The previous three weeks left ten murdered and three wounded, but no gunshots were fired on Oct. 23, 2002. It was just my ninth birthday. I lived in Centreville, Va., where a 20-mile ride down the Beltway led to the nation’s capital. And there, in the suburbs of freedom, I learned fear. But no one [...]
I’ve been distracted from politics lately. I won’t call it depression, but I’ve been stuck in a happiness recession ever since I made the ill-advised decision to leave home and get a proper education. I’ve only slept eight hours total in the past three days and I can feel the medicine creeping out of my [...]
Long before I learned the advantages of being white, I spoke my very first word in Spanish. It was “bola,” meaning ball. I had pretty much the same scope of interests as any little boy, but I had a different way of voicing it. My mom was born in Mexico and always stressed the importance [...]
Today is election day. But more importantly, it’s my girlfriend’s birthday. That’s right. After all the hours I spent bickering over economic policy in the cafeteria, shushing chatty viewers at my convention/debate watch parties and subsequently scouring Politifact.com to see which candidate lied more, ignoring my professors as I read every new poll and election [...]
It turns out that not everyone views things the same way. I used to look at other cultures through my own narrow lens of comfort, relating everything to my own familiar experiences and values. I looked at Hanukkah as Jewish Christmas and crepes as French pancakes and a Quinceañera as a sweet sixteen (except the [...]
Since I first read “The Great Gatsby” in my junior year of high school, I’ve subscribed to Fitzgerald’s condemnation of the excesses of the upper class and worshipped his championing of the little guy in pursuit of the dream. I mourned for Jay Gatsby and his tireless efforts to woo his beloved Daisy, only to [...]
I’m not a freedom-hating commie or a lazy freeloader suckling ‘neath the red, white and blue teats of hardworking Americans’ tax dollars – I’m just trying to survive without bankrupting my family. For a few weeks of this past summer, I joined the ranks of the nearly 50 million Americans without health insurance. My mom [...]
I couldn’t seem to keep up with fads as a kid. I was busy enough trying to get used to writing in cursive and reading books without pictures to notice what was trending in the world of fourth grade fashion. I was still wearing crew socks when everyone else switched to those risqué no-show ankle [...]
