Journalist – Historian – Speaker
I filed five essays this week, which is a lot for me. I also had two pieces published (linked to below): A review of Bruce Holsinger’s novel (appearing Monday, Tor.com) A feature on inclusion at the Brookfield Zoo (appearing early May, Belt Magazine) Op-ed on RFK’s comments on autism and vaccines (published here at CNN.com) Essay …
I have a new piece on CNN about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his views on autism. I end by talking about Action T4, when the Nazis exterminated people with disabilities as a warm-up to the greater Holocaust. I worry that many people haven’t heard of Action T4. As a Jew, the father of a boy …
I’m working on a piece about the new Daredevil show on Netflix. My interest is in portrayals of “ordinary” disability, rather than the martial arts, represented by the image below (courtesy Netflix) of Murdock just walking down a street with his cane, rather than in costume or fighting or whatever. CHARLIE COX as MATT MURDOCK …
These are stories of restraint, criminalization, and the cult of compliance in our schools. Most, but not all, involve disability. Names are as listed in the media reports, sometimes with last names, sometimes not. More to come. Lede – Virginia: Kayleb Moon-Robinson: 11, black, autistic. Criminalized for kicking a trash can and not staying in …
Last year, a reporter at the Chicago Tribune called me to ask, “Was medieval life really the way it’s Game of Thrones?” I said yes, of course, nearly everyone had a dragon, was a zombie, or carried around ancient swords made of semi-magical iron. Screenshot: A dragon looms over a cowering shepherd. depicted during Ok, I …
This is pretty much as bad as it gets. It’s like a scene from a dystopian novel, as bio-hazard suit clad officers take a schizophrenic woman, one who they have already handcuffed, and tase her to death, killing her as she screams in horror. Except that it happened. A mentally ill woman who died after …
I am sick. I am sick with that all over body ache and low fever that is not quite bad enough to send me back to bed, but is bad enough to suck all the joy from life. Which is to say, I’m in a fine frame to talk about the upcoming season of Game …
Yesterday, I talked about Donald Ivy, a man with psychiatric disability, who was tased to death in Albany. Today, it’s Elijah Roberts. He wasn’t tased, but the threats used against him reveal a lot about why Donald Ivy is dead. Here’s the story, also from Albany. My emphasis. When she called police because her 22-year-old son, …
Walter Scott’s killing has made national news, propelled by a cell phone video that allegedly shows the officer dropping a TASER by the body, trying to make the death look justified. When Scott died, I expected to hear defenders of the killing blame Scott for running, but there’s been relatively little of that. Instead, Officer …
I am a professor at a small Catholic university on the edge of Chicago. We have an extremely diverse population of students, a teaching-centered institution, a social justice mission, and I go to work feeling extremely lucky in many ways. But especially today. Today we are holding our Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Investigations (URSCI) …