The political is personal: week 6 of the COVID-19 social isolation, 2020, random day’s log
Yesterday between other political, domestic, family, and minimal self-care tasks* I was on two really good zoom calls. One was essentially about the importance of data-driven political organizing and education and the critical youth vote and one was about pretty much the same thing, and how to help good candidates get their message out and […]
Susan Sheu – candidate for LACDP CC AD 50
Hi all – Here is my candidate bio for the March 3, 2020, election for the Los Angeles County Democratic Party Central Committee, to represent the Democratic voters in my assembly district – which consists of the communities of Agoura Hills, Topanga, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Bel Air, Santa Monica, parts of West LA, Beverly […]
Where is love’s home, exactly?
Here is a funny juxtaposition I saw on my recent visit to Philadelphia. On the left is a sign that I see elsewhere in America, including in my area of California. It says “hate has no home here” and is translated into several languages, with the American flag design in the shape of a heart. […]
Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win by Luke Harding
Here is a review I wrote of Luke Harding’s new book Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win, on the role Russia played in the United States presidential election of 2016 as well as the financial ties between Russia’s wealthiest citizens and our current president. It appeared earlier this month […]
Here is the film list you need to escape and yet understand this damned hellscape
I’ve been working on some things that are not ready for prime time yet and also trying to get back into my life as a person who can sit still long enough to watch a movie that doesn’t just have a lot of magic swords in it. Not that there’s anything wrong with those movies. […]
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
If you read this blog (hello, my five or ten friends and other people who occasionally google me!), you will see that the spaces between posts have grown and grown over the last few years. This coincides with the birth of my third child and my attempt to finish a masters degree in writing. Oh, […]
A Moment Changes Everything
I had the privilege of being in the Spark Off Rose storytelling show again last month, telling a story on the theme “A Moment Changes Everything.” Spark Off Rose is one of my favorite shows because of the care the producers take in choosing themes and stories and shaping them with writers. The monthly show […]
Unorthodox review. Or, thank g-d for Deborah Feldman’s voice.
Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman My rating: 5 of 5 stars I wish I could give this book more stars. It’s a very unusual memoir, compelling not just because of the subject matter — the lifelong process of losing faith in the closed religious community the author was raised […]
Finding Grateful
I feel a very unusual sensation — if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude. -Benjamin Disraeli When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around. -Willie Nelson According to some of my Facebook friends, November is an unofficial month of gratitude, where each day a participating person is supposed […]
A brief history of racism
Last week, the Associated Press and other news outlets reported that racial attitudes have gotten worse, not better, since the United States elected its first African American president four years ago in 2008. Those who admitted to having anti-African American feelings rose from 48% in 2008 to 51% in 2012. If the researchers included implicit […]
