Overcoming our American differences begins with empathy. I found love in the locked Acute Unit of a State Hospital in 1990. Oh sure, it was the wrong time and place, but Richard was irresistible. He was a psychotic wisp! Bone-skinny and less than five feet tall but given to striking…

What’s going on with white America? You’re feeling it, right? My Black friends are talking about it. My white friends are talking about it. We’re talking about it together. We’re watching pictures from around the country — who are these white protesters and why now? I offer five guesses: It’s…

Words Fail. History echoes. This is a day when I would rather not write anything. This is a moment when words are clearly inadequate to the task. Yesterday was the most mournful Monday in America that I can personally remember. I was born in the 1960’s. Racial and social unrest…

Black and Brown District of Columbia residents are in the hazardous crosshairs of the Coronavirus crisis: they are both most greatly affected by its mortality and health impact and most deeply vulnerable to its economic impact. Consider this data point: 45% of DC’s population identify as Black/African American and 39%…

What I hadn’t done for racial justice. I went to bed the other night unsettled. I had just read my friend author and activist Tamara Lucas Copeland’s post entitled “White People: Step It Up.” It is a response to the killing of Ahmaud Arbery and in it she envisions a…

Turns out you’re responsible. Now what? A Fable in Three Parts A Teacher: LINDA I only met Linda once before she died. I was visiting the Medical Respite at Pat Handy Place Shelter for Women in Washington DC which is a part of N Street Village where I am the…

Novel? The Echo of AIDS in Our Time of Coronavirus My personal experience of end times and revelations as a daughter and an activist. Dear Friend: Postscript: I wrote this piece with the urgency that only a pandemic can produce (few cures have proven effective against my writing procrastination but…