Again, We Remember

 

By The Sword?

So, a few days ago, Politico broke the news that the Supreme Court appears likely to overturn Roe v. Wade this summer.  We can't say this is surprising.  It was the entire goal of the Republican Party, starting in the 70's, and culminating in 2020, with the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett.  The 6-3 majority is the wet dream conceived and cherished by the Republicans in 2016 when they cynically blocked the 2016 election year nomination of Merrick Garland after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

The fear among many who may not be directly affected by abortion rights is if SCOTUS can overturn Roe v. Wade because the Constitution did not specifically confer the right to abortion, what other rights assumed, via Supreme Court decisions, to be conferred by the Constitution may be re-visited and overturned?  This Daily Kos story gives a hint -- and I will quote from it directly: "As such, the draft ruling intrinsically calls into question other unenumerated rights the Supreme Court has conferred on Americans, such as the right to privacy, raise children, use contraception, or marry the person of their choosing regardless of the color of their skin or their gender."  Yep, definitely a "live by the sword, die by the sword" kinda sitch.

Is anybody besides me amused by the irony that many, not the least among them Chief Justice John Roberts, are pissed off right now because someone betrayed the Court's right to privacy, and leaked a document about their preliminary ruling on Roe v. Wade, which case itself was predicated on the concept that a woman's right to privacy was grounded in personal liberty and/or due process (thinkwy.org/post/the-right-to-privacy-and-the-road-to-roe-v-wade)?

And polls conducted in recent years indicate most Americans want to keep Roe v. Wade firmly in place as is, as this recent CBS News poll indicates. The poll, conducted in November 2021, shows a whopping 62% of Americans want Roe v. Wade.  How do we feel about one party hijacking the court to impose its will, which is contrary to the will of the majority of Americans, not to mention the mission statement of our country?  And how do those 38% who may approve of the repeal of Roe v. Wade feel about the way the repeal is being carried out?  Are they cool with a future Supreme Court ruling that affects how they raise their kids or under what circumstances they can use birth control?  The sword cuts both ways.

And ladies, do we really want to trust primarily menfolk to make these decisions?  Before you answer, bear in mind men have proven they don't really know their way around a woman's body.

Even those of us that may not seem to, have skin in the game.  My mother, for example.  What the hell does an 83-year old care about abortion being legal?  My mother began her nursing career as a student in 1956.  In those days the nursing schools used their students as cheap labor, so they cleaned and did some patient care.  Abortions weren't legal until 1973, so my mother as a young nurse saw the consequences of back-alley abortions more than once. 

"Women who have unsafe abortions are at risk of serious medical problems, including incomplete abortion, hemorrhage (heavy bleeding), infection, uterine perforation (caused when the uterus is pierced by a sharp object), and damage to the genital tract and internal organs (by inserting dangerous objects such as sticks, knitting needles, or broken glass into the vagina or anus). Each year around 7 million women are admitted to hospitals for complications of unsafe abortion and between 4.7% – 13.2% of maternal deaths can be attributed to unsafe abortion."

https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book-excerpts/health-article/impact-of-illegal-abortion/  

Imagine being an 18-year-old and seeing someone bleed out, or worse yet, die from septicemia.  Since I was a teenager my mother has drummed into my head how calamitous it would be if Roe v. Wade were overturned.

Now I will tell you my experience.  No, I've never had an abortion.  My experience is a little more complicated.  

My mother was unwed when she had me.  Being an unwed mother was a lot less accepted in 1965 than it is now.  Before my mother became pregnant with me, she was an ER nurse.  She loved it there -- the ER was where the action was.  But in 1965, being visibly pregnant while wearing a nametag that said Miss So-and-So was not done.  My mother was forced out of the ER, and she never had a job that she really enjoyed for the rest of her nursing career, which spanned nearly 30 more years.  My father had bailed, and he was the only man my mother ever loved.  Too bad he evidently didn't love her back.  My mum didn't really want children.  She didn't like children, and didn't think she'd be good with them.  Remember there were no safe, legal abortions then.  My mother had me because she didn't want to put me up for adoption and worry and wonder if I was OK and being well taken care of.  And because she hoped that if she kept me, I would love her, unlike my father.  Are these good reasons to keep a child you really don't want?

