Taylor Cole works as our Social Media Intern for the Dunker Punks Podcast! “I work indirectly with OEP, and mainly with the Dunker Punks Podcast staff.” For Taylor, the history and meaning behind Dunker Punks brings life to her work. “Dunker Punks, coined by Jered McKenna, reinforces the idea of supporting youth and bringing youth back into the church by emphasizing it as a beacon away from hate and anger. The podcast has been created to inspire the youth on the church's philosophy as it should be.” Taylor finds joy in the freedom of her job at OEP and Dunker Punks. “I really like having the freedom to work on my own. A lot of the jobs I've had before I have had very direct authoritarian supervision, so I like the independence.” Outside of the podcast world, Taylor can be found knitting and watching 2000’s sitcoms. “I am kind of a grandma. The two main things that I do outside OEP are knitting and watching the Big Bang Theory or West Wing.”

Dunker Punks and OEP are very grateful for the amazing work that Taylor does for the podcast world. Thank you Taylor for all your hard work keeping OEP proud and strong!

Dunker Punks Podcast is looking for new contributors! 

The US Congress is currently considering whether to expand the draft to women, as the National Commission on Military and National Service recommended, or to abolish the draft for people of all genders. Some are suggesting that expanding the draft is a natural expansion of women’s rights and gender equality but the truth is that true equality will only come from abolishing the draft for everyone. Stop Recruiting Kids (SRK) opposes the draft for the same reasons we oppose the military recruitment of kids- we believe that a free, just society should only recruit willing adults, who understand the risks of military service and agree to them. We stand against coercive military recruitment practices in all forms. A peaceful society must operate its military in a way that respects the dignity of all its citizens, of every gender and every age. 

To learn more about OEP’s stance on the draft and the recruitment of kids, as well as to see the various memes created by SRK, visit the OEP Stop Recruiting Kids Campaign Facebook Page.

Written by Laura Hay

My name is Laura Hay and I am the Youth and Young Adult Intern with OEP. In collaboration with Priscilla, Grace, Tamera, and Marie, I have been leading a webinar series entitled Raising Race-Conscious Kids. I led the first session which was an introduction to the topics: color-blindness, diversity, and race-conscious teaching. Coming to this project, I must admit I felt wildly under-qualified to be a leader on the topic of raising race-conscious kids. I am not a mother, nor do I have many close family connections with children. The most connected I am to children is through my past work at camps and here at my position with OEP, which I have only just started, so I felt ill prepared to act as some sort of expert and introduce the group to these difficult and highly nuanced topics. But as with almost everything intimidating, I have learned so much through the process. First and most importantly, I think, is that I do not have to be an expert. Harvey in Raising White Kids says that “we don’t have to have all the answers but just need to continue to ask good questions and find good resources.” And I think that is great advice for anyone just starting to understand race teaching and race-consciousness.

By Skylar Rella, OEP's Gender Justice Organizer

The language we use matters. The words we choose and the ways we write them have the potential to either reinforce or oppose normative understandings of power hierarchies. When it comes to gender specifically, there are some explicit ways language perpetuates the patriarchy. It is no secret that the word “woman”/ “women” simply cannot be spelled without the word “man”/ “men.” The implications of this reveal themselves in the culturally prominent idea that women are innately dependent on men. In other words, not only are women regarded as inferior to men, but they are also thought to need men in order to be successful or valuable.