Pathologizing Grief: How Long Can You Be Sad?
Here we go again. The so-called experts in psychiatry charged with updating the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5), the less than empirical “bible of psychiatry” that clinicians rely on for...
View ArticleAnother Day, Another Newtown: The Obscenity of Gun Violence
When news of another school slaughter broke, this time again in Texas, the bile that rose in my throat was as bitter as the memory of Columbine, Newtown, Parkland – and the other grievous incidents of...
View ArticleThe Death of Stare Decisis and the Demise of the 4th Amendment
I was out of the country in May when news of the SCOTUS leak in which Justice Samuel Alito’s policy statement went viral. I hadn’t watched TV for a week and barely signed onto social media but when I...
View ArticleFeminism Isn't Dead, It's Exhausted
Just days before the horrific Supreme Court decision that killed Roe v. Wade, a grievous act that rendered women and girls property of the state and subjected them to forced childbearing, a spate of...
View ArticleActions Have Consequences: The Supreme Court Should Know That
It was like standing alone on a nuclear landscape. Like being in the center of a dystopian nightmare. Like being on a sinking ship without a life vest. At least that’s how it felt to me as the Supreme...
View ArticleHow Much More Can We Take?
A few days before writing this commentary my husband went into town on a quick errand. When he didn’t return for a longer time than expected, my first thought when I began to worry was this: Could...
View ArticleFrom Passports to Passwords: Living a Technological Life
Remember a time when it was possible to travel the world with an up-to-date passport that simply validated your identity and sent you on your way? It was easy to undertake an exploration of a world...
View ArticleCybercrime: The Phenomenon That Keeps on Taking
In a recent opinion editorial, I recounted the frustrations of attempting to update personal information online or by phone after moving house. It was a Kafkaesque nightmare that involved corporations,...
View ArticleCovid's Other Long Haul
As the new Covid booster becomes available it’s good to see eligible people lining up to receive it. In addition to providing a new layer of protection against the virus, the vaccine is a reminder that...
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Community in Context: The Importance of Connection
It was 103 degrees when we gathered under a shade tent in California to honor a mutual friend over Labor Day weekend. We’d been a tight group connected to the woman we’d come to see for almost 30 years...
View ArticleThe Life Force of Livid Women is at Work
In 1995 when activist, advocate and former Congresswoman Bella Abzug uttered these words at the 4th World Conference of Women in Beijing, thousands of women there and everywhere felt the force of her...
View ArticleThe Dangers of a Deranged Court
This month as we go to the polls to vote for people to represent us at all levels of governance it is deeply important to remember that these midterm elections are monumentally significant in an...
View ArticleWill the U.S. Have Post Election Buyer's Remorse?
After Great Britain formally withdrew from the European Union nearly two years ago, a move known as Brexit, it didn’t take long for those who voted for withdrawal from the economic agreement among...
View ArticleElection Results Beyond Our Borders Matter
It is November 8th, Election Day in America, as I begin to write this commentary before joining friends to watch early results of our crucial midterm election, and it is not hyperbole to say we are...
View ArticleThe Massacre of the Innocents Continues
Having submitted my final columns for 2022 before the end of November, I looked forward to a holiday respite while contemplating what my first commentary for 2023 might be. My notes suggested global...
View ArticleMaternal Mortality, Abortion, and Race: A Dangerous Trifecta
Much has been written in the literature of public health about America’s shocking maternal mortality rate. Occasionally media reports the alarming rate when there is a hook. Advocates concerned with...
View ArticleThe Wandering Souls of Migration, Immigration, and Asylum Seeking
In her moving debut novel, Wandering Souls, Cecile Pin tells the story of a Vietnamese family desperate to leave their 1970s war torn country. The story opens with the family’s three older children...
View ArticleWhere is Abigail Adams in Today's Political Discourse?
In all the talk about encroaching autocracy in America and elsewhere, politicians, pundits, media personalities and others need to remember the words and wisdom of the revolutionary first First Lady,...
View ArticleChoosing Political Promise Over Continuing Chaos
As we begin a new year with the relief of midterm elections behind us, many Americans are enjoying a sense of comfort about our political future. We saw a blue wave when a red one was predicted and a...
View ArticleSignals From the Sea
In the heat of continuing political madness many important issues that should continue to be addressed in news cycles have been sidelined or ignored. Among crucial missing topics is the necessary...
View ArticleWhat Would Socrates Say? A Look at America's Education Crisis
Some years ago, when I was an adjunct professor, I taught (in English) for a year at a university in Thailand. It was an amazing and ultimately rewarding experience, both for me and my students, most...
View ArticleRemembering the World's Women
In this month of honoring women, especially on March 8th, International Women’s Day, my mind and heart are filled with thoughts of women and girls around the world. Having worked globally, I have...
View ArticleWhere is Artificial Intelligence Leading Us?
Ten years ago, I wrote a column called “Are We Headed Toward a Robotic World?” At that time battle robots and alien creatures in movies were imbued with artificial intelligence, an oxymoron if ever...
View ArticleSuffer the Little Children
They come from countries of unrelenting poverty, oppression, war, and violence. They come to escape all of that with parents, relatives, friends, or alone. They walk miles and miles, day after day,...
View ArticleTurbulent Times Six Miles High and On the Tarmac
Erica Jong, author of Fear of Flying, wrote about more than her own fear of flying in her best-selling novel, but she did manage to capture my own feelings whenever I board a hunk of a silver vessel...