Early on, my grandmother was available to help raise me.  But my mother decided I needed a father, so she married my stepfather.  Grandma didn't like John, she and my mum argued, and next thing you know, grandma was on her way out of my life.  She died of metastasized breast cancer when I was not quite six.  

Regular readers of this blog know what happened next: more than twelve years spent with a controlling, physically, verbally, and sexually abusive alcoholic, twelve years I am still recovering from.  After my mother's divorce in 1982, I spent the next five years extremely depressed.  I got a job at age 18 and didn't get another one for four years because my stepfather had profoundly eroded (and my first employer all but finished destroying) my confidence that I had anything to offer a workplace.  Fortunately I rebounded after subsequent jobs.

Rebounding from the rest has not happened yet; I suffer from low-level depression and anxiety to this day.  Unfortunately most of the 90's were spent keeping my mother from losing her house, and by the time her finances were on an even keel again, my mum had had three back surgeries and other ailments that forced an early retirement. That late in the game, college was not realistic for me -- how would I pay back student loans before retirement?

Looking at the whole thing logically and dispassionately, it simply would have been better for my mother to have aborted me.  Better for her, so that she would have been able to forge the career path she had been headed on and deserved.  She wouldn't have dissipated her energies raising a child (though I was a very good and easy child to raise -- an "old soul" and a "little adult" from the get-go, by my mother's own words).  And not being an unwed mother would have given my mum a much better pool of men to marry, or the choice to not get married at all.  She may have decided to devote herself to going into college, in order to work herself more easily into a supervisory position.  Which would have helped insure that she didn't retire poor, and with her body broken down, which is exactly what happened to her.  And my mother wouldn't have had a daily visual reminder that a man that said that he loved her and wanted to have children then had bailed when the chips were down.  

And as for me, I never would have been molested, verbally or physically abused.  Never would have been taken inside a bar at age nine, and then another time conversely left inside a hot truck for an hour or two, under strict orders not to open the door or roll down the window, while my stepfather drank in a bar, then taken home sick from the heat.  I would have never had to watch my mother rise up righteous in rage for once, and then watch her slam around all day and evening till I believed she was mad at me, too, due to that incident.  And after another incident, (one of many times he drove drunk with me in the car), I never would have spent part of a night hearing my stepfather throwing up from drinking till he burst a blood vessel in his throat, and the rest of the night and some of the morning in the ER waiting room while he was being treated and admitted.

I never would have experienced my mother at first defending me from my stepfather's attacks and abuse, then the betrayal in later years of her going silent about it, and finally at times participating in it.  I never would have had my self-confidence snuffed out, nor the aformentioned anxiety and depression that I still struggle with, nor the resultant health problems.  I would never have spent most of my life feeling out of place and out of step with other people -- awkward, incompatible, and unassimilable.

And I never would have spent so many years of my life trying to make up to my mother that my father didn't love her, and knocking myself out trying to prove to her that she made the right decision keeping me.

Which is less harrowing and more expedient?  And which is the greater sin, the abortion that didn't happen, or the years of abuse, of deprivations, of mental and physical issues that did happen and still are happening?

Yes, I know, it is possible to save a child from an unfortunate birth situation without having an abortion -- one can give the child up for adoption.  When a child is placed with an adoptive family, we hope that family is investigated for fitness to adopt, but fitness according to whom, and to what criteria?

