(Reposted from The Every Animal Project.) It was 7 p.m. on a Thursday night in late winter. Instead of catching the tail end of happy hour with friends after a long day of editing scientific manuscripts, I was hunched over the kitchen floor with a soiled rag in one hand while the other groped around Read More
Category: Essays
Commentary on life, travel, and the world
HoneyColony: College Student vs. Flesh Bacteria (aka MRSA)
(This post originally appeared in HoneyColony’s Buzzworthy Blogs.)
In the summer after my first year of college, I was living it up, like many 19-year-olds do. I took an internship in Washington, D.C., where I could get lost in a maze of people and discover myself all at once. In those first few weeks, I made friends, navigated relationships, and even shared an almost magical moment with a 31-year-old painter who wooed me in a deep Spanish voice. It was a summer of whimsies—that is, until a flesh bacteria entered the picture.
TasteTablet: How Darkness Opened My Eyes to the World
(This article originally appeared on TasteTablet.) Take a moment to shut yourself in a windowless room in your home. Turn out the lights, and sit quietly. What do you see? What do you hear? Maybe there are shadows dancing in the strip of light under the door. Maybe you hear cars honking, toddlers giggling. Wherever Read More
The Dodo: Who Is the Real Enemy In the Euthanasia Battle?
(This post was written for The Dodo.) In Virginia’s General Assembly, a seemingly innocuous bill is poised to change the definition of an animal shelter under state law. If enacted, Senate Bill (S.B.) 1381 will require that private shelters operate for the basic purpose of “finding permanent adoptive homes” for animals. With nearly 3 million Read More
CounterPunch: What if Your Backyard Was a Slaughterhouse?
(The below comment piece originally appeared on CounterPunch and was then picked up by the Ecologist.) When I was growing up, a popular show on television ventured into the unique backyards of kids across the country who lived adjacent to theme parks, chocolate factories, and any other imaginable delight under the sun. I wanted more than Read More
One Green Planet: The Plight of the Hermit Crabs
(The below piece was written by me for One Green Planet, where it originally appeared.) Every year around this time, shops lining the beach city boardwalks fill their familiar wire cages with curious critters. Tourist children ogle as golf-ball sized crustaceans cling to the wires, and to one another, with hairy purplish legs and almost menacing, if not so Read More
The Net
In the days when computer screens were the size of microwaves, the internet was an outsider. It was a long-distance friend we called up for advice, disentangled from the center of our struggle. It was an encyclopedia, digitized and condensed into a memory chip. It was anonymity, separated from us by a glass screen. Things Read More
Why I Donned a Lettuce Bikini During the Polar Vortex
This month, temperatures plunged to record-breaking low levels in Virginia. During our 18-degree weather in the region’s “polar vortex” I joined a colleague of mine in a lettuce bikini to hand out free veggie burgers downtown in Norfolk. The Virginian-Pilot was nice enough to send out a shivering reporter to cover our adventure, although he did Read More
The Green Movement of the 21st Century
(An article for my college newspaper, the Randolph-Macon Yellow Jacket, written in 2007) As a species, humans have been expanding and industrializing for decades, but not until the mid-1900s did we stop to look back at the consequences of our actions. With the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring concerning the harmful effects of pesticides, the environmental movement Read More
A Fight for Clean Water
(Featured in HoneyColony‘s Buzzworthy Blogs here.) I’ve always been enthralled by water. Standing beneath a curtain of water cascading down a mountainside on a chilly morning is among the most invigorating experiences I’ve ever had. There is something magical about the way the water perpetually flows off a cliff, so fresh and crisp, before it Read More
Sentience and Speciesism
(An article written for my college newspaper, the Randolph-Macon Yellow Jacket, in 2009) Most people believe that animals can feel pleasure and pain. We shower our dogs and cats with love, affection, and even birthday gifts, eager for a tail wag or sloppy kisses in return. Conversely, we’re overcome with guilt when our busy feet happen Read More
Virginia Uranium’s money won’t trump the value of our voices
(Posted in the Sierra Club’s newsletter, the Old Dominion Sierran, in fall 2013.) Earlier this month, reports revealed that Virginia Uranium, Inc., the company responsible for unrelenting efforts to lift our state’s 30-year ban on uranium mining, spent $572,607 lobbying Virginia officials last year – the most of any group in Virginia, and as much as Read More