View ArticleGrowing Older in Challenging Times
Having just passed a major birthday last month, I’ve been thinking about a seminar I’ve had the good fortune to lead recently. “Being Wise Elders: Life Lessons and Legacies,” was for people in an adult...
View ArticleThe Horror of Healthcare Financing
It’s no secret that America’s healthcare system is broken. Most of us can cite a litany of problems we’ve personally experienced. But few would include the travesty surrounding how healthcare costs are...
View ArticleChoosing Freedom: A Political Imperative
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt uttered his famous phrase, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” at his first inaugural address in 1933, he recognized that fear of the Great Depression could...
View ArticleAre We Ready for Another Pandemic?
Almost four decades ago, when I was deputy director of the first major global health communications program supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), my work involved child...
View ArticleBalfour's Big Blunder and Today's Israel
“What goes around, comes around” and “You reap what you sow” are truisms that come to mind when I learn what is happening in Israel. I wouldn’t know much about it if I relied on mainstream media or...
View ArticleThe Twin Engines Driving Climate Disasters
It’s been over 90 degrees where I live in Vermont for days on end. We can’t take evening walks, plant our gardens, or breath all that well since the Canadian wildfires first compromised our air so...
View ArticleThe Time for Bread and Roses is Now
When I think about labor movements and unions, two favorite stories come to mind, and both are true. The first one is about a group of girls and young women known as the Lowell Factory Girls. They...
View ArticleFrom Designer Babies to Devalued Children
A recent press release I received got me thinking about how much we really care about kids? The press alert came from the Coalition to Stop Designer Babies, which is organizing internationally to...
View ArticleThe Recovered Joy of Summer Travel
All my life I have disagreed with Henry David Henry: Unlike him, I think it is “worthwhile to go around the world to count the cats in Zanzibar.” That’s why inveterate travelers find the return to...
View ArticleA is For Absent
Her name was Shirley Myers, and she was a gift in my life when I needed one. I was in middle school and a loner, unlike most kids that age, because my mother suffered from depression that meant she was...
View ArticleWhy is Holocaust Denial Growing?
Last month Jews everywhere marked the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur to welcome our New Year. They are solemn days and a time for renewal shared with family and friends every year, even...
View ArticleAre We Facing the End of Free Speech?
CEOs from major businesses in the U.S. demand that Harvard University release the names of students from 30 student organizations who signed a letter casting blame on Israel for the attacks by Hamas....
View ArticleThe Power of Hope and the Promise of the Parkland Generation
Ever since David Hogg, Emma Gonzales, and other high school student leaders began organizing against gun violence when their Florida school experienced a massacre in 2018 that killed 17 people and...
View ArticleDemocracy vs. Fascism: America's Choice in the 2024 Election
Let’s get real about the most vital issue Americans face as we slowly march toward our dubious future as a nation.It’s not about President Biden’s age which is annoyingly centerstage. After all, Donald...
View ArticleWhy I Write, With Thanks to George Orwell
Most years when we’re on the threshold of a new year, I don’t think about resolutions I probably can’t keep. But I do contemplate my life as a writer as I put aside prior works and enter a new ever...
View ArticleOutrageous Acts and Necessary Rebellions
In 1983 Gloria Steinem published a book called Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions. Her essay collection reflected troubling issues that called for action at the time. The title of the book rings...
View ArticleA Marriage Survives Culture, Religion, and Time
Not long ago, my husband and I celebrated our 50th anniversary. What’s more impressive in this time of division is that we are of different cultures – my husband is British – and religions: I’m Jewish...
View ArticleThe Time for Change is Now
As Greek philosopher Heraclitus claimed around 500 BCE, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.There is nothing permanent except change.” The...
View ArticleWhat's Wrong With This Picture: Children vs. Fetuses
FacebookTwitterEmailPrintCopy article lMost years when we’re on the threshold of a new year, I don’t think about resolutions I probably can’t keep. But I do contemplate my life as a writer as I put...
View ArticleIt's Time to Confront Violence Against Women
“Do you know how it feels to get smacked around?”“He abused me psychologically to the point that I wasn’t able to talk or think by myself.”“I was told I was worthless. Abuse made me feel I’m...
View ArticleWhat's Wrong with this Picture: Children vs. Fetuses
AUTHOR NOTE: This story was originally posted under the wrong title. I apologize for the error which caused a great deal of confusion. The wrong title was “Why I Write.” Remember the outcry when we...
View ArticleCommunal Living Makes A Comeback
Some years ago, when I turned fifty, I gathered with my BFFs (Best Female Friends) to celebrate the milestone that each of us would reach that year. It was a joyous and somewhat raucous Croning...
View ArticleWhy Democrats Need to Change Their Communication Strategy
President Biden is in trouble. Democracy’s death knell grows louder. Dictatorship looms large. And the Democratic administration has no clue about the difference between political messaging and...
View ArticleJust How Broken is Our Healthcare System?
A young woman dies in childbirth for lack of proper perinatal care. An elderly man can’t afford meds to control his chronic conditions, so he rations them. A child is misdiagnosed in the emergency...
View ArticleThe Woman Question? What Are We Going to Do About the Women?
Back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when agrarian and rural lifestyles gave way to urbanization due to the Industrial Revolution, everything changed for women in dramatic ways. As the late...
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