My good friend and partner, Jamil, wrote a piece for The Hartford Times called Don’t Look Away. It’s about how the horror of Sandy Hook was followed by a long period of numbness caused by exhaustion from the sheer number of preventable tragedies that happen in this country. Uvalde, however, has snapped him out of…
What are the potential consequences of wearing masks a little bit longer than is absolutely necessary? What are the potential consequences of wearing masks for a little less time than is absolutely necessary?
The embedded Tweet is from one of my state’s Senators, Richard Blumenthal. He used to be our state’s Attorney General. He made his name and career fighting against price gauging, rogue polluters, unfair labor practices, corruption, and things like that. Maybe he thinks that’s what he’s doing with this legislation. He would be wrong, but…
There’s this common occurrence where headlines have nothing whatsoever to do with the articles that they top. I’m fascinated by it. There are many ways to write badly but having a severely misleading title should be number one. Normally it is the case where the editor puts their own title on something, often without the…
Connecticut (or at least its Governor) is looking at ending the school mask mandate at the end of February. Without putting too fine a point on it, that would be the stupidest possible decision the state could make regarding the pandemic. (One caveat, if there are a bunch of recent studies showing that mask wearing…
A few days ago, someone on Twitter posted a question. They asked if putting Donald Trump in prison would help begin the healing process for our country. I don’t know why, but I decided to answer the question and said, “No. It will just fire up his base.” (Don’t worry, I’ve learned my lesson. I…
Sorry about the clickbait-y headline. This piece actually has almost nothing to do with the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. It’s just that the commentary surrounding MLK is illustrative of a problem that needs attention. Before getting into it, as a sort of introduction, I will answer the headline’s question. Yes, I knew that…
Climate change is a difficult problem. I almost said intractable, but I’m an optimist. So, difficult will do. One of the reasons it’s so difficult is because of the way people talk about it and write about it. The messaging that surrounds it. And I’m not talking about all the misinformation and outright lies that…
As they have bee for pretty much everyone, the last couple of years have been difficult. Even before the pandemic began, 2020 saw one of my dreams become a nightmare. I’d always imagined myself as a teacher, but when I was put in charge of a classroom for the first time, I realized that I…
2021 was something. It just started like three weeks ago, but tonight is the last night. That was different. It’s customary to end the year with a little retrospective and far be it from me to break with customs, so here goes. The main lesson from 2021 is pandemic related, of course. We learned just…
