January 21st, 2017 was a pivotal moment for our democracy. On that day, outraged Americans joined together to participate in the historic Women’s March, and recognized that our voices aren’t optional; they are mandatory. Four years ago, we knew that if we had any hope of defeating the forces of white supremacy that had just infiltrated 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, we would have to speak up en masse, and that we would have to transform our collective grief and rage into focused action. At the time, we had no idea of the horrors that awaited us. We did not imagine that…
Donald Trump has betrayed America. Through his rejection of science, his demonization of renowned public health experts, and his refusal to model and message behaviors known to reduce the spread of COVID-19, the president has thoroughly abdicated his responsibility, leaving Americans sick, vulnerable, and hung out to die.
In response to this devastating leadership vacuum, Americans recently took matters into their own hands by showing up to vote. Rejecting Trump’s sustained rampage of chaos, carnage, and corruption, voters elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, two leaders who have vowed to protect and prioritize Americans’ health and safety. …
Last week, just days after protesters, some carrying guns and signs emblazoned with Nazi symbols, flocked to Michigan’s Capitol to oppose Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s COVID-19 stay at home orders, Michigan State Senator, Dale Zorn (R-Ida) wore a face mask on the Senate floor that appeared to depict the Confederate flag. When asked about his face covering, Mr. Zorn bizarrely claimed that his wife, who made the mask, told him that it actually resembled the Tennessee or Kentucky state flag. Despite this “clarification” Mr. Zorn clearly knew in advance that his mask could be offensive, telling WLNS, “I told my wife…
That was not a trial. It was a travesty. It was a treacherous farce, a flagrant cover-up that celebrated corruption and insulted the intelligence of all human beings capable of rational thought.
Fidget-spinning lawmakers, some of whom could not even be bothered to remain in the Senate chamber to listen to oral arguments in one of the most consequential debates of our time, insisted that there was nothing to see. The promise of our republic currently lies in shambles due to the insatiable power-hunger of judiciary stacking, deregulation loving, tax breaking, white supremacist winking Trumpian legislators (formerly known as Republicans)…
Truth is hard and freedom is exhausting. How much easier it is for an almighty ruler to inundate the masses with propaganda, to numb hearts and minds so thoroughly that no person need ever be troubled to think for him or herself again. A dictator saves us from the tortured angst of conflict, and diverts us from the stifled but always audible cries of conscience.
A demagogue offers cheap salvation through the fabrication of an alternate landscape, painting over the canvas of truth so completely that the perception of reality is obliterated. All one need do is submit one’s soul…
Top Ten Reasons Why I Can’t Stand Top Ten Lists
- Top ten lists impose an artificial hierarchy to subjects that may not naturally lend themselves to prioritization. Why must all things in life be ranked?
- Top ten lists demand blind adherence to an immutable structure that is inherently random.
- Top ten lists are unnecessarily exclusive, particularly when considering art, music or other creative pursuits. If I like eleven songs, I should not have to feel obligated to cut one from my list of favorites simply to suit the needs of an arbitrary, socially determined construct (see #2).
- Top ten lists focus unnecessarily on outliers. I am far more interested in…
As anyone who knows me is well aware, I have been advocating for impeachment for a very long time. Yet, tonight I feel sick. Yes, of course I am grateful that the House did the right thing by impeaching Trump on both articles that were drafted. But this brings me no joy. I am disgusted that so many of my fellow Americans voted for this monstrous bigot in the first place, horrified that a man who thrives on cruelty, deception, and grotesque subversion of justice was ever allowed to achieve the position of power that he still wields.
I am…
The Homestead detention facility may lock up innocent immigrant kids once again. It’s unconscionable.
I will be forever haunted by the memory of the boys in orange baseball caps playing soccer in the sweltering sun. They shouted and laughed while passing the ball, seemingly making the most of an oppressively humid southern Florida afternoon. If I didn’t know any better, I might have thought this was a typical group of boys. But of course, that wasn’t the case. A heavily guarded, chain-link fence wrapped around the playing field, imprisoning the children.
The kids were locked away inside Homestead, a detention center for unaccompanied immigrant children, located in the outer suburbs of Miami. U.S. officials…
I know Michael Cohen.
I’ve never met him. I’ve never spoken to him. I am certain I’ve never been in the same room with him. I cannot fathom the gilded, chaotic universe he inhabited as Donald Trump’s “fixer,” nor can I relate to the grotesque wealth, greed, and brazen criminality of his former boss. I do not recognize the details of Michael Cohen’s lifestyle, yet, still, I know this man.
A proud husband and father, son of a Holocaust survivor, equal parts taciturn and kind, Michael is a familiar figure to me, a composite of all the good men I’ve…
This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alerted us that we should not eat romaine lettuce, the culprit in an E. coli outbreak that has sickened numerous people across the country. As of this writing, there are no known deaths associated with the outbreak and it is likely that the government agencies’ swift and effective messaging prevented scores of additional people from becoming ill.
Sadly, Americans have not responded with similar urgency to a far different public health emergency, one that kills nearly 100 people per day and injures over twice…
Sonya Lewis, MD, MPH
Physician, musician, mother, citizen of the world.
