Opinion
92 results
Page 7
Why I joined a Pride march with the church I avoided for almost 20 years
Small-town Pride
As an atheist and a divorced woman who supports gender justice, Alaina Johns definitely doesn’t belong in the church that raised her. But when the church’s more inclusive community members planned a Pride protest, she wanted to be there.
Editorials
6 minute read
On Independence Day 2022, is our democracy failing? Not if we listen to our children.
We have to grow up. So does our country.
SaraKay Smullens knows a thing or two about adolescence: she’s a social worker, a family therapist, and a mother. Things in the US seem pretty bleak, but she argues that this is our adolescence, and we can still seize a bright future.
Essays
6 minute read
When home leaves you: a Father’s Day foray into holding on and letting go
Packing up my parents’ house
When Anndee Hochman’s parents moved to the Philly suburbs in 1965, it was a compromise. Almost 60 years later, the house holds a departed father’s heart. It’s time to say goodbye again.
Essays
5 minute read
Losing your sight means adaptation, in life as well as music. I seize the rhythm.
A drummer’s Pride and joy
Delight is something writer and musician Danie Ocean wants more of, and that means picking up a new instrument. It’s a career move, but also a move for Black, queer, blind, nonbinary joy.
Essays
2 minute read
Children on the edge: a fourth-grade poetry teacher mourns Uvalde
They were fourth graders.
Anndee Hochman is a parent. She remembers what a horrible day for schoolkids used to mean: sniffles, the dentist’s chair, lima beans for dinner. Today, she teaches fourth graders. The fourth graders who are still alive.
Essays
6 minute read
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My comedy career was taking off, but so was my anxiety. Here’s how I learned to handle it.
Losing sleep over laughs
Christina Anthony thought she was good at coping with stress, until she discovered she wanted to be a stand-up comic.
Essays
5 minute read
I just saved someone’s life. It’s easy if you know how.
A crisis at the kids’ table
The world seems chaotic and hopeless, especially over the last two years. It’s easy to feel powerless in the wake of so much grief, but Roz Warren discovered that being ready to save a life really matters in the moment.
Essays
5 minute read
A Pulitzer for Philly playwright James Ijames spotlights our arts funding crisis
Mayor Kenney’s plan for the arts
Another year, another attempt to gut city support for the arts in Philly. As one of our own artists wins a Pulitzer, a major budget cut seems like an especially bad plan. Alaina Johns considers.
Editorials
5 minute read
If the end of mask mandates means a win for freedom, who is that freedom for?
The real argument
As new rulings and lawsuits about mask mandates in Philly and throughout the country roll in this week, Alaina Johns notes what mask mandate arguments are really about: debating accessibility.
Editorials
5 minute read
What happens when you’re living a story that someone else handed you?
Who’s really telling your story?
The painful end of a long friendship helped teach Michelle Chikaonda about the power of owning her own story—thanks also to a return to another favorite Hamilton song.
Essays
5 minute read