Obama administration appoints new public advocate, but is it enough?
The Department of Homeland Security has appointed a public advocate to handle complaints and questions about immigration enforcement policies. But does it matter? The immigration policies of the United States are a subject near and dear to my heart. As a child, I was an undocumented immigrant who got a path to citizenship with the amnesty [...]
Much guilt and ink has been spilled on the altar of good mothering. More than any generation before us, today’s mother can find any number of reasons to feel bad for her parenting skills. Coddle too much and you’re smothering. Give too much independence and you’re overly aloof. Wash hands too often and you’re raising [...]
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It could be argued that the lifetime process of growing up involves an increasing understanding of the fact that others’ experiences really do apply to you and are often a harbinger of what’s to come for you. When you’re young, it’s easy to distance yourself from war, or death, or bad decisions, with the gorgeously [...]
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What I notice most is the silence. I would think it would be the back-of-the-scariest-closet darkness I’d notice most about a blackout, but it isn’t. It’s the silence. The very heart of the house is still. Amazing how much sound electricity makes possible. Not just the obvious sounds of the Real Housewives reruns I put [...]
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I joined Facebook on December 27, 2007. I know because my first profile pic, a cell phone self-shot in half light, is dated that day. I had been receiving invitations from friends throughout 2007, and had ignored them all. I was on MySpace, after all, and found that a pointless and flashy intrusion. But, finally, [...]
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Life is sweet. It is a Sunday, a stop-and-take-a-breath day in any week, but more so today, the day after Christmas. And Mother Nature, feeling gracious and unobtrusive, decided to carpet us with the first snowstorm of the season on a day where there is nowhere to go, no one to see. It is not [...]
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