Category: Violence
Shootings and Samaritans
[Originally written for the ESN blog. Mainly recycled material.] I found out about the Newtown shooting while working in a pediatric clinic. In between seeing children with sore throats and rashes and sniffles, I would hover over the computer and read more about other children torn apart by gunfire. I...
Cheap Justice, Cheap Grace
[Originally written for the ESN blog.] In watching people die, I have come to better appreciate how much meaning people attach to a body and how death has a way of revealing our most elemental beliefs about what remains. I have talked to patients in their final moments, have shoved...
Guns, Children, and Suits: that which does not belong
I would rather talk about guns and children than wear a suit. I do not like suits. Whenever I have to dress in anything fancier than casual, I become nervous because I know I am dressing for someone else’s eye. It sounds childish because it is, as an emotionally traumatic...
Snowflakes, Shootings, and Sex Offenders
Last year, Parenting Magazine gave our small city of Wilmington, Delaware a rating as the Number 1 worst place to raise your children: A short drive from South Philly and Camden and midway between New York and Washington, Wilmington managed to snag the number one spot on our list for...
Never Normal
I got up before the alarm yesterday even though my sleep was fitful and restless. Though it was hard for me to know for sure, I was fairly certain that a series of gunshots had woken me up in the middle of the night, and that what had followed was...
Search Me, oh God of Angel Armies
I was shocked to see a fresh layer of snow on the car. Already struggling with the bitingly cold temperature and running a few minutes late, I held an apple between my teeth and stepped out my front door. The street lay quiet and clean in the snow, and...