I am familiar with some folks who have four children.  The eldest two, both males, are their biological children.  The youngest two, both adopted, are female.  The girls were raised totally differently from the boys -- they had much fewer responsibilities, and alot more swag.  The girls were even raised very differently from each other -- one cast in the role as the pretty, bright achiever, and the other who was never quite as successful in the worldly sense.  The mother was very aggressive about setting the sisters against each other in competition, and I was upon occasion thrown into this mix, compared unfavorably to the achiever.  Although I was independent enough to openly (and at times, loudly) resist such manipulation, the two sisters were not.  Now both have weight and self-confidence issues.  The achiever is an insecure people-pleaser, a sad woman who fears intimacy.  Her sister spent several years being unhappily married to a child molester.  She is every bit as bright as her sister (as well as the family's second son, who are both doctors), and she could have been a damn fine doctor herself (or anything else she wanted to be) if only her mother hadn't told her a million times in a million ways that she wasn't good enough.

Is this little homily an indictment of adoption?  Not at all.  Am I saying an abortion would have been better?  Absolutely not.  Just that if you really want to stop abortions, you're not going to succeed in doing it in the courts, via laws.  You're going to have to change hearts.  And you're gonna have to get a helluva lot better at contingencies, and details.  And that brings me to my closing.

If the SCOTUS follows up and reverses Roe v. Wade, those of you who helped bring that change by voting, marching, stumping, opining, bankrolling and praying, might feel tempted to take a victory lap.  I wouldn't advise it.  You're going to need your strength.  For a couple of reasons.

Did you ever hear that old Chinese saying, "When you save a life, you're responsible for it?"  Yep.  Now the child needs to be fed, clothed, kept dry and warm, taught the three R's, how to navigate a car, a computer, social media, how to take care of himself, how to work, how to treat people, how to love.  Maybe sent to college. Who's gonna do all that?  The adoptive family?  Well, we hope so. Adoption agencies are overburdened, underfunded and understaffed.  And alot of people don't qualify to adopt -- LGBTQ, POC, singles, "too old", etc.  What then?  Where will y'all be?  Are you in for a penny, or a pound?  What good does it do the child if you save him from the abortion and then just go carve another notch wherever it is you carve 'em, and never think about the child again?  Not your responsibility?  But it was yours to stop the abortion?  Let us consider our labels carefully -- anti-abortion, pro-life.  Which label belongs to the one who saves the fetus, and which belongs to the one who commits to seeing that the child is properly raised and provided for?  

An Anglican minister's definition of pro-life:

And another reason to forgo your victory lap:  Those of us who are on the other side of this issue WERE asleep.  We took for granted that the Supreme Court, though it might now heavily favor one political persuasion, was provident enough not to amend the rights heretofore considered inherent in the 9th and 14th Amendments.  We assumed they would not be so disrespectful to the institution of The Supreme Court as to politicize it by diluting or annulling decades of rulings that were based on the right to privacy, and compromising the faith American citizens have in, and the security they rightfully derive from, the pillars of settled law.

Now that we see the lengths these folks are willing to go to, and how little their integrity means to them when they can trade it to manipulate The American System and turn it into a mockery -- holding up a Supreme Court nomination for eight months in one election year when it suits them, and speeding one through in another, (and in the middle of a pandemic) when that suits them; gerrymandering and restricting voting rights, especially those of people of color, the poor, and the elderly, even to the extent of forbidding voters standing in long lines on hot days to be given water.  Yeah, a real honorable bunch.

Well, courtesy of the latest of these tactics, now we're awake, and in record numbers.  AND WE'RE PISSED!  Those who a week ago may have predicted a red wave in the midterms are not bragging quite so loudly now.  And some of us think that was the motive of the leaker.  Stay tuned.

Of course, we could just grow a pair and end this BS one and for all, and in a decisive way.  How 'bout we put it on a national referendum in 2024, and Let The People Decide?  It'd be alot better than letting such a thing as the vagaries of the political makeup of the Supreme Court do it by taking away Americans' right to privacy.  Or worse yet, signaling that sometimes we have a right to privacy, sometimes we don't -- rights to be decided and rescindable at any time, on any whim, with any shift in SCOTUS makeup.  And my fellow Americans, do we really want abortion to become a States Rights issue?  Are you really cool with the way the US is being fragmented and trivialized by States Rights?  What is stronger, the United States, or Fifty Nifty Little Fiefdoms?  Think about it.

