americans

The #AmtrakCares Flint Water Relief Train being unloaded

Relief Rides the Rails: Flint Water Crisis

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Relief Rides the Rails: Flint Water Crisis

A short piece on the successful initiative by Amtrak employees to bring relief to those impacted by the Flint, MI water crisis. 

I want you to take a moment and recollect with me. We’re 10 and 8 years old, respectively, at the dinner table. I’m struggling to finish my string-beans. You’re hoping that dad doesn’t see, because you know it’ll summon all manner of finger wagging about “children in Third World countries that would love to eat string-beans.”

Oh yeah? Well what about the time that you stayed in the shower too long? Do you remember dad shouting through the steam “stop wasting water, there’s children in Michigan that would love to take a hot shower right now.” Probably not. Because why in the world would that be a realistic comparison? Continue reading →

Unforgetting 1980s Williamsburg, NYC

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Illustration by Abigail Smith

Illustration by Abigail Smith

Two tall, trendy women marvel at luxury lofts at a happening intersection in Williamsburg, Brooklyn:

“This placed used to be a dump!” One of them trumpets her words into the surrounding winter air. “Nobody used to live here!” As I walk home on this 2003 afternoon, I hear these words reverberate across the sides of buildings, each return of her voice erasing me further from memory.

Who exactly was this Nobody?
Continue reading →