journo | screenwriter | editor | dev | child trafficking survivor | ex hospital admin | born on a Coen brothers set✏️@NYTimes @WashingtonPost @Eater @SaveurMag
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I’m on the front page of the New York Times sports section!!
I’m in a major US city and I can’t find anywhere to buy a print copy of my New York Times article 😭 nytimes.com/2022/07/04/sport…
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No Child Left Behind was passed in 2001 and fundamentally changed the way US teachers are allowed to teach. There’s no time to help kids find books that spark their curiosity when you’ve got to train them for standardized tests to secure the school’s funding that pays your salary
My Roman Empire:
Illiteracy is so common that when someone online misunderstands something you said and gets angry at you for something you didn’t even say, there’s a very good chance thet they literally just can’t read.
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An art history professor told us she’d lock the door at the start of class and not accept any excuses if we were late to her final exam. I was hit by a Camaro as I was crossing the street on my way to class. I didn’t want to get failed so I ran away and bled all over my final
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When I was a teenager I was on a waitlist for a homeless shelter because they thought I was a lost cause after spending 4+yrs on the streets or in the woods. Wealthy kids whose parents dropped them off because they didn’t want a gay/pregnant kid anymore? They got beds immediately
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As a trafficking survivor, editors won’t let me report on human trafficking stories. As a result, I’m sitting on at least 3 big scoops that I can’t do anything with. One of these implicates what I’d consider the largest tech company in the world — and no, it’s not Amazon 👀
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My father is a builder. It’s difficult to get his attention in magnificent spaces because he’s lost in wonder. We were in a vintage carceral-themed McDonald’s. I asked him what it would cost to build it today. I’ll never forget his answer:
“We can’t, we don’t know how to do it”
ALT Cheeseburger seats in a McDonald’s from the 80s
ALT Creepy 80s McDonald’s dining room with a creepy apple tree with a face
ALT Paddy wagon carceral 80s McDonald’s hamburglar jail dining room
ALT Boy in hamburglar McDonald’s jail
My father-in-law is a builder. It is difficult to get his attention in a magnificent space because he is lost in wonder. We were in a cathedral together years ago and I asked him what it would cost to build it today. I will never forget his answer…
“We can’t, we don’t know how to do it.”
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My little sister was incarcerated at one of the prisons where they confiscated everyone’s laptops because of your posts. Can you please reach out to Washington DOC to ask them to reverse their decision? People are going to lose all their work and fail their classes
Bought a prison laptop on eBay. Thought it should be just some generic laptop with a clear shell, turns out it's actually a bit more than that.
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“I’m over coats and the drama of zipping them up” is absolutely iconic
ALT “I’m over coats and the drama of zipping them up” is iconic” - Joni, 11 — the cut
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I spent roughly half my childhood homeless in America, I’ve worked as a kidney transplant coordinator, and as a hospital admin. Our healthcare system literally lets people die. I’ve watched kidney patients die because of a lapse in their insurance when they were too sick to work
god knows the healthcare system is a mess but this just... isn't true? it's meme you picked up online
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As a kid who was trafficked by my dad, the right to go to the library unsupervised and read any book I wanted saved my life. Public libraries taught me that other lives and other worlds were possible
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Anti-trafficking laws are usually not written well. Example: My friend was fined and had to move out of her home in a city with a law that says 6 or more women living together is illegal. She was unable to find housing and was trafficked soon after thanks to an “anti-brothel” law
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I didn’t use drugs or alcohol when I was a homeless teenager. I was homeless because my mother kicked me out for being gay and my dad / trafficker stole my identity and ruined my credit so I couldn’t rent an apartment.
I didn’t need faith or recovery. I needed an apartment
The sobering truth of living on the streets. Yet, hope lies in faith and recovery. @Twolfrecovery @SalvationArmySV
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When I had food stamps, I’d cook a lavish feast at the beginning of the month with a library cookbook. It was one small moment of joy I looked forward to. I budgeted the rest of the month, mostly eating miso soup the other 30 days. Policing people’s food + aporophobia is so gross
When I worked in a butcher shop before grad school, the people who used EBT cards almost always bought the most expensive cuts of meat (like a tomahawk ribeye). It was a big eye-opener for me about government programs.