Abortion poll stats from the last ten years.

Some religions do support abortion rights.

And to end this post on a lighter note, more of the clueless menfolk.

And still more, with a sprinkling of clueless womenfolk just for the hell of it.

Stay In Your Lane

So last night I was watching an episode of All In The Family.   The episode was from back in December, 1978, when I was just a newly-minted teenager.

For those who are not familiar with this classic 70's sitcom, it featured Carroll O'Connor as bigoted Archie Bunker; Jean Stapleton as his loving wife Edith; Sally Struthers as their "Little Goil", Gloria; and Rob Reiner (later to be the prolific director) as her husband Mike Stivic, not-so-affectionately referred to as "Meathead" by Archie.  For the first seven seasons Mike and Gloria lived first with Archie and Edith, then next door to them.  Season Eight featured them moving out to California so that Mike could take a new job.  Their second season in Cali, the Bunkers, with much ceremony, went out to visit the Stivics in their California digs for Christmas in a special two-part episode entitled California, Here We Come.

The early part of the episode dealt comedically with the Bunkers' trip, and them seeing just how different life was in Cali.  Edith's delight in picking a lemon from the lemon tree on the Stivics' patio is not to be missed.  But (spoiler alert!) things get real serious, real fast.

It seems that, while her husband bas been thriving as a teacher since their arrival in California, Gloria has languished, finding nothing in common with Mike's friends, and increasingly less with her husband, too.  In a private moment with Edith, Gloria confesses that her loneliness and failure to launch in the Golden State has led her to find a "friend".  The two women have a good cry together, such a good cry that they use up all the Kleenex, and start unrolling toilet paper to cry into.  When Edith continues her weepfest into the room she and Archie are sharing for the holidays, he wakes up and wants to know why she is crying.  And heaven help us all, she tells him.  Archie is horrified and livid, and wastes no time in finding his "little goil" and lighting into her.  In a tirade that wakes Mike (but fortunately neither grandson Joey nor Stephanie, the Bunkers' adopted daughter), Archie condemns Gloria, and winds up by telling Mike, for whom he has had very few kind words over nine years, that he is too good for Gloria.  He is ready to share a few more home truths, but fortunately Edith saves the day by asking Mike and Gloria if they still love each other.  Of course they do, they decide to try to save their marriage, all is well, Christmas is saved, and Mike and Gloria leave the room to wake Stephanie and Joey up to see what Santa has brought them.

Of course Archie is not happy.  Everyone has made up, and no one has paid a penalty for the horrible sin.  And here is where Edith, (always the "dingbat" according to her husband) shines the brightest.  She asks Archie why he is so concerned, Mike and Gloria are going to try to work it out, isn't that what matters?  And Archie insists he is simply representing God's concerns.  "It's God's business!" Archie wails.

Whereupon Edith replies quietly, but firmly,  "Then let Him tend to it."

Hmmmm.  Gives us food for thought.  

In the Bible, in Matthew 7:1-5, we are instructed about judging, namely, pretty much, DONT!  And 1 Samuel 16:7 makes the reason clear why we should leave the judging to God: "The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them.  People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

So, clearly judging is God's job.  What is our job?  "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and loves God." (1 John 4:7).  "Jesus declared, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'  All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments."  (Matthew 22:37-40).

Yes, I know we are not all Judeo-Christian.  Your Crusading Blogger herself is not.  But all religions I have ever investigated (and as a soon-to-be Celebrant, I am heavily invested in investigating them all) have in common at least the requirement that we love one another.

