Blog

In 1971 I was thirteen, Richard Nixon was president, the voting age was lowered to eighteen, the Vietnam War raged on, and my history teacher started to sleep with my friend, also thirteen, with me as their beard. History was my favorite subject, but I hated this man and felt his behavior reflected the essential truth that the world was terrible. Adults had no interest in protecting me from harm. My father was still drinking with periodic binges that left marks on my mother and our family life in pieces. My eldest sister was attending Radcliffe, and the riots on college campuses were constant and terrifying. On May 4th, 1970, the Ohio National Guard fired into acrowd of students and killed four.

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This recent decision to eliminate Affirmative Action enrages me as a person who has taught for decades and understands the struggle to survive, never mind matriculate in a decent college, as well as any privileged white person can.

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I’ve quit many things, jobs, addictions, husbands, smoking, drugs, self-hatred, countries, and friends. I quit drinking at 26, left a well-paid job with New Jersey Bell telephone at twenty-three, divorced two husbands, quit several cities sometimes willingly, sometimes not; San Francisco, Hoboken, Brooklyn, New York, London, Dallas, and, recently, Chicago.

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