What it feels like to know you’re among the designated “collateral damage” in the reckless rush for herd immunity
I live in a Pennsylvania city that was at one point a COVID hotspot. For a while, we seemed to have brought the numbers down, due in part to statewide comprehensive management efforts including shutdowns, social distancing, and other steps. …
This critical topic has only been addressed a single time in the past 20 years.
Like many other Americans, I have been closely watching the Democratic presidential debates. I’m interested in everything the candidates have to say, but I was especially alert for one subject in particular. I watched and waited. And waited some more. I was starting to give up hope that this critical topic would ever be addressed. And then a month ago, it finally happened. The very last question of the three-hour debate. …
Telling me to forgive my father means erasing the years of abuse I suffered at his hands
My father was a bad person.
There are plenty of ways to sugarcoat it, or use lots of needless words to make it sound a little less harsh. But that would mean burying the truth under a bunch of excuses and cover stories — and people like me, who have survived the things I have, already spent way too much of our lives doing that.
He may be deceased, but he gets the legacy he created.
I see no need to be gentle to someone who was always so cruel to me.
My father’s character (or lack thereof) isn’t a…
Bobbi Dempsey
Writer whose recent work includes essays and op-eds on poverty and social issues, but I also love fun stuff like the 80s, bargain-hunting, and bad reality TV.