If I have leaned heavily on the Judeo-Christian Bible, it's because I am more familiar with its eloquence on the subject.  I'll finish with 1 Corinthians: 1-3: "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing."

1 Corinthians is a chapter that is familiar to those of us who have been married, or attended lots of weddings -- "Love is patient, love is kind..."  It is very obvious what our job is, and it is not to judge.  The Bible makes it plain, and on this point, all the major religions agree.  Our job is to love, plain and simple.  But not easy.  We will spend our lifetimes perfecting the process.  We don't have a moment to lose -- let's get started.  Until we all get really practiced at loving, perhaps we should leave off judging -- let's stay in our own lane. 

Slap Shot

By now, everyone has heard that Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at last night's Academy Awards show.  And I think we all heard the reason for that slap -- Rock made a faux pas "joke" about Jada Pinkett Smith, Will's wife, doing a GI Jane 2 turn -- was dude really unaware Jada has alopecia???  

The reactions have run the gamut from Sunny Hostin's admonition to Smith to "Use your words!" to Joy Behar's, "Comedians are in danger everywhere.  They (audience members) want us to be edgy, they want us to go out there and say things that other people are just thinking. They want us to take a risk and then they get mad."  (Eye roll).  Tiffany Haddish loved the slap.

There were alot of charges of toxic masculinity, and I would not disagree.  Chris Rock did not press charges, and the Oscars committee will conduct an investigation.  Yep.

My reaction?  I would like to offer a suggestion.  A suggestion on how to handle just such a situation in the future that does not involve violence, but has the admirable effect of making an asshole look like an asshole, and feel like an asshole.  And Mr. Smith, I am shocked you didn't think of this yourself, being that you were involved, albeit peripherally, with the Miyagiverse, being a producer of the 2010 remake of Karate Kid:

Today Will Smith offered an apology to Chris Rock, which was a better apology than the one he offered to the Oscars Academy last night.  Myself, I'm more than half-suspicious that Smith's outburst, and the firestorm of reaction surrounding it, were just a cheap way to gin up some buzz around the Academy Awards, and perhaps awards shows in general, which are suffering an understandable (zzzzz) plunge in ratings of late.  Good luck with that.  Sigh.

In passing, I wonder if the slap will, consciously or subconsciously, trigger a certain segment of the Caucasian persuasion, the ones who are always a little afraid of the "angry black man" (angry white men are neither scary nor prevalent, right? /s), or if their take-away will more center on Rock's pacific reaction (Whoopi about Rock, “I do think it’s wonderful that Chris did not take it to that other place that he could have done," i.e., hit back).  IOW, he turned the other cheek -- yeah, he should have -- that joke was not only in poor taste, as many have said, but in poor judgement, rising for me to the level of one of those Things You Just Do Not Say.  Was it punishable by a slap or punch?  Nah, let The Universe do what it will -- if Mr. Rock were to develop a disfiguring autoimmune condition in the future, for example, perhaps we should not be too surprised.

I think that Smith's intemperate feelings could have been more wisely satisfied by his verbal outburst, "Keep my wife's name out of your fucking mouth," followed by maybe a mention in his Oscar acceptance speech minutes later of his wife's courageous battle with automimmune alopecia.  Then the court of public opinion would have gotten involved judging Chris Rock's comment, and condemning him, as it is now condemning Will Smith, and the narrative would be where it belongs, namely that appearance-shaming is a form of bullying, not to be done in a decent society.  That is where the focus truly needs to be here.

https://www.salon.com/2022/03/28/the-view-chris-rock-will-smith-oscars-slap/

Two Types Of Political Discourse...

Four days ago, Ronna McDaniel and the RNC made probably the most ballsy, albeit ridiculous statement I have ever seen in 56 years upon this planet.

Ronna.  RNC.  Dearhearts.  Allow Claudia to school you.  Allow Claudia to bring you back from the brink of the abyss of madness and unreality you have apparently fallen into.  Here are a few examples of legitimate political discourse:

And here are a few examples of illegitimate political discourse:

Obviously, there are some on the right-hand side of the aisle who are confused, as they have spent the last several years condemning the former, and praising the latter, which is why I thought it necessary to illustrate the difference.

