Category: Current Events (and stuff)

January 27, 2021

For Holocaust Remembrance Day, I Watched a Friend Fall for QAnon and into Anti-Semitism

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the anniversary of when Auschwitz was liberated and the horror of the Holocaust began to truly reveal itself to the world. Instead of sharing the usual photos of emaciated bodies behind barbed wire and spouting #NeverForget hashtags, I want to offer a personal story—one that’s much more recent and…
May 13, 2020

4 Ways to Tell if Information is Real or Fake: Advice from a Former Journalist

When I was a daily newspaper reporter, I always had to navigate through multiple versions of a story before I learned what really happened. We have a saying in journalism. It goes, “There are three sides to every story: side one, side two, and the Truth.” The Truth usually falls somewhere between the first two…
May 5, 2020

I Have a Right to Protect Myself and My Loved Ones, Too

To all those angry protestors out there, yelling at people for wearing masks, refusing to respect reporters’ requests to stay six feet back, and screaming in the faces of police officers, I have a message for you: I HAVE A RIGHT TO PROTECT MYSELF AND MY FAMILY, TOO. If I want to wear a mask…
October 4, 2018

Men: If you’re worried about women falsely accusing you of rape, work to change the culture

There are a lot of good men out there. My father, the retired elementary school teacher and feminist. My boyfriend, the protective son of a single mother. My former bosses and colleagues, who mentored and shaped me as a professional. With the current political climate involving Kavanaugh and #MeToo, some men are concerned that coercive…
August 29, 2018

Voting is Your Rallying Cry, Your Middle Finger, Your Roar

As a writer, author, and American, I believe so strongly in the power of voicing one’s opinion beyond words. Yesterday was Primary Day in my home state of Arizona. And I feel the need to say this, to anyone and everyone who is willing to listen. The will of the people is heard one way,…
February 20, 2018

4 Ways YOU Can Avoid Russian Influence in the Next U.S. Election

As a former newspaper reporter, and with the recent 13 indictments of Russian nationals who infiltrated our political system during the 2016 U.S. elections, I’d like to offer some advice on how YOU can personally avoid Russian influence during the 2018 U.S. mid-terms. In case you haven’t heard, the FBI warned they would most likely…
March 7, 2017

An Open Letter to Mike Pence on ‘Life’ and Universal Health Care

NOTE: After working in healthcare communications for eight years, this is a subject I felt compelled to write about publicly in light of recent political developments. I’d initially written this letter in January, but refrained from publishing it because of my career. The time has come to speak out, however, so I feel the need…
February 27, 2017

How Entering the Obama Era from Israel Helps Me Come to Terms with Trump

I wrote this narrative/op-ed on Jan. 20, 2017–the day President Donald Trump was inaugurated. I submitted it to a couple of publications, but it was never accepted fast enough to be timely. I hate to see it go to waste, and therefore decided to publish it here. I thought some of you might enjoy the…
December 17, 2015

Enough About Donald Trump, What About Burundi?

I get it: Donald Trump is the leading front-runner in the Republican primary who spouts off whatever comes to mind and is a former reality T.V. star. But amidst the American media’s love affair with Trump, other important world issues are being overlooked. Lately, I’ve been seeing articles pop up about potential genocide in Burundi. Doesn’t Burundi…
December 2, 2015

How Inflammatory Language Brought Us to the Age of Mass Shootings

First Planned Parenthood, then today: San Bernardino, Calif. Both are medical clinics. Both are supposed to be safe places … kinda like schools (anyone remember Sandy Hook)? According to CNN, president Barack Obama said, “We have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world.” Regardless of…