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I likely would not have been trafficked for so long by my dad if pediatricians had spoken with me directly and granted me the right to bodily autonomy and medical consent as a child
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My dad stole my identity and I had to pay his back taxes as a homeless teenager because the IRS didn’t care that he had forged my signature when I was in kindergarten. I’m not sure if being a 5 yr old CEO (on paper) is even possible in any other country besides the United States
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I don’t think most people understand the algorithmic disparity and racism of homeless shelters and resources. I didn’t know it until after I lived through it and later worked for the same network of shelters. @99piorg did a great investigative series 99percentinvisible.org/need/
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Just to clarify, as a huge nerd, I enjoy hacker discussion threads like @zephray_wenting’s and online forums about esoteric projects and problems. What I don’t enjoy is prisons and DOC leaders glomming on to any reason they can find to justify being stupid sadists
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This saguaro is likely older than the border itself. When it’s not the US government breaking laws, normally destruction of a saguaro in Arizona carries a class 4 felony, 25 years in prison, and massive fines
DHS bulldozed thousands of saguaros & other native cacti to build the border wall.
In an effort to deflect from severe public outcry, they transplanted a few and wrote a congratulatory press release calling themselves conservationists.
The fate of the transplanted saguaros:
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Excellent reporting as always from @szarlotka and @opencampusmedia. I really hope @zephray_wenting does something to help rectify the impact his tweets had on hundreds of people’s lives, careers, education, and housing prospects after incarceration opencampusmedia.org/2024/03/…
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When I was homeless as a teenager, I slept on the roof of the auditorium, outside my English class so I wouldn’t accidentally sleep in and be late at 7:20am. My “alarm clock” was all the kids arriving and gossiping down below me like I was the school’s a feral teenage gargoyle
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Yeah, I was raped by another girl while I was asleep in the shelter I had waited to stay at. So I left—Which then pushed me down on other waitlists for homeless services because it made my status “non-compliant” with my case plan. It was safer to take my chances sleeping outside
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Reminds me of the cop who beat me when I was sleeping outside a bookstore as a teenager. He asked if I was soliciting but I didn’t know what that meant. I thought he meant solicitor like a barrister so I said “No I’m not a British lawyer” He lunged at me but I jumped away and ran
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I’m so sorry. Hopefully that’s not a school policy. Can you email the dean’s office?
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Next month I’ll see my childhood therapist for the first time in 20 yrs. I’m alive thanks to her. When my mom demanded I stop going to therapy because she didn’t like my therapist’s feedback, I secretly paid her myself. Some kids save up for a car or college. I paid for therapy
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I mean, I’ve pitched editors who decide they’d rather have non-survivor white men like Nick Kristof write on the subject instead. There are a few journalists I trust to cover trafficking stories. Jessica Contrera, Anna Merlan, Michael Hobbes, Meg Conley are a few that I trust
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Do you feel like it was a good system for you both?
I ask because my parents did the opposite. I had to pay rent starting when I was 6 years old because my mom thought it would teach me “life skills” but really it just made me bad with money eternally afraid of landlords.
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I want to believe that Betsy DeVos and her pro charter school goons are not this diabolically smart, but an illiterate mass of voters is much easier to manipulate
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My little sister gave birth while incarcerated and because they kept transferring her, I couldn't find/reach her before she was forced her to adopt her baby out to a wealthy white couple in Bellevue
My friend gave birth in prison while shackled to the gurney. They let her hold the baby for 45 mins then took her newborn away. She was in there for a non violent offense and never got to see her child again. Her child was adopted out as infants are in high demand.
