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“…As a child I spoke as a child
“…As a child I spoke as a child
Thought and understood as a child
But when I became a woman
I put away childish things
And I began to see though a glass darkly…”
Joni Mitchell’s adaptation of Corinthians
With apologies to Jasper John’s Mirror.
I think that we all are looking into “dark mirrors” as we enter the third year of the pandemic and growing American polarization.
And I’m lookin’ at you Texas Synagogue terrorist and MAGA NATIONALIST!!!!!
(By Heidi Lindemann and Michael Perry)
(Image 1: Amanda King, (Untitled) Prayer Rug, commemorating the 16th Street Baptist bombing. Credit: Cleveland.com / Rustin McCann)
(Image 2: Jasper Johns, In Memory of My Feelings—Frank O’Hara. Credit: Whitney Museum of Art / Art Institute of Chicago / Jamie Stukenberg)
From Grenfell Tower to Philadelphia and New York to … the fire next time
In 2017, 72 people died and 70 others were injured in the Grenfell Tower fire. Afterward the British government extended benefits to the injured and displaced, terminated the management company’s contract, and began addressing similar flammable cladding hazards at other buildings. The British government’s response to Grenfell may not have been enough, but it was […]
In the Nova Institution for Women, Canada’s special hell for women, COVID runs rampant
In 1995, Canada opened the Nova Institution for Women, in Truro, Nova Scotia, and it’s been a hellhole for women ever since. In 2015, Veronica Park died of pneumonia, after begging for days for health care, to no avail. Three months later, Camille Strickland-Murphy, after a series of incidents of self-harm and suicide attempts, none […]
Domestic work and the global: Sri Yatun’s story
The story of Sri Yatun illustrates the resilience and courage of domestic workers, while revealing the corrupt global networks of shared reproductive labor that harm low-income female migrants and make their lives increasingly precarious. It also demonstrates how ‘the global’ facilitates the exchange of migrant domestic labor as the underpinning of a globalized capitalist economy; in […]
Mass tragedies involving migration have increasingly become normalized
This is how 2021 ends. A boat filled with 120 Rohingya Muslim women, children, men – 60 women, 51 children – was on its way from Myanmar to Malaysia. Those in the boat hoped that when they reached Malaysia, they would be given sanctuary. On Sunday, the boat engine failed and the boat started to […]
Abuse is not normal. Harassment is not normal.
As the year ends, I find myself frequently turning to my own experiences in gymnastics, particularly being so proximal to Larry Nassar’s practice. Within the last few weeks, a settlement was reached for the survivors of Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse. At this point in time, there are over 500 women who have come forward about […]
The world is ruled by women who fight: The Sudanese women’s revolution continues
Yesterday, December 25, hundreds of thousands of protesters, led and impelled by women and youth, took to the streets of Khartoum, demanding freedom, full democracy, a revolution. This was the tenth major demonstrations in the past two months. These protests have gone on, lled and impelled by women and youth, for the past thirty years, […]
No end to the torture: Throw the children into solitary, lock the door, walk away
Another year ends with stories of children, young children, being thrown into `seclusion rooms’, solitary confinement chambers, in schools across the country. What exactly are children meant to learn, the ones thrown into solitary, the ones watching their classmates and friends go into solitary? What’s the lesson plan, the educational goal? Why are we so […]
The de-coercion of care work
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought an onslaught of irrepable damage to individuals and society as a whole. Additionally, the pandemic also exposed gaps in society that can no longer be ignored. One such gap is the role of labor unions on the workforce. Labor unions have been on the decline in recent decades in the […]
I will miss Politics and Prose, but my allegiance is with the workers
Dear Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine, For over 29 years–the entire time I’ve lived in the DMV, and most of the bookstore’s existence– Politics and Prose Bookstore has been a haven and a lifeline for me. When my job relocated to a different part of town, I was less than thrilled about my longer commute, […]
FCI Waseca did not fail to assure the safety of incarcerated women; it refused to do so
This week, Utah’s Legislative Auditor General submitted a performance of health care in Utah’s state prisons. The Auditor found “systemic deficiencies”: “The lack of follow-up and patient monitoring is a systemic concern that extends beyond the Covid pandemic.” Reading this report, it’s a wonder that anyone survives Utah’s prisons. In fact, they don’t. According to […]