“They had to see us as human first.” History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes. From desegregation to Christian nationalism, from Kindred to Survivor, the same struggle echoes: Who gets to decide who is fully human? This is about forced transitions—through time, through power, through who belongs and who is excluded. It’s about the past bleeding into the present and the danger of believing we’ve moved beyond it.
Author: Jessica Traylor, Ed.D.
Dr. Jessica Traylor is an educator, researcher, and student of life. Her areas of interest include psychology, biofeedback, holistic nutrition, meditation, yoga, Reiki, and hiking. Dr. Traylor's goal is to take what she has learned and translate it into simple, actionable steps to help others in their quest to live a happy, fulfilling life.
The Names That Weren’t There: How We Rebuilt Gordon’s Hidden History
Gordon’s first Black students weren’t all missing, but their records told an incomplete story. Contact info was outdated, names misplaced—history left fragmented. So we searched. Yearbooks, midwives, elders. We found many, but not Gaynell Few. Until one message changed everything.
Moral Foundations Analysis: Evaluating Ideological Bias and AI Influence
Are the words we read—and the AI we use—shaping our moral views? This blog breaks down how rhetoric and AI systems frame moral values like care, fairness, authority, and liberty. Use these two powerful prompts to analyze speeches, news, and AI responses for hidden biases and ideological leanings.
The New Divide: AI, Critical Thinking, and the Future of the Vulnerable
Generative AI is creating a divide—those who understand how to shape it and those who will be shaped by it. AI literacy is becoming as essential as reading and writing, yet many people, especially those with disabilities or limited access, aren’t being taught how to use it effectively. In Patternmaster, Octavia Butler imagined a world where power was determined by access to a mental network—the Pattern—while others, the mutes, were left vulnerable. The parallels to our world are striking. AI has the potential to be an equalizing force, but only if we explicitly teach people how to engage with it. Without intervention, the divide will grow, and those without AI fluency won’t even realize they’ve lost control of the wheel.
Lilith, Eve, and the Girls Who Went First: Rebellion, Obedience, and the Cost of Change
For centuries, women have been told to choose: obedience or exile, silence or survival. Lilith was cast out for refusing to submit. Eve was punished for seeking knowledge. Gay Few and Vanessa Stutten, like so many young Black girls sent to desegregate schools, were expected to endure racism quietly to prove they belonged. History tells us to wait, to comply, to not push too hard. But real change has never come from waiting. It comes from reclaiming the stories, refusing to shrink, and demanding more. We are not here to be silent. We are here to rewrite the rules.
From Carl Jung to Oral History: The Research Project We Never Saw Coming
We thought we were studying psychology. Then we started listening. What began as a class on Jung’s Red Book became an oral history project that challenged everything we thought we knew. It forced us to rethink assumptions, listen differently, and confront the gap between history and memory. We didn’t just learn—we changed.
Where is Kike Seda’s Alligator?
Kike Seda’s legendary alligator may still be out there. Decades ago at the T Street Barracks, chaos erupted when a surprise dorm inspection sent his pet alligator splashing down the halls. With alligators living up to 70 years, could it still be alive? Next time you walk the Highlander Trail and glance toward the pond in the athletic complex, take a closer look—you might just see it.
The Phantom, the Keeper, and the Weight of Returning
At the Heart for Gordon Gala, Jimmy Matthews declared, “I’m the Phantom!”—revealing a decades-old secret that most in the room barely registered. But at one table, the weight of unspoken history settled in. As curiosity spread, a silent exchange with one of Gordon’s keepers of the stories gave permission: Go ahead. In that moment, it became clear—the Phantom wasn’t the only untold story. And it was time to tell them.
A Week in Two Worlds
Excerpt from A Week in Two Worlds: Stepping Into the Snow Globe The rain pattered softly against the RV windows, a steady rhythm that might have been soothing if I weren’t somewhere else entirely. I was supposed to be here—wrapped in a blanket, book in my lap, sipping tea and watching the water at Florence Marina State Park. But instead, I was inside a snow globe, watching cadets march in formation, sponsors glide across a ballroom floor, the world inside the glass shimmering with tradition and elegance. I had always seen Gordon that way—beautiful, untouchable, a place suspended in time. And in some ways, I had wanted to be there. To be a sponsor, to twirl in an evening gown at the Military Ball, to be part of the story that had been so carefully preserved. But when I shook the snow globe, another story appeared. A cafeteria where Black students had to strategize just to find a place to sit. A fundraiser where students were auctioned off, until someone finally turned the game on itself. A girl, just 14, stepping onto campus for the first time and realizing that the magic in the snow globe wasn’t meant for her. This week, I lived in two places at once—the quiet isolation of the RV and the noisy, living memories of Gordon in the 1960s. One was supposed to be an escape. The other, a confrontation with history. And in the end, I know which one I actually visited.
The Rainmaker and the Politics of Chaos: Finding Inner Balance in a World on Fire
“Chaos is our diet.”— Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free It’s no secret that we live in chaotic times. The political landscape feels like an unending storm—divisive rhetoric, bad-faith arguments, the constant churn of misinformation. Every day brings a new crisis, another outrage, another call to take sides. Many of us feel exhausted, burnt … Continue reading The Rainmaker and the Politics of Chaos: Finding Inner Balance in a World on Fire