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PACIFIC NORTHWEST WRITERS: The lichens glistened with a foreboding mist. The rhythm of raindrops syncing with their footsteps. Would they reach the summit in time?
ACTUAL CHILDHOOD IN PNW: My neighbor with the garage sales was arrested last week for being a serial killer.
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American workaholism is why our health insurance system is inextricably tied to employment. You stop working, you die. Alternatively, you work yourself to death so you can earn yourself a proud capitalist martyr’s death.
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Do they want 75% of the US population in prison because that’s how you get 75% of the US population in prison
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I’m pretty sure my ex wife did this. She also routinely gave me food with ingredients she knew I was allergic to
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I just had a zoom meeting with an attorney friend about forced child labor on cocoa farms. Coco (my dog) thought we were talking about her and kept jumping up to add her legal expertise and insights to the meeting
ALT Fluffy dog
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As a fellow teacher I’m agreeing with her, especially because of my experiences with awful professors as a student
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*I did this because I couldn’t be late/absent too many times — otherwise, the truancy counselor would have taken legal action, my mom would have gotten in trouble, I would have gotten arrested as a runaway, and CPS would have removed and separated me and my younger siblings
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Having worked as a dogwalker for many Amazon executives, this is unfortunately not abnormal. It was extremely demoralizing when I realized I’d rather be an Amazon executive’s dog than a human making less than minimum wage in Seattle
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My friend who’s a human trafficking data scientist told me I should do a standup comedy routine about human trafficking and I’m seriously considering it because it might be the only way to get people to listen and successfully myth bust grifters
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Trash cans don’t say THANK YOU anymore
ALT Vintage 80s McDonald’s with a burger jail labeled paddy wagon and a trash can with thank you printed on the swinging piece
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I actually had to jump on top of the Camaro’s hood to avoid getting run over so I looked like I was in a Steve McQueen slapstick comedy, holding onto the hood of the car trying to get the driver’s attention because he’d been turning right and was looking left when I walked across
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If she’s open to it, I would love to donate to a fund for hiring a lawyer to sue the city/police for stealing her documents
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When the youth shelter was full one winter, a social worker suggested I should steal something and intentionally try to get arrested so I could sleep in jail. Even social workers see prison as a viable housing option
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Sexual assault while you are asleep in a homeless shelter is extremely common. After this happened to me in a youth shelter, I left to sleep in a safer place than the shelter — outside in the street, and later in an abandoned house with drag queens
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The thing about familial identity theft is that your parents create most of the answers to security questions for your identity. There’s very little protection for kids born to predatory parents, especially for financial crimes. I explained this to CPS once and they were like 🤷♀️
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Your artwork is beautiful. It reminds me of one of my favorite artists, Kim Tschang-yeul. I hope to be able to commission a painting someday
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I’m in the city where I was first homeless as a 10 yr old, to present at a conference for doctors on epigenetic damage from homelessness and homelessness as a comorbidity. It’s pretty surreal and I freaking hate this city
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The ER discharged me back to the street when I was a homeless teenager where I immediately got sick again. Years later when I worked as a hospital admin, I had to sit in meetings where hospital security and executives mocked homeless patients.
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I’m recovering from covid so I can’t stop coughing lol. But no, it’s a bigger company but I can’t actually say because I can’t risk being sued. I’m sorry
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omg 💀This makes me feel better about New York Magazine rejecting my personal essay about my dad stealing my identity when I was 5. I never gave a shoebox of money to the fake CIA. I’m not related to any Roosevelts — Just organized Sicilian-Irish crime bosses and Lutheran zealots
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My adoptive mom is dying too this month from complications after catching covid for the first time this year. Her transplant was healthy and her cancer was in remission. And now she’s going to die any day this month because we live in The United States of Death Machines
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It happens all the time to so many people because the housing crisis has only gotten worse
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I’m a child trafficking survivor who was trafficked by my dad until age 10 and again as a homeless teenager. I’ve worked in the anti-trafficking field since the 2000s and watched in horror as QAnon grifters + politicians have co-opted trafficking for their own benefit and profit
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Wow, you just blew my mind because there’s a convent about an hour north from where this happened!
