One Day: Repeating One of Our Nation's Biggest Atrocities
In a place where the land is hot, and dry, and spends all the daylight hours baking in a sun that feels two inches away, there’s a large building full of young boys. The place was once a shopping center, a big gray building made of stone. Surrounding it is a tall chain link fence topped with barbed wire. Like a prison, but it’s not.
Great Music and Good Times Make Cancer Less Awful
On Thursday, July 19, Gilda's Club Chicago hosts Gildapalooza 2018 at Reggies Chicago. Featuring rock/soul band Local Motive, all-female Beastie Boys tribute band She's Crafty, and Blink 182 tribute band Blank 281, the concert benefits Gilda's Club Chicago and its mission to ensure that all people impacted by cancer are empowered by knowledge, strengthened by action, and sustained by community.
(micro) Chips On The Shoulders of the Collective and The Increasing Problem of the Moral High Ground
I’m on the Blue Line, heading downtown to get to Millennium Park. I’m tired — it’s been a long week so far — so I’m standing amongst the other commuters, my shades still on, staring blankly toward the floor. I’m not really focusing on anything at all and I’m sort of just drifting into my brain when I hear:
“They’re legs.”
Notes from the Post-it Wall — Week of July 1, 2018
Christians are not the most persecuted group in the world. However, Christians who are assholes are being prosecuted in the court of public opinion. And that’s a good thing for everyone, especially Christians.
On Forgiveness (Or Lack Thereof)
My boyfriend cheated on me with one of my closest friends. A year later, I’m still in a relationship with him, and I'm still trying to find my way to forgiveness.
Debate is Dead; Long Live Debate
The problem is that healthy debate appears to be dead. Or, at best, on life support in a hospice bed providing infected bed sores rather than rational thought.
The Minutes of Our Last Meeting - The Ottawa County Senior Community Center Forth of July Celebration
Well, we’re about to open the doors and let people in. I’m in charge of checking IDs and making sure everyone is from Ottawa County and a US citizen. If you ain’t from here, you’re not welcome. At The Ottawa County Senior Community Center, we’re all about the red, white and blue flag. This is America. Not Russia.
Know Your Rights
It’s a free country, right? It’s a free country, right?
I can do whatever I want, be whatever I want,
say whatever I want, shoot whomever I want,
live wherever I want, die however I want.
It’s a free country, right? It’s a free country, right?
Screaming at Weeds Doesn't Make Them Disappear
It's as if our ancestors have been toiling away, trying to get rid of weeds in the yard and we woke up to more weeds and threw up our arms, fell to our knees (all set to strains of Barber's Adagio for Strings in G minor) and screamed "But WHYYYYYY?" when we saw that more weeds had sprouted up overnight.
![I Believe… [The Hippie Enclave Will Protect Us From The Neo-Adolf]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1529975634213-4JLZ33WXLG4KJNFA5DOW/ibelieve....jpg)
I Believe… [The Hippie Enclave Will Protect Us From The Neo-Adolf]
…that America will never go the way of Nazi Germany if, for no other reason, Germany didn't have a one of the world's largest land masses completely inhabited by hippies and artists to push back. We have California. On the other hand, Hitler never had the fertile ground of regressive hate that is Florida.
Noble X — Episode 3: Racing
Trent had once dated his younger cousin but that had ended in a somewhat unpleasant manner as relationships often do. John figures if he stays busy and continues to have things to distract him from his pain that maybe he can run from it indefinitely.
Belief is a Sledgehammer | Thoughts, Musings & Essays
After a few years of contemplation (and procrastination) Literate Ape Press is pleased to announce the publishing (in paperback and on Kindle) of Belief is a Sledgehammer | Thoughts, Musings & Essays.
Do You Want Nazis? Because That's How You Get Nazis.
The next time some centrist idiot suggests that maybe I should just have some chill, I’m going to knock his fucking teeth in. I’m done. I have zero chill.
Notes from the Post-it Wall — Week of June 24, 2018
I’m not gay. Not even bi-curious. But I think Gene Kelly is the sexiest man to have ever lived, and without question or pause, I would dig up his bones and dry hump them to full completion.
PETER AND I — Or How Recovery Met Transformation
Steamy mid-afternoon arrived. Soaked in sweat, we took a smoke break on the roof and observed our handiwork. That's when Pete decided the house needed skylights and we took part of the roof off and threw it too into the pit.
American Shithole #22 — FLOTUS, She Wrote (Us)
I do feel emptiness sometimes, in a way I have never felt it before, when I reflect on how much rage this presidency instills in me. The Yang of a terrible Yin, I suppose. I’ve never experienced the desire for revenge, the way I want for it now.
Real Life Ghost Stories: My Haunted Apartment
When the movie Paranormal Activity came out, we named our ghost Toby. Naming it seemed to give it new energy. That’s what my husband said, anyway. The strange happenings became more frequent…
The Minutes of Our Last Meeting – HOLY SHIT WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE AND NOT SOON ENOUGH Meeting of The Chicago Optimists’ Society
Meg – If a bear cub and a moth can be cuddle buddies, then so can a privileged white woman and a black man at a barbeque.
How to End America’s Cold Civil War
You could feel the chill sprint down your spine and tear through your bones the moment the frontrunners became Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The rift, the wildly apparent chasm between countrymen had already occurred. The end of the 2016 United States Presidential Primaries was the official beginning of America’s Cold Civil War.
Some Things I Should Have Said: The Teacher's Severance
Before I got fired from my second teaching job, my administrator asked me a series of questions which, in essence, involved asking me to justify my work over the preceding year.
...that ‘grace under pressure’ isn’t the same thing as ‘competence in a crisis.’