If my former newsrooms were people I would be attending many funerals. 2,500 newspapers in the United States have closed since 2005. The country will lose one-third of its newspapers by 2025.
Shifting gears: Teaching my autistic daughter to drive
Ican tell you the day I discovered freedom because I remember every intoxicating detail of the moment I drove alone for the first time after getting my driver’s license. Now, in what seems like a single heartbeat of time, my daughter is learning to drive.
I Raised My Child in a Shopping Mall
Please enjoy this essay on my Medium blog, Woman of a Certain Rage.
Support Alabama bill to increase the period when a sexual abuse survivor can sue
This originally appeared on al.com Feb. 18, 2022 If you have been, or are, experiencing sexual assault, contact Rainn or Darkness to Light for help. Alabama is actively participating in…
With better gun laws, fewer people die.
A brain teaser book I pull out at small gatherings has a question that asks, “If you could invent something that would be good for humanity overall, but also kill…
On the other side of the tornado: 10 years later, we are still broken and also on the mend
Please enjoy this essay on my blog, Woman of a Certain Rage.
My adult daughter was diagnosed with autism. It changed everything.
Please enjoy this essay on my Medium blog, Woman of a Certain Rage.
A message for Lee County from a Tuscaloosa survivor: You will be brave after the storm
This originally appeared March 6, 2019 on al.com Lee County, I will tell you what I wrote in the diary I keep for my daughter. I have kept it since…
The Alabama Mothers We Lost in 2018
The first time I held my daughter, hours after she was born, I was getting blood transfusions. If anyone wants to know what it feels like to bleed to death,…
Champion Tree deeply rooted in winning tradition
This originally appeared Jan. 7, 2019 on al.com as the University of Alabama headed to the National Championship playoff in football. There is a tree in Tuscaloosa that few people…
What it’s like to lose a loved one to gun violence
This article was originally posted on October 2, 2017 on al.com. I peered over my grandfather’s casket, trying desperately to see – and wanting not to see – where the…
What’s it like to graduate at 75? Ask my dad.
This article was originally posted on May 6, 2017 on al.com. Let me put this in perspective for you. When my dad started classes at The University of Alabama in…
After six years, it’s still hard to feel normal today
This article was originally posted on April 28, 2017 on al.com. Those of us who feel normal, don’t today. Those of us who go about our business with ease any…
Do better Alabama: It’s time to operate in the sunshine and not in the shadows.
This article was published in March 19, 2016 on Medium.com as well as other Alabama publications. I was a 20-year-old cub reporter at The Birmingham News, but I was prepared.…
Why having a baby almost killed me: My postpartum nightmare
This article was originally posted on November 20, 2017 on al.com. Let me tell you about the time my mind turned on itself and my brain stopped working. My daughter…
Gov. Ivey has betrayed all women of Alabama
A lot has been written nationally and locally about Alabama Governor Kay Ivey’s reaction to the Roy Moore allegations when she said she would vote for Moore despite multiple women…
Here’s to you, YouTube
This article was originally published on December 15, 2015 on Quill, a magazine by the Society of Professional Journalists. Educators use YouTube for education videos (think Kahn Academy), and media…
EPIC Success Story: How one radical idea in education became a long-term success story.
This originally appeared in Birmingham magazine and on al.com. Even then, we knew it was special. It was January 1980 and our new school was about to open. My second…
Dear friends in Oklahoma: Hope will find you
This article was originally posted on May 22, 2013 on The Christian Science Monitor. To the Oklahoma community of Moore. In Tuscaloosa, Ala., our hearts are breaking for you. We…