All I can think of is that viral video (I think it was tik tok) of the woman who went on a date and the guy wanted 100 tacos from taco bell. It was hilarious. Also, everyone must agree, she is lucky she lived through it. 

You sound like every progressive I ran with in college, including me. I voted but it was my Dad’s influence and I was not the norm. I voted progressive locally and one of my candidates ended up in the Senate years after I left the state, and I pretty much still liked his work. But the truth is? They (pols) don’t do…

I won’t single out today’s younger voters about not voting because this is TRADITION in the US. This is also the stage in their lives (for most) where they will be most on the left and when their thinking will be most transformative. I know, we all believe we will be different but surveys and lived experience have…

And the voting age had been dropped to 18. While many voted? Many did not. Nixon won, as I remember, and many young people were drafted for years after that. 

Sure. But that’s not going to happen. Most everyone votes their self interest, especially as they age. And if a group of people aren’t voting? I don’t know, it skews the whole conversation away from what they care about, and then their issues are not addressed. It’s a vicious cycle and it’s been happening forever in…

It was true when I was young, too. And I’m half a dinosaur. As a group, we USians generally get involved in politics later in life, when we are more conservative. And before someone writes “Not me, I’m more progressive as I age,” I mean? You might be, but I’m sure your friends and family tell you you’re a unicorn…

Didn’t Biden save his candidacy because of older AA voters in South Carolina’s primary? 

I think she’s lying. I know people from high school who are on Facebook saying, “I used to be a democrat, but not now no more because (insert bullshit reason here).” But I knew them in high school and they were all about the GOP. I love posting, “You were GOP supporting in HS when you weren’t even old enough to vote,…

I mean 2016 may have been all the marbles because the supreme court changed, probably for my lifetime. But if progressives really key in on turnout, it would make a difference. GOP turns out their people, using that wonderful juice of racism, sexism, and fear, fear, fear. Historically progressives? Not so much. And…

A friend of mine was attending a private school for her PhD. She took out loans. The school shut down with no notice. She doesn’t have her degree yet and scrambled to find another school that would take her credits, etc. But she still owed that money. Hoping this settlement also helps her. 

You are wise, Ijustcan’twiththis

Your post kind of reminds me of my friend who is always telling me to make my own mayonaise. There’s an implied “for me” after “isn’t that difficult”. For many of us making our own cream cheese is yet another bridge we just will never cross. I’m sure it’s delicious, though. My friend’s homemade mayo is also wonderful.…

Damn, my price limit on gifts for people I don’t know well enough to buy a gift for is $6,000, so that little house is out. 

Uh, I didn’t think you are white, rich or “female”. I said you tipped your hand. I still say that. Female is always a red flag when referring to a woman. Always. The white and rich just fill in a little more world view for me.

You really tipped your hand at “white, female, and rich.”

Her book did not (though) play a part in his incarceration. He was released before her book was published. And she never named him. No excuses for him being in jail when innocent because of her testimony, that is tragic. But the book did not play a role. I personally (were I her) would be paying him some money just…

This isn’t legal, it’s moral and ethical. Everyone makes the choices they can live with. And, yes, I’m good with that. I can’t make Alice Sebold do shit, but I know what I’d do in her shoes.

Why not both? It could take years to get money from the state. She could give him the Lucky profits (which are probably decent—sold a million copies so I’m guessing $800K or something) and his life could improve today. He could still pursue settlement from the state.

I lived in Middletown RI. 

Two things: I agree with everything this essay says. Sebold was clearly traumatized as hell by this rape AND complicit with a racist system that offered her a black man (any black man) to make her feel safer and vindicated. And she needs to own that. She was actually pretty open about her uncertainty in the book, the…