What the Flint Water Crisis Meant for My Family

| Sep 16, 2020 | Economy / Business|Editors Picks|Environment / Health|HP Subfeatured|Rights / DemocracyIn 2015, my life fell apart. The first signs of trouble came from my son Jaylon. He was five years old and, although he struggled with ADHD, perfectly healthy. But then he started acting out in ways he never had before. His school didn’t know how to handle it, so they...

Let ‘Gender Reveal’ Parties Burn

| | Environment / Health|HP Subfeatured|Rights / DemocracyThe Georgia sun beat down on my uncle Dennis’s front yard the day he cut my hair. It was 2003, my Dad had been deployed to Iraq for half a year, and my mom had driven into town to pick up some groceries. Uncle Dennis grabbed me by the collar and drawled, “Your hair’s...

I’m Still Mad about COVID-19. We All Should Be.

| | Economy / Business|Environment / Health|HP SubfeaturedToday, I attended online classes all day and then curled up with the new Bob Woodward book, Rage. Rage is what I feel about the mishandling of COVID that led to all of my classes being online. Relatively speaking, I’ve got it good. I am financially secure, and I’m not...

Killing Someone Is Not Like Missing a Golf Putt

| Sep 9, 2020 | Economy / Business|HP Subfeatured|Peace / Security|Rights / DemocracyTrying to keep up with the stunningly inappropriate — and worse — remarks of Donald Trump can sometimes seem like a full-time job. But some of his most outrageous comments came in a recent Fox News interview about police violence. In an interview with right-wing media...

We Need More Than Disaster Recovery — We Need Green Jobs

| Sep 2, 2020 | Economy / Business|Editors Picks|Environment / Health|HP SubfeaturedAs I watched Hurricane Laura churn towards the Gulf Coast, I felt a familiar knot in my stomach. As a longtime first responder to natural disasters, I felt the same way before Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle in 2018, and...

Professional Athletes and the Power of a Union

| | Economy / Business|HP Subfeatured|Rights / DemocracyFirst, the Milwaukee Bucks refused to take the court in their playoff game against the Orlando Magic. Then other teams followed suit, leading to a three-day wildcat strike in the National Basketball Association. The Bucks were protesting the police shooting of Jacob...