Until a judge decided to commit him — My adult son has been in jail for six months for a misdemeanor vandalism charge (less than $400). One reason the stay is so long is that he entered the facility in a psychotic state, refused medication, and was left untreated for months, despite my emails and phone calls to…

This tale of the American South in the Civil War era is uplifting — When my book group selected the second book in a row that was set in the American South during the slavery era, I worried that it was going to be a bleak read. But the protagonist in Margaret Walker’s Jubilee — an enslaved Black woman named Vyry — is such…

America punishes people for being ill — The week before my son was arrested for vandalism under $400 (a misdemeanor), I had called the police twice asking them to do a welfare check at his apartment and take him to the hospital if he needed to go. Even though it really shouldn’t be their job, the police…

My mother in law and I had issues… — My mother-in-law died this week. We had a difficult relationship. When I married her youngest child at age 25, my own mother had already died. I very much wanted Irene to be my new mom, and worked on that project for at least 15 years. But it never happened. I…

Dedicated to the patriarchal a**hats on the male Supremacist Court — In honor of the anti-woman decision coming down from the fraudulently-packed male Supremacist Court, what follows here are all the stories we’ve published about abortion in Fourth Wave. If you’ve seen one elsewhere that you like, please drop a link in the comments. Now is the time to gather around…

All those who oppose gun control must go — When I was young my best friend married an Englishman and moved to Brighton. Visiting her there and noting the difference between our two countries was eye opening. I remember coming home after a stay and vowing to support gun control and universal healthcare here in the U.S. Both are…

And Mrs. Kavanaugh, Mrs. Gorsuch, and maybe even Mrs. Thomas… —

Book review: ‘The Right to Sex’ by Amia Srinivasan — Amia Srinivasan blows my mind from the very first sentence in the preface of her 2021 book, The Right to Sex. I experience life in 2022 as a kind of groping in the dark, a thrashing from side to side amid an inescapable nightmare, a probably idiotic push to continue…

Please god, medicate me against my will — There’s a big problem with the disability rights activists who want to block the state from medicating mentally ill people against their will. Those activists aren’t protecting the people who are scruffy and beat up and screaming on street corners. They’re protecting their disease. I’m the mother of an adult…