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If you live in Washington, please tell legislators not to support HB 1937. Requiring doctors and nurses to report suspected trafficking will get people killed. My trafficker is a confidential police informant so calling the cops could put me in danger. I should make that decision
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My sister went to prison for defending herself against her trafficker who tried to kill her. She was pregnant while incarcerated and her child was taken away and given to a wealthy white couple in Bellevue (Seattle’s extremely wealthy suburb where Microsoft is). Hope this helps
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When I was homeless as a teenager, the emergency youth shelter was full one winter. A social worker suggested I should steal something and intentionally be arrested so I could sleep in jail. It made me wish I could have lived in a Dickensian workhouse. This is the era we live in
NEW: we don’t reflect enough on how severe the housing crisis is, and how it has completely broken the promise society made to young adults.
The situation is especially severe in the UK, where the last time house prices were this unaffordable was in ... 1876.
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When I lived in Taiwan, several friends asked me why Americans are afraid of doctors. I explained that we’re afraid of health insurance and medical debt. Taiwan’s healthcare system isn’t perfect, but it was beyond belief for people who live in a country with universal healthcare
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I submitted a piece to NYT about how surviving teen homelessness prepared me for cooking in a pandemic. It’s still looking for a home.
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I am begging other journalists to ask Thorn why they don’t hire trafficking survivors or if this has changed
*I can’t cover this story because editors don’t allow trafficking survivors to write about human trafficking issues
The Problems With Ashton Kutcher’s Anti-Child Sex Trafficking Organization Are Bigger Than Him dlvr.it/SwRDq3
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When I was a homeless teenager a cop kicked me awake as I slept one night outside Powell’s Books. He asked if I was soliciting. “I’m not a British lawyer,” I said, misunderstanding what he meant. He called me a slut and lunged at me. I couldn’t get arrested as a runaway so I ran.
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When I worked at an OB/Gyn clinic, several pregnancy surrogate patients shared that they were risking their own life as surrogates to pay off their own medical debt. At least one of the patients’ medical debt was from her own child’s birth.
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Wow, I was out working/interviewing chefs for an article I’m writing when my phone died. I did not see all these responses and am so appreciative to everyone who wants to read my memoir🥺💕For what it’s worth, I’m talking to a couple agents and I’m hoping to get a book deal soon!
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Absolutely. I once saw what was essentially an insurance company’s P&L spreadsheet analyzing the costs and potential profits for a set of patients + their diagnoses. I quit working in health “care” soon after that
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*Some* trolls are motivated to say awful, stupid things on social media so that strangers on the internet who take them seriously will get upset and insult them for free. In large part, that's why I'm always as kind as possible to trolls or ignore them entirely.
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I enjoyed a cup of coffee with someone I loved in a park each morning when I was homeless. Arguing that you have to be rich to enjoy spending time with someone you love is not the socialist hot take Twitter’s privilege police thinks it is. Being miserable is not class solidarity
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I blame @marvel for popularizing the idea of a benevolent billionaire superhero
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When I was being trafficked as a kid, I didn’t need to be saved. I needed to be listened to. I needed law enforcement to not make my trafficker a confidential police informant and foster parent. I needed housing so I wouldn’t be vulnerable to being trafficked again as a teenager
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I think that’s a sign that you’re supposed to marry the bartender after he invites you to his hometown for Christmas
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Gen Zers may never get to experience the chaotic cacophony of everyone’s personalized cell phone ring tones playing at the same time while you’re trapped at the DMV, forced to listen to tinny DJ mixes of 50 Cent + Corinne Bailey Rae + the Star Wars theme song simultaneously
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I wish all our voices were listened to more. Survivors are never voiceless; we’re just not listened to
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In case anyone is wondering if Portlandia is real, I once saw a therapist who suggested I buy homeopathic cocaine at Whole Foods to overcome trauma around my mother’s addictions
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I am frightened by the number of people who don’t understand that this is a copypasta joke
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Don’t do it. Cute recession ballet flats in my 20s are one of the reasons I have to get my feet electromagnetically hammered once a month by a podiatrist so I can walk
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There’s a woman who works at a Pacific Northwest co-op who throws bananas at her exes when they walk into the store to buy groceries. It’s a small town and she’s dated pretty much everyone under the age of 50. I don’t know how they stay in business and why she hasn’t been fired
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I’m hesitant to complain about the USDA’s FOIA-thwarting tactics because I don’t want anyone to copy them. I even had a USDA employee tell me to “just Google it” when I submitted a FOIA
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As a teenager I opted to sleep outdoors after I was raped in a homeless shelter. The housed public doesn’t understand how bad conditions are because the word “shelter” conjures lovely images—not the reality of sleeping on a concrete floor next to someone screaming from nightmares
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I've legit been wondering if I should start an etsy shop to make clothing for all the new Barbies for this exact reason!
