I am currently 4,134 words deep into NaNoWriMo 2014 – that’s “National Novel-Writing Month,” for the uninitiated. I say that firmly tongue-in-cheek, because I’m barely initiated myself. I’ve known about NaNoWriMo for years (I seem to be embedded in a social network of creative writers – and I like it that way!) but have never…
Tag: Reading and Writing
Ferguson and the Militarization of Police
Last night I stayed up late, refreshing my Twitter feed and watching commentary about the situation in Ferguson, Mo. Thank goodness for Twitter, for the folks on the ground live-tweeting what they see and for the social commentary of many brilliant minds. I checked my other social media accounts and looked at the differences in…
#IfTheyGunnedMeDown
A young man named Michael Brown has been killed by police officers in St. Louis, Missouri. According to eyewitness accounts, Michael was walking (unarmed) to visit his grandmother when witnesses saw an officer approach Brown and have some sort of confrontation with him. One witness states that she saw the police officer attempt to put…
Racism, fear of crime, and punitive public policy.
This Slate article is all over my Facebook news feed this week. It’s an article reporting on the results of a study by Stanford University psychologists Rebecca Hetey and Jennifer Eberhardt. According to Slate, the researchers conducted two different experiments, one in San Francisco and one in New York City. You can read the details of…