My 5th-grade teacher had given us a writing assignment, and apparently she didn’t like what she saw. She believed that we would learn the most from this assignment if she gave us a practical example, so she photocopied my classmate’s work, passed it out to all of us, and asked us to correct the numerous…
This piece was also published in the Oak Park newspaper Wednesday Journal. This world will be unmade. Will it be by the creep of increasing vapors altering the chemistry of our atmosphere and oceans? By the waters and winds of a weather cataclysm? By the scorching inferno of an unstoppable fire? By the armed conflict…
This piece was also published in a slightly different form in the Oak Park newspaper Wednesday Journal. None of us need reminding that we have been experiencing -- and are still experiencing -- the worst pandemic in over 100 years. We are dealing with circumstances in our work, school, and personal lives that we never…
6 May 2051 Dear _______, It is hard to believe how quickly the years have passed. I am 75 years old, and I hope I have a few years left: your grandfather and great-grandfather both made it past ninety. But I have to admit to myself that I am moving into the final act of…
Recently, news outlets have been covering two letters decrying antiracism work at two elite, private schools in New York City. In the first letter, Andrew Gutman, a white businessman, describes pulling his daughter out of Brearley School, citing the school’s “obsession with race”, and sending his letter to hundreds of families whose children are enrolled…
This was also published in the Oak Park newspaper Wednesday Journal. This week, Derek Chauvin was found guilty for the murder of George Floyd. As many have argued, this is not justice, just a small measure of accountability. True justice means changing the system so that these murders stop happening. So that people like George…
Another week, another person of color gunned down in this country. Asian spa workers. A young Black man. A Mexican boy. All living in different communities, all killed in different circumstances, united in their violent deaths at the hands of those who disregard their right to live. The same horror song, stuck on repeat since…
I am hard work. I am learning and quietly leading. I am striking out on my own and starting anew. I am family connections, bonding through food and drink and laughter. I am silence. I am sucking it up and denying. I am complicity, I am rugged individualism. I am believing I can do it…
Inside my body, I now have molecules that will teach my immune system to recognize the COVID-19 virus. As I sit here waiting in the pharmacy, my body is gaining the knowledge of how to dismantle the threat that has held us hostage for the past year. And my ability to access the vaccine that…
This was also published in the Oak Park newspaper Wednesday Journal. I also wrote previously about this issue here. Defund the police. What does it mean? Here in Oak Park, the clearest indication we have for the meaning of "defund the police" is the ordinance proposed in August 2020, which committed to "reducing the amount…
Entwining 