What is interesting to me is how rapidly the Republican Party is choosing sides over this issue, after the last year of mostly falling into line behind TFG, at least for public consumption.  What's up with that?  Is it the House Select Committee's investigation into the January 6, 2021 riot on the Capitol?  All the investigations into Tangerine Man?  Are some members of the Elephant Herd staking out some more moderate ground with the 2022 midterm elections in sight, hoping perhaps to attract some Independents or moderate/centrist Democrats into the Pachyderm Fold?

Well, here are a few who may just be turning from elephants into RINOs, at least according to some:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trumps-claims-that-pence-could-overturn-election-are-wrong-former-vp-says

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/07/politics/chris-christie-trump-republicans-january-6/index.html

https://www.deseret.com/utah/2022/2/7/22922430/utah-republican-congres-say-about-rnc-legitimate-political-discourse-censure-liz-cheney-mitt-romney

And this from Moscow Mitch (Holy Brain Seizures, Batman!): 

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republican-infighting-rattles-mcconnells-us-midterm-elections-strategy-2022-02-08/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/01/25/fake-electors-investigation-justice/

Well ain't this news cycle just interesting as hell?

Choices

 

An Open Letter from Congressional Staff to Senate 2/3/21

We are staff who work for members of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, where it is our honor and privilege to serve our country and our fellow Americans. We write this letter to share our own views and experiences, not the views of our employers. But on January 6, 2021, our workplace was attacked by a violent mob trying to stop the electoral college vote count. That mob was incited by former president Donald J. Trump and his political allies, some of whom we pass every day in the hallways at work.

Many of us attended school in the post-Columbine era and were trained to respond to active shooter situations in our classrooms. As the mob smashed through Capitol Police barricades, broke doors and windows, and charged into the Capitol with body armor and weapons, many of us hid behind chairs and under desks or barricaded ourselves in offices. Others watched on TV and frantically tried to reach bosses and colleagues as they fled for their lives.

On January 6, the former President broke America’s 230-year legacy of the peaceful transition of power when he incited a mob to disrupt the counting of electoral college votes. Six people died. A Capitol Police officer—one of our co-workers who guards and greets us every day—was beaten to death. The attack on our workplace was inspired by lies told by the former president and others about the results of the election in a baseless, months-long effort to reject votes lawfully cast by the American people.

Our Constitution only works when we believe in it and defend it. It’s a shared commitment to equal justice, the rule of law, and the peaceful resolution of our differences. Any person who doesn’t share these beliefs has no place representing the American people, now or in the future. The use of violence and lies to overturn an election is not worthy of debate. Either you stand with the republic or against it.

As Congressional employees, we don’t have a vote on whether to convict Donald J. Trump for his role in inciting the violent attack at the Capitol, but our Senators do. And for our sake, and the sake of the country, we ask that they vote to convict the former president and bar him from ever holding office again.

Signed,

Aaron Fritschner

Abigail Hewins

Adam Comis

Adam Veale

Alex Guajardo

Alex Karabatsos

Alex Marston

Alex Molina

Alexa Marquez

Alexa Sledge

Alexander Gristina

Alexandra Schnelle

Alexandra Yiannoutsos

Alexis C. MacDonald

Alisa La

Allan Rodriguez

Allison Blankenship

Allison Lukas

Aly DeWills-Marcano

Alyssa Mendez

Amanda J Quesada

Amanda Yanchury

Amy Fischer

Amy Kuhn

Amy Soenksen

Andi McIver

Andre Earls

Andrea N. Goldstein

Andrew Goddeeris

Andrew Myslik

Andrew Noh

Aneeb Sheikh

Angele Russell

Angelica Duque

Angie Wells

Anissa Z. Caldwell

Anne Feldman

Anne Wick

Annetta Joyce

Annmarie Goyzueta

Anthony Barnes

Anthony Lemma

Anuj Gupta

Aria Kovalovich

Artin Haghshenas

Asha Samuel

Ashlee Wilkins

Avery Bonifati

Barbara Hamlett

Beatrix M. Dalton

Ben Kamens

Ben Rutan

Ben Turner

Benito Torres Jr.

