If you are shocked or surprised — or if (god forbid) you literally don’t believe — that high school kids can be as brave, passionate, articulate and organized as the ones from Parkland, then maybe you haven’t spent that much time around teenagers. Maybe you’ve never taught a class in…

The scene: cyberspace The players: 1) an experienced, trained professional, and 2) someone who started two weeks ago. Perhaps you can guess which one is which. ME: You did this thing wrong. MANSPLAINER: Oh, very sorry. I’ll fix it. Thanks for the heads up.* [12 hours later] MANSPLAINER: I did…

(…and under mine. On parenthood, tattoos, and letting go.) — Twenty-two years ago right now, I was on the phone with my OBGYN trying to decide whether or not it was too early to go to the hospital. I was about 75% sure I was in labor, but it was my first child, so I wasn’t positive. The contractions weren’t…

If you called Rob Portman’s office over the last couple of weeks to express concerns about the confirmation of Betsy DeVos, you probably got an email from him today, like I did. …

Dear Senator Portman, When you delivered Sinclair Community College’s 2011 commencement address, you opened your remarks with a little joke about the assembled parents not having to pay tuition anymore. Perhaps you thought it was your delivery or poor acoustics that made the joke fall flat. Wrong, Senator. No one…

Not long into my second semester freshman comp class, we do a group exercise to identify credible websites. I provide links to about half a dozen sites about climate change, ranging from outright fakes and conspiracy theorists to unimpeachably reliable sources. …

I spent day one of the Trump presidency marching for women’s rights and then basking in the glow of it all on social media. My friends and I texted pictures of our favorite protest signs back and forth. We virtually high-fived on Twitter and Facebook. We marveled at the crowds…

Dear Mitch McConnell, Within minutes of the President’s announcement that Merrick Garland was his Supreme Court pick, you took to the Senate floor to point out that it’s the “Senate’s constitutional right to act as a check on a president and withhold its consent.” It may be your “right” to…

In a little over an hour, it will be 2016. I am just home from an old-school supper club dinner of prime rib and fried shrimp and iceberg salad and Jim Beam. (Heavenly.) My not-quite-grown children are out for the evening, and I am crossing my fingers that they are…