Originally published by One Green Planet. It’s tough, in the midst of a global pandemic, to find a cause for celebration this World Rainforest Day. And the smoke still lingers from the Amazonian fires that lit up the headlines nearly a year ago. From their ashes have crystallized the realization: There is no just or sustainable return to life Read More
This photo — two women’s hands, one black and one white, gently intertwined — has long been one of my favorites that I’ve treasured up to this moment, nearly 14 years after it was taken. I’ve cherished it because it represents love and unity between two women transcending racial divides, a sentiment that remains powerful even more than a decade after that romantic relationship ended. But I’ve also cherished it because it evokes a dark, formative memory that will forever haunt me — and, more importantly, remind me that true unity and solidarity can’t be sustained by a fleeting moment of anger or an empty hashtag.
This letter to the editor appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on May 6, 2020. As slaughterhouses shutter, meat cases may start looking quite different, with empty shelves and fewer options (May 5, “Region’s Grocery Stores Set Limits on Meat Sales”). Yet this impending “meat shortage” isn’t a crisis. It’s an open door for an important Read More
(Originally published on Medium) Four years ago this month, I penned a piece at The Dodo defending an organization to which I had dedicated nearly five years of my life managing animal rights campaigns: PETA. In it, I described a bill being considered by the Virginia legislature that would redefine an animal shelter’s purpose as existing to Read More
This might just be the most important thing I’ve ever written. More important than the journals that comforted me through the angst of my teenage years. More important than the 2,000-word late-night essays that got me through college and grad school. More important than the blogs, press releases, letters, and op-eds I’ve drafted over my Read More
This article was originally published by One Green Planet. (By Laura Lee Cascada) We all know and love Esther the Wonder Pig, the “micro pig” who fell into the arms of Canadian couple Derek Walter and Steve Jenkins and then kept growing, and growing, and growing. At 650 pounds, today she fills Facebook, Instagram, and Read More
(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
Originally published by Vox Poetica. You collided with my life like a train into a wayward car— except maybe I was the train, and you were the car. A 1980s muscle car, the red paint chipping away, the metal frothed with rust, but your bass still pumped; your rims shone. Your eyes oozed danger; your Read More
(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.
(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
(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
(Written November 18, 2003) You dance so gently on a stage of feathers And you tiptoe so softly, leaving only tiny wrinkles as footprints in time like a delicate ballerina in a crystal ball encased by silence, a frozen beauty of awe But the father of time can spin you around and rewind the clocks, Read More