Benjamin Bernier

Brad Korten

Brandon Garay

Brandon Mendoza

Brendan Greenlee

Bridget Hogan

Brigid Campbell

Brittan Robinson

Bryce Causey

Caleigh Lynch

Carianne Lee

Carlos Murillo Villasenor

Carmen Palumbo

Caroline Ramos

Carolyn Olortegui

Cassie Winters

Caty Payette

Cesar Solis

Chandler Mason

Chelsea Alatriste Martinez

Chelsea Rivas

Chloe Kessock

Chris Gibson

Chris McCarthy

Christian Seasholtz

Christopher Nguyen

Cindy M. Buhl

Cindy Matos Beltre

Clarissa Rojas

Cole A. Baker

Colin Pio

Collin Davenport

Connor McNutt

Connor Vargo

Cori Duggins

Corinne Paul

Courtney Callejas

Courtney Hruska

Courtney Rogers

Cyré Velez

Dan Riffle

Dana Hanson

Daniel Gleick

Daniel Holt

Daniel Maher

Daniela Contreras

Daniela Valles

Danielle Fulfs

David Lucas

David Sanchez

David Todisco

Dayanara Ramirez

Denzel McCampbell

Dr. Heather O'Beirne Kelly

Drew Hammill

Eddie Meyer

Eduardo N. Lerma, Jr.

Edwin Sevilla

Eleanor Trenary

Elena Radding

Elizabeth Austin-Mackenzie

Elizabeth Kulig

Eloise Melcher

Elyse Schupak

Emily Amador

Emily Lande-Rose

Emily Loya

Emily Morrison

Emma Norman

Emma Zafran

Erin Melody

Eva Naomi Gutierrez

Evan Brooks

Evan P Dale

Fabiola Pagán Meléndez

Fabiola Rodriguez-Ciampol

Frederick Castro

Gabby Richards

Gail Chaney Kalinich

George "Stephen" Williams, Jr.

