We have a cultural preoccupation with not letting people die. Conservatives focus that obsession on being against abortion and euthanasia. Quality of life be damned: The conservative platform includes cutting welfare and getting rid of government controls. But if someone is dying and wants to do so in dignity, they can’t. And if a pregnant…
Author: Clio
My story began before I did
My story began before I did, Written on leather and linen, Papyrus and stone. I was born in the taint of the oppressor Stained white with a fabricated purity Invented by men Then forced into the mouth of God My story was hammered into drying clay Like pigeons’ feet Dancing Across the centuries. My myths…
Reflection
Today, I am a hero to a gull. And probably a sparrow. Coming out of the Target on John R, I saw a gull attacking a heavily greased brown paper bag. He wasn’t getting very far, and was clearly frustrated. As I walked over to look in the bag, the gull flew off to a…
Reflection
On one of my routes home, there’s a signpost to which has been affixed a stuffed animal and a plastic figurine of an angel with the head of a little black girl. It’s bleached now from the sun, and the stuffed animal has gotten raggedy from the weather, and the desolation of it gives me…
Rebuilding the Village
I’m a high school teacher. Many of my students misbehave regularly, and most of them misbehave at least occasionally. The question is as old as it is contentious: How do we properly impel our students to behave properly? The traditional answer is corporal punishment: Spank students when they don’t do as expected, and they’ll stop…
The Fault in Our Genes
Alexander Yarde recently wrote, “Toxic masculinity is not women’s fault.” It was even bolded, lest people miss it, and it followed Yarde placing the heavy lifting of repairing the problem on “cis straight men.” A few months ago, I wrote about toxic masculinity, myself. And, while the title specifically focused on supporting a role for men that…
A Tale of Two Statues
There are two statues on Wall Street that have been getting considerable discussion lately. Since 1989, Arturo Di Modica’s “Charging Bull” has stood in the Wall Street district, a “symbol of virility and courage” and “determination and hard work” meant to “celebrate the can-do spirit of America” (quotes from his website). In March of 2017,…
Getting Into the Mx.
Language is constantly changing to suit the needs of its speakers. When I was a child, a major shift was occurring in support of feminism. Formerly-gendered terms like “policeman” and “fireman” became “police officer” and “firefighter” in order to recognize the growing presence of women in those careers. “Spouse” and “partner” gained prominence alongside gendered…
Writing Rationals with the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic
The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic says that all integers greater than one can be written uniquely as the product of prime numbers. Another way of stating this is that, if \(P = (p_1, p_2, p_3, …)\) is the (infinite) set of all primes, in order from least to greatest, and \(K = (k_1, k_2, k_3,…
‘Gifted’ is a Gift
Movies about prodigies generally focus on the extraordinary talents of the child, while the conflict revolves around protecting the child from someone who wants to exploit or destroy them. “Gifted” (currently in limited release, releasing nationally on April 21) starts with a different goal: protecting the prodigy from the social alienation that comes from their…