Category: Social Media

Fun Times With No Power During #HurricaneFlorence

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This post is merely composed of the random ways I’ve managed to be both totally non-productive and happily occupied during the largest Hurricane in NC history.

First, I had way too much fun making this little video, “Expectation Vs. Reality.” President Obama came out of winter hibernation finally to deliver a truly presidential speech, wherein he called out Donald Trump by name, and listed all the abnormal ways he’s defiling and disrespecting the office of the presidency right now. Then, I had the misfortune of catching Trump’s embarrassingly awful speech for the Congressional medal of honor ceremony. Such a stark contrast between Trump and… well, literally any President in my lifetime. As he bumbled up to the podium with Hail to the Chief playing, I couldn’t help but hear Julius Fučík’s Entrance of the Gladiators (often referred to as “The Circus Song.”) So I thought, I can make that happen. 😉  Continue reading →

Here Trump, I Fixed Your Video For You (With Snarky Narration By Yours Truly)

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If you’re not on Twitter, you might not know that #DonTheCon has been releasing White House video ‘shorts,’ like this one, and this one, for just a couple of examples. Yes, folks, this is what the current President of the United States calls “speaking directly to the American people.” I call it propaganda. Ta-may-toe, ta-mah-toe, you know.  Continue reading →

Man Says “I’m Not a Bigot” In Response To Viral Video: Watch & Decide For Yourself

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Today in viral video land, we have a perfect, prime example showcasing the insidious commingling of racism & white privilege.

The story is basically that a white man (Whitman) followed a black man (Lovett) to his home after a minor traffic dispute, and stopped in front of Lovett’s driveway after Lovett pulled in. Lovett got out of his car, calmly approached Whitman, and asked if there was a reason why he Whitman had followed him to his house. Whitman responded, “I just want to let you know what a n—– you are.” Continue reading →

Enemy Of The People

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What Jarrod Ramos, the Capital Gazette shooter, revealed in his Twitter account

hile winding down after a Thursday I thought would never end, I caught the initial news reports releasing the name of the individual who’d allegedly gunned down and killed five people working at the Capital Gazette newspaper earlier that day. My curiosity took over and I went looking online for traces of this monster. I did a quick search on Facebook to see if his name came up. Nothing. But Twitter was a different story.

Jarrod W. Ramos’ Twitter account was listed under his name, exactly as it was reported on the news: Jarrod W. Ramos, but the Twitter handle was @EricHartleyFrnd. Continue reading →

One Year Under A Trump Presidency

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One year ago last night in the mountains of NC, on a mini vacation we’d been hoping to make for years, my husband and I sat at our cozy dinner, in silence. Above the small, roaring fireplace next to our table was a big screen TV, monitoring the 2016 election results as they rolled in. State after state turned red and projected Donald Trump as the potential winner. I looked around, contemplating asking for another table, but TVs were everywhere, and they were all broadcasting the same thing. Five years of anticipation and planning for our 3rd, private, without kids getaway in 17 years of marriage had led up to this moment, and I felt disgusted. Continue reading →

Rules For Halloween

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Another Halloween has come and gone, leaving us almost within reach of the big feasting holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas, but still with enough left over trick-or-treating candy to bridge the gap. For the past couple of years (aside from enjoying the pieces nobody wants) I’ve done some post-Halloween reflecting. It is, after all, a great opportunity to practice developing social skills in real life, and I’ve enjoyed watching my own three kids evolve over the years. They’ve gone from shy, scared, young tots too afraid to utter “trick-or-treat” to confident young people who prefer handing out candy over receiving it, for the most part.  Continue reading →

“Me Too” – Experiencing Sexual Harassment And Assault

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It started out innocently enough. I didn’t drink a lick of alcohol in high school, or even during my first attempt at college. Every night my suitemates chided me for not joining them at The Mill, an historic landmark where everyone in our small college town partied. I had no good reason, aside from my sporadic social anxiety. That, and I just didn’t want to drink.

Later that winter, there were circumstances that led to my dropping out of college. Dealing with emotional baggage, I ended up sleeping at my parents’ house and needing to make some Continue reading →

She’s A Republican And I Support Her, Because This Was Never About Politics

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Republished at HuffPost

Ana Navarro is a Republican strategist. Though she’s no stranger to political commentary on the news, she’s one of a a few handfuls of bold voices in the media who are willing to speak truth to power right now, regardless of potential consequences. Navarro voicing her dislike of Trump is nothing new, but the clip of her talking with Wolf Blitzer, where she accurately describes Trump and his Twitter Tantrums, was exactly what everyone in America was thinking that day when Trump’s latest Twitter diversion pulled attention from the actual newsworthy events of the day.

On June 29th we should’ve been Continue reading →

Misogyny: Do Americans Really Hate Women?

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About two years ago, Target stores decided to make a radical, positive change in the way they marketed their toys, home, and entertainment departments. A news release announced they were “ditching” gender labels. They were going to accomplish this by doing away with gender suggestions on signs, as those seemed to be antiquated relics in a society that is ever growing upwards in its quest to understand, empathize with, and embrace the non-binary construct of gender. Continue reading →

The Comments Section

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Republished at The Huffington Post

I’m a blogger and op-ed writer. I write essay-style, non-fiction pieces pulled from my every day life experiences and opinions. (Note that I used the words blogger and op-ed writer, not journalist, not novelist, not poet laureate.) I write opposite the editorial pages. And I write on polarizing topics like LGBTQ+ issues, gender, racism, and white privilege. You can find my work here on Huffington Post, here on Scary Mommy, and also here where someone wrote about me, here on The Good Men Project, here at Red Tricycle, and here with the NBC Today Parenting Team, to name a few.

Sometimes at night, I’ll be in bed, scrolling through my social media feeds when out of nowhere I see my own words in syndication, like this: 259

This was a piece I originally Continue reading →