Anne Lamott and the Power of Hope
‘I will not let them defeat me.’ On the Fourth of July, a friend interrupted my doomscrolling to send me a copy of Anne Lamott’s Washington Post column “Does Trumpland chaos bode better times ahead? I say yes. Happy Fourth!” It was a lifeline. Lamott wrote, “I am calling for us to move into a new phase […]
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My Grandmother Stood Up to Nixon—Jeff Bezos Should Take Note
Fifty-four years ago, Katharine Graham defended The Washington Post against presidential threats. Her granddaughter now fears its soul is being sold. Fifty-four years ago, in 1971, my grandmother Katharine Graham, publisher of The Washington Post, risked everything to stand up to a corrupt president. That president sought to destroy her newspaper’s autonomy. Today, faced with another […]
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How We Rise From Ash: One Norcal Family’s Grace Under Fire
First Published on Truthdig, December 2017. When I arrived at the Sonoma wildfire’s ground zero, I expected to find grief, rage, tragedy. Instead, I found a celebration of sorts–a coming together of three generations of a family that was simply grateful to be alive. Two National Guardsmen stood in the morning sun next to a […]
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Mothers Demand End to Gun Violence– Is Anyone Listening?
Change the names, change the dates—Every time I write about gun violence it’s the same story. Will this time be different? European countries have virtually ended gun violence with swift and brave actions to make guns difficult to buy or illegal. Yet here in America our love-affair with our cowboy image appears to hold greater […]
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Iranian-American Boy Gives Life Savings For Peace: Should He Be Sent Back Too Mr. Trump?
First Published by @SocialEarth As the media shines the spotlight on Trump’s circus-carnival-barking they overlook the stories of another side of America—the side of America that celebrates our successful interweaving of immigrant cultures, the great American patchwork that has made our land a beacon to those fleeing oppression and poverty since our nation’s dawn. Equally overlooked […]
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