George Flynn

Grace Rubinger

Greg Claus

Griffin M. Anderson

Hannah Ceja

Hannah Melissa Borja

Hannah Weinerman

Harsh Deshmukh

Heather Boyd

Hector Colón

Helen Beaudreau

Humberto Ramos

Hussain Altamimi

Jack Gebbia

Jack Stelzner

Jacqueline A. Sanchez

Jae'Von McClain

Jaime Cobham

Jaimee Gilmartin

Jamari Torrence

James E. McFeely

Jamie Smith

Jason Nerad

Jason Tufele Carl Johnson

Jed Ober

Jen Fox

Jenna Jaffe

Jennifer Chandler

Jeren Totten

Jermaine Simmons

Jesse Malowitz

Jessica Andino

Jessica Hernandez

Jessica Mulligan

Jessica Pedroza

Jessica Valdez

Jessie Durrett

Jill Hirsch

Johana Mata

John Chapa Gorczynski

John Swords

Johnathan Garza

Joicelynne Jackson

Jona Koka

Jonathan Nwaru

Jordan Dashow

Joseph Valente

Joy A. Hamer

Juan Romero-Casillas

Julia Kravitz

Julian Gerson

Julie Jochem

Justin McCartney

K'Yetta McKinney

Kaozouapa E Lee

Kat Cosgrove

Kate Brescia

Kate Stotesbery

Katharine Nasielski

Katie Worley

Katrina Martell

Kelli Scott

Kelsey Smith

Kendra Wood

Kenneth Russell DeGraff

Kevin Figueroa

Kevin ONeil

Kevin Vargas

Kiara Tringali

Kichelle Webster

Kimberly Stanton

Kimiko Hirota

Kira Floersheim

Koray Rosati

Kory Haywood

Kristi Black

Kristin Kopshever

Kristina Broadie Jeter

Kurtis Miller

Kyle McKenney

Lana Abbasi

Lana Westfall Marro

Lanette García

Larissa Richardson

Laura Brantley

Laura Ellen Schock

Laura Forero

Lauran Pauley

Lauren Covington

Lauren Geiser

Lauren Linsmayer

Lauren Meininger

LaVontae Brooks

Leslie Merrill

Leslie Zwicker

Liam McCaffery

Libby Wiet

Lillian Adelstein

Lily Fitzpatrick

Lisa Pahel

Lisa Tencer

Lucia Rodriguez

Luis Zegarra

Maggie Harden

Malcolm Yates

Mara Kelly

Marcus Garza

Maria Camila Gomez Osorio

Maria Di Leone

Maria Martirosyan

Maria Martirosyan

Maria Robayo

Mariam Jalloul

Marilyn Dillihay

Mark A. Hinson

Marlon Dubuisson

Maru Vazquez

Matt Corridoni

Matt DeFreitas

Matt Jansen

Matt Sonneborn

Matthew A. Ceja

Matthew Bonaccorsi

Matthew E. Fried

Matthew Holcombe

Matthew Morgan

Matthew Steil

Maureen Acero

Max Frankel

Maytham Alshadood

Meaghan Johnson

Melanee Farrah

Mia Robertson

Michael Harris

Michael Lawson

Michele Lockman

Michelle Sánchez

Mike Lucier

Mike Shanahan

Moh Sharma

Molly Cole

Mustafa Alemi

Natalie C. Adams

Nawaid Ladak

Nick Burroughs

Nicolás Ballón

Noah Simon

Numa St. Louis

Olga Avant-Mier

Oliver Edelson

Olivia Byrd

Pam Trinward

Patrick Carroll

Patrick Koetzle

Paula McKinney-Rainey

Philip Bennett

Pierre Whatley

Pilar Lugo

Priyanka Hooghan

Quinton Johnson

Rachel Dembo

Rachel Montoya

Raman Khanna

Randy Love

Rebecca Eichmann

Rebecca R. Kelly

Rebekah Eskandani

Reecha Patel

Remmington F. Belford

Rex Dyer

Ricardo Martinez

Rita L. Waters

Robert M. Gottheim

Robert Montgomery

Rona Sayed

Rosario Duran

Ryan A. Washington

Ryan Early

Ryan Morgan

Ryan Morgan

Rylee Stirn

Saira Bhatti

Sammi Goldsmith

Samuel R. Spencer IV

Sara Barber

Sara Guerrero

Sara Palasits

Sarah Dean

Sarah Mulero

Scott Balough

Scott Heppard

Scott R. Nelson, Ph.D.

Serena Li

Shadawn Reddick-Smith

Shalini Gagliardi

Sharon Eliza Nichols

Shawn M. Meredith

Sonia C. Norton

Sool Abdirahman

Stephany Ospino

Stuart Styron

Sullivan Gassmann

T. Scott Harris

Talia Marcus

Tamara P Zapata

Tara Jordan

Tara Rountree

Tendrina Alexandre

Thelma Teresa Carrera

Theodore Steinberg

Thomas J. Story

Todd Stein

Tommy Brown

Toni Dunbar

Udit Thakur

Victoria Bonney

Victoria Graham

Victoria Oms

Wendy Ginsberg

Whitley O’Neal

Will Barrett

William (Billy) Hennessy

Xiao Shan Susan Liu

Yael Velvel

Yazmin Mehdi

Yonathan Teclu

Zac Mitchiner

Zach Cafritz

Zach Fisch

Zoe Bluffstone