A sample letter to send off today Police departments, sheriff's offices, state troopers and highway patrol offices are administered at the municipal, county, or state level. Making detailed changes locally is often a swifter process than trying to change things at a national level. Goals like #prisonabolition and #policeabolition can’t be achieved overnight. If you want to…

No, it’s not because they are getting unemployment checks — Working as a server or bartender is hard work. Like retail work, you have to smile while putting up with rude or demanding customers. Back when I was a bartender, one irate customer spat his false teeth at me. Also like retail workers, you aren’t paid well. In fact, in…

One of Medium’s best ideas in 2021 has been starting the #StopAsianHate blog. I’m looking forward to reading and learning more about what life is like for people who identify as Asian in the present day and in the past. Reading has been an important way for me to educate…

Going no-contact with toxic parents — Most parents do their best for their children, but they make mistakes along the way. It’s part of being human. Toxic parents, those who physically or emotionally abuse their children, are another thing entirely. Either way, forgiveness is one option, whether it means letting another person off the hook for…

The original purpose of bail was to insure a defendant’s appearance at trial. Now it’s a different story. — In the last 40 years, cash bail in America transformed from a system assuring defendants’ presence at future court dates into a pre-trial punishment. This transformation has devastated individuals and families, and it has both reflected and reinforced the power of police to commit violence against citizens.

#NaPoWriMo Poetry Prompts — Aging is the sort of inevitable, non-negotiable topic that fascinates poets. Birth, school, work, death, in the immortal lyrics of The Godfathers. Some of us fight aging. Some of us embrace it. Whichever approach is yours, though, aging beats its only known alternative. In the immortal words of someone. People…

NaPoWriMo Poetry Prompts — Sonnets are often the first poetic form people learn about, and for good reason. They are fourteen lines long, usually about one subject, and contain a brief argument that makes a distinct point. These three qualities — brevity, focus, and argument — make them accessible to those who are beginning…

#NaPoWriMo Poetry Prompts — The word “villanelle” is from the French, although the form itself probably originated in Renaissance Italy. Originally, it was not a very structured form, but the villanelle we know today plays by a long list of rules. Poets are so often rule-breakers. Why would they be drawn to the limits…

#NaPoWriMo2021 Poetry Prompts T.S. Eliot (why do I keep bringing him up when I claim to resent him?) is credited with saying “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.” Of course, it’s plain wrong to plagiarize, and Eliot’s statement shouldn’t be taken as a license to lie. In fact, if we…