Commentary
Long Covid isolates sick people and their loved ones
My girlfriend’s idea felt brilliant to me: Put out a call on Facebook for Covid-cautious people in our area to rent a theater together. We could watch the Barbie movie while wearing high-quality masks to keep each other safe. The plan turned out to be quixotic. No one responded to Sarah’s request. She scrolled through […]
Real conversations with family taught me about life after loss
Editor’s note: This commentary discusses grief, loss and suicide. I learned about suicide through my young childhood curiosity when I wondered out loud why my mom’s father was never around. Explanations were slow-going and came in bursts. I was told things like: He’s not here. He died before you were born. He struggled after he […]
In Marion County newspaper raid, a grim threat to Kansans’ First Amendment rights
The outrageous law enforcement assault on the Marion County Record newspaper raises a veritable forest of red flags. Why would a judge sign off on an apparently illegal search? What type of officials would willingly execute such an abuse of power? Could any convoluted sequence of liquor permit infighting possibly justify such drastic measures? Are […]
1870s racism echoes through Trump and Colorado cases
In the years following the Civil War, President Ulysses S. Grant’s greatest task was to secure the Union victory he achieved as a general against a violent surge of resistance in former Confederate states. The Ku Klux Klan, formed by rebel veterans in 1866 to maintain white supremacy in the South, undertook an unprecedented campaign […]
Nolan’s Oppenheimer treats New Mexico as a blank canvas
In Christopher Nolan’s three-hour biopic “Oppenheimer,” released last week, the Manhattan Project comes to New Mexico largely because J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) wishes it so. The film was shot in the Land of Enchantment with a hastily assembled Ghost Ranch set serving as the film’s freshly constructed Los Alamos. “Oppenheimer” features New Mexico as […]
Protecting the sacred right to vote for Native Americans
When the U.S. joined the war effort after the attack on Pearl Harbor, thousands of Native Americans walked into recruiting offices to serve a country that had already taken so much from them. And yet, Native Americans have fought to protect our democratic institutions by serving in the U.S. military at higher rates than any […]
Prioritize the public good over private profit on public lands
As mothers, we understand, at the most profound level, the benefits of balance. Every day we strive to achieve it. For us, sustainability isn’t just a goal, it’s a foundational requirement. Without it, without the measured flow between give and take, everything crumbles. The growth, happiness, and health of our families depend on our, and […]
‘Pride’ is so successful, those being protested are finally noticing
I often forget that Pride celebrations began as and continue to be protests. How could I forget? There are two main reasons. First, the rights being fought for aren’t specifically mine, and second, the celebrations are so wonderful, so happy, so fun, it is a protest like no other. But it is still a protest. […]
Are you hungry? Prove it.
I want to thank the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives for reminding us that we are, in fact, not a Christian nation. Even though some within their own party insist that the nation was founded by a bunch of holy-rolling churchgoers, the conservatives have demonstrated their secular bonafides by insisting that people who […]
Happy Pride Month. Creepy, bully Republican lawmakers are fixated on assaulting our community
Happy Pride Month, Ohio, where LGBTQ+ people are under constant assault by bully Republican lawmakers who are weirdly obsessed with our community, especially the transgender members of it. Transgender people — especially transgender people of color — have been leading the activist charge toward LGBTQ+ human rights and equality since the beginning, literally throwing the first […]
As Title 42 ends, U.S. immigration policies will be more restrictive against people seeking asylum
The Biden administration is not treating the end of Title 42 as the expiration of a public health policy but rather as a pivot point where a crisis will justify a massive investment in border externalization. Border externalization occurs when wealthy countries like the U.S. set up policies and make programs to ensure that asylum […]
‘Single most restrictive border policy’ in U.S. history ends May 11
Title 42 was never understood to be about public health but rather a convenient and vicious way to empower the Department of Homeland Security to turn asylum seekers away at the border. It closed the border for asylum seekers and Title 42 has been an extraordinarily effective tool for law enforcement to push people back […]