Outside of Mamaroneck High School, it is time for a reckoning.
Friday, July 3rd, 2020. I’m standing in front of my high school, a place so familiar and at times nostalgic, and I can’t believe my eyes. The sight is uncanny: a palette of pitched tents next to Senior Lot where recent alumni and parents have been occupying in protest, day and night, for the past week. Amidst threats by the administration that police would remove them from campus, they insisted that they are not moving.
First, I want to extend empathy to all who are grieving right now. This letter may not be for you at this time.
Larchmont is where I call home. I write this letter to our community — I write this letter to you.
Amidst my feelings of fear and anxiety, I can say that this crisis has made me feel incredibly lucky. I believe many of you can relate to that sense of gratitude. Self-isolation allows us to be more present, and also to reflect. Upon doing that reflection, I have been unable to ignore just how profound my privilege is. My white privilege. My class privilege. Our privilege. It’s glaring at me with every grocery shopping trip to the fully stocked DeCicco’s and during my daily strolls to Manor Park. I forget that people are dying, every day, in record numbers, from a pandemic. These privileges are not something we should judge or punish ourselves for, but rather to simply acknowledge as fact. We read The New York Times, we see the news — we know how especially deadly and disastrous this virus is to Black and Latinx communities, Native American communities, poor communities, essential workers, those incarcerated and those in ICE detention. Alongside these injustices, we are witnessing a growing anti-Asian sentiment. Right now, we clearly recognize how racialized the U.S. …
Rivers of Hades; Rivers of Defeatism: Realizing the Entanglement of My Climate Anxiety and Addiction
I’m not a smoker. At least, I like to think I’m not. But if I’m being honest, with myself or otherwise, my cigarette smoking has begun to spiral out of control. I recently went on a 3 month long backpacking trip, and it was truly an incredible experience during which I made lifelong friends that I will cherish forever. I can imagine how perfect it all looked from Instagram. But the whole time I was falling deeper and deeper into a nasty habit. It’s honestly embarrassing for me to think back on. Like how I could not wait to smoke while on a plane to Portugal with a layover in London. I lit a cigarette the very second I stepped off that plane. Immediately, 3 airport employees came running up to me screaming in their English accents “Are you shtupid?! You must be a fucking idiot! There’s jet fuel all around you!”. Oops, I guess, I didn’t realize this painfully obvious danger of smoking on the runway. …