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An OB/Gyn who looked like Gwyneth Paltrow once suggested I should get a breast reduction to lower my BMI. I was anorexic and my BMI was in the lower range but she just didn’t like the size of my breasts. I left crying. She left me so many voicemails I almost filed a grievance
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I also helped open a primary care clinic for trans patients so they could get healthcare in this horrible country, and I managed a clinic for migrant farm workers who came to us with deadly but easily preventable health conditions, and illnesses from being poisoned by pesticides
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I’m convinced that airport security agents never fly anywhere and don’t know that other airports have different protocols
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As someone who also teaches, I was agreeing with the original post. It breaks my heart when students have had experiences like this that make them feel like they need to share the most intimate details of their illness or a death when they need an extension
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The part that’s missing from this story is that most pregnant children have been raped or trafficked by a parent or caregiver. This child had at least one adult who cared enough to seek medical attention at all. Not all abused kids are so lucky
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When I was a homeless teenager, a Salvation Army-affiliated soup kitchen refused to let us have any food or allow us inside unless we agreed to join their Bible study or watch VeggieTales. For the uninitiated, VeggieTales is an animated show about a cucumber who roleplays Jesus
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I don’t know what health insurance @whstancil has, but it feels like he must live in a different version of America than the rest of us
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It’s certainly a strong correlation. I’m just very jaded because I was in high school when NCLB passed and watched the curriculum change in real time, and I taught in public schools afterward. Books literally saved my life so I hate that illiteracy is even an issue in the US
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Does Gen Z know that “A-list” movie stars never used to take acting gigs in weird Capital One and AMC commercials because they didn’t need to?
ALT Nicole Kidman AMC commercial looking fearful??
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When I was homeless as a teenager, I relied on coffee shops for hot water to make instant soup in the winter. I was also lucky enough to pass as a college student and used the student union’s microwave if the campus was open
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Even the “pay-to-stay” third places are disappearing. A Starbucks manager once chased after me to tell me I couldn’t buy coffee for the man sitting outside. I told her that I used to be homeless on this same street and I couldn’t follow that rule
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My trafficker is an American who, to my knowledge, still traffics people along the US-Mexico border (mostly in Arizona). But because he’s a white US citizen I don’t think Republicans like Senator Britt are very interested in this story
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and the number of times white cishet men editors have told me I can’t cover human trafficking stories because I’d be biased
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I was a homeless teenager in Seattle in the early 2000’s. I get so angry everytime I see these two public art sculptures that a living, breathing homeless human might otherwise sleep on. One of the sculptures is titled Homeless Jesus.
Sleeping on concrete is very cold. And rats.
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The former mayor of Bend, Oregon is homeless
bendbulletin.com/localstate/…
ALT “Craig Coyner, 75, who served as the mayor of Bend in the 1980s and has been staying at the shelter for a few months, said: ‘People are going to die without a place like this.’”
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