It is past midnight in Addlestone library. I am hunched over a computer, squinting into a rough draft of my DIAC essay on the cycle of crime which lead poisoning introduces into low-income communities of color. I hack at the keyboard, but my efforts are to little avail. Taking a break to check my phone, […]
The story of Freddie Gray goes a bit like this: a young, unarmed black man is arrested by police officers in a low-income neighborhood of West Baltimore, Maryland. In a video documenting the aftermath of his arrest, Gray lays on the ground in handcuffs. He is screaming and his body appears rigid. Bystanders implore police […]
It was November of 2006 in Lawrence, Kansas. With a midwestern Autumn already well in its turn, biting temperatures made it nearly unbearable to stand outside for long. Yet, there I was: eight years old, snug in a puffy coat, bolstering a campaign sign that read “Sebelius” across the front. In Kansas, November not only […]