the coming days, weeks, months, and years. But, right now, in the wake of three students being...
MSU mom, anti-gun violence advocate calls for solutions after campus shooting
A Michigan State University mother and anti-gun violence advocate says Monday’s deadly shooting on campus reinforces her efforts to achieve sensible gun control. Kelly Dillaha’s phone was flooded Monday night with messages from concerned friends asking about her twin...
Michigan State Mom, Activist Hopes Shooting Will Lead To Gun Reform
Kelly Dillaha and her husband, Scott, were watching television in their Birmingham home Monday evening when their phones started blowing up with texts asking if their twin sons, Aidan and Brandon Johnson-Hill, students at Michigan State University, were OK. They...
Interview: ‘We Were Having None of It’
Katie Paris founded Red Wine & Blue in 2019 to help suburban women engage in politics. By the end of the 2020 election, it had grown into ‘a pretty passionate fight against rightwing extremism.’
White women have long been unreliable voters for Democrats. Could that change in 2024?
Jennifer Pippin had been a registered Democrat since she was 18-years-old. But a decade later, in 2014, she switched to the Republican Party. "I felt like more of the Republican values were my values," said Pippin, a 37-year-old surgical and operating room nurse from...
Recent Posts
Read This: Five Reasons Why We “Go Local”
Lately, you may have seen Red Wine & Blue say, “When they go low, we go local!” What do we mean by that? Almost a decade ago, Michelle Obama made famous the phrase, “When they go low, we go high.” This was the Obama family motto for responding to cruel, hateful...
Okay, But Why is Gay Marriage at Risk?
The U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, but recent events have people wondering, is gay marriage at risk? The laws of the United States are supposed to protect and lift up all of us. For hundreds of thousands of gay couples across America, the right to get married isn’t abstract – it affects their daily lives, their finances, their health, and their family. Why would we turn back the clock on the social progress we’ve made? And why is banning gay marriage a priority for some people when there are so many real issues affecting Americans?
Okay, But Why is AI a concern?
Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is everywhere these days. Some people think it’s the solution to all of humanity’s problems. Others think it’s going to bring about the end of life as we know it. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between. But with so many different opinions and so many ways that AI can be used, it’s hard to know exactly what to believe. So let’s look at the facts and figure out, why is AI a concern?
Okay, But Why Are Romance Novels Political?
When people think of romance novels, the first thing that comes to mind is shirtless men with windswept hair on the covers of mass-market paperbacks, or maybe the “damsel in distress” main character who is waiting for a love interest to come and save her from the clutches of evil. They’re often not thought of as ‘real’ reading, because they are stories typically written by women, for women, and starring women. But what if the truth is that even the most “raunchy” novels of the genre are deeply political?
Okay, But Why Is Autism in the Headlines?
Millions of Americans are pushing back against claims made by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and President Donald Trump about finding the cause of autism and their promises to find treatments for the disorder. Trump has called the rise in diagnoses of autism “a tremendous horror show.” Many autism advocates – and people with autism themselves – say Kennedy’s and Trump’s statements are misinformed and even dangerous. So what’s the truth? Are autism rates rising? Do we know why? Is it even something that needs to be “cured”?