Journalist – Historian – Speaker
Throughout the day yesterday, as people on social media mourned the death of Philando Castile and expressed their outrage at his killer, I saw one constant thread: People pointing out the hypocrisy of the NRA. Numerous articles appeared talking about the ways in which the NRA’s call for the broadest view of the 2nd Amendment doesn’t seem to apply …
Here’s an essay courtesy of @amaditalks on Twitter on the ways that, when you’re “sick,” as the author puts it, work compounds on work. Today I met a man named Robert. He stopped by to ask how long a sale price on a can of Folgers was supposed to last, and we ended up chatting for …
Over the weekend and yesterday on the blog, I started collecting experiences with the TSA in the wake of the awful viral story from Memphis. It’s a classic case of the #CultOfCompliance, and I expect to be writing more about this topic in due time. I hope, though, that as we advocate for change, we do …
I’m interested in all the ways the “Cult of Compliance,” my term for the collective way that our society promotes and rewards compliance to authority, protects authority figures who treat compliance as sacred, and criminalizes noncompliance, emerges in our society. Disability, in particular, exposes the manifestations of the cult of compliance, while people with disabilities …
Yesterday, NBC News profiled Alice Wong and the Disability Visibility Project. Go read it! I am genuinely inspired by Alice Wong. With neither budget nor celebrity, she’s created an vibrant, accessible, community of people with disabilities, family members, and allies. She’s told stories and made it possible for others to tell their stories. She works constantly …
From Evan Osnos’ post-Orlando article in the New Yorker on the business of guns, I found this very telling. It’s about the negotiation between the Clinton Administration and Smith & Wesson to make smart guns – whatever that really means – standard. I’m not sure what the 1999 technology was, but today, as I unlock my …
Yoni Appelbaum, who has a PhD in history and is Politics editor for The Atlantic, has a new piece on the importance of liberal arts education for people who want to thrive in business. American undergraduates are flocking to business programs, and finding plenty of entry-level opportunities. But when businesses go hunting for CEOs or …
As I blogged about yesterday, I can’t listen to Tommy (the Rock Opera by The Who) any more. Introducing kids to music I loved as a teenager is a key nostalgic benefit of parenting, and unusually, they liked it a lot, my kids jamming out to Pinball Wizard. And then … the lyrics filtered into …
Last week I wrote about Finding Dory and hoping it was good. Although complex and not without its issues (more on that in a second), Alice Wong (founder of the Disability Visibility Project) has mostly very positive things to say. People with disabilities do not see themselves very often reflected in popular culture with authenticity steeped …
This is the new Priorities USA ad – Dante. It features a young disabled African-American boy speaking directly to the camera about Donald Trump. A few weeks ago, Priorities USA released the ad Grace, which features who nice white parents of a disabled child criticizing Donald Trump for making fun of people with disabilities. I …