GUEST POST by MICHAEL STEINMAN Imagine you’ve had a visible medical scare: a dermatologist has carved a chunk out of your forehead,...
Say These Five Words
GUEST POST by MICHAEL STEINMAN Imagine you’ve had a visible medical scare: a dermatologist has carved a chunk out of your forehead, or perhaps you are using crutches. But you have a lunch date with your best friend, and as [...]
Pat Taub
Community Organizing10
Become A Poverty Abolitionist
GUEST POST by ELIZABETH LEONARD Did you know that at present approximately 140 million (!!) Americans live in poverty or one $400 crisis away from slipping into the financial abyss? In Waterville, Maine, where I have lived and worked for thirty years, I have been a local organizer with the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral [...]
Pat Taub
No More (Empty) Earth Days
GUEST POST by JANET WEIL “Who should decide how best to use the resources of the earth? What are the most effective ways to build a more sustainable future?” – Adam Rome, “The Genius of Earth Day” Three years ago, early in the global COVID pandemic, on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, I wrote a guest blog post, a remembrance of [...]
Pat Taub
Fear Of Not Conforming
GUEST POST by LISA SAVAGE As a blogger I enjoy hearing from readers even when they disagree with me. It’s an indication of reader engagement if someone takes the time to offer a critique. So, I was glad to hear from an old friend in response to a recent blog post of mine. “Tale of Two Broken Accords: Oslo And Minsk,” written during [...]
Pat Taub
Rethinking Climate Change
GUEST POST by LINDA CREE Climate change is on everyone’s mind. The media, scientists, and policy-makers talk a great deal about it, and each day seems to bring a news story about melting glaciers or rising sea levels. Politicians are pushing solar, wind – even nuclear power – to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Addressing climate [...]
Pat Taub
Resetting My Life
Saturday morning, NPR was playing in the background while I rummaged in my refrigerator for something to eat for breakfast. I wasn’t paying much attention until the program played an interview with Dr. Aaron Carroll, a professor of Pediatrics at Indiana University, who, for the past two years, was part of the Covid research effort. When [...]
Pat Taub
Aging, the Gift that (Hopefully) Keeps on Giving
GUEST POST by LISA SAVAGE I hit 65 this year which is a milestone that brought many gifts: Medicare, a family party outdoors with my same-month birthday sisters, and permission to be officially old. I already had arthritic hands, an inflamed sacroiliac joint, and cataracts so bad I gave up night driving years ago. When I wake up in the morning, [...]
Pat Taub
The Week I Plunged into Despair
Last week was not a good news week for me. It left me full of despair. I agonized over the Biden’s administration failure to advance their social programs designed to help those in need, while increasing oil drilling in defiance of climate change. To make matters worse the saber rattling over Putin’s troops on the Ukraine border, kept [...]
Pat Taub
Not Your Typical New Year’s Resolutions
Last week I polled women on the WOW Facebook page asking them to share their 2022 New Year’s resolutions. Their responses surprised me. I anticipated that the vast majority would offer the typical resolutions to diet and exercise, but these answers were in the minority. Most of the women, while concerned with self-improvement, highlighted [...]
Pat Taub
Living with Uncertainty
“We’re living with uncertainty layered on top of uncertainty.”–NPR host, Meghna Chakrabarti “I’m filled with anxiety like I’ve never experienced before.”–A close friend “Nothing feels normal anymore.”–A comment I overheard waiting for my take-out coffee The collective uncertainty brought on by Covid [...]
Pat Taub
Listening to Nurses
With COVID-19 propelling nurses into the headlines, I wanted to understand what it means to be a nurse. I contacted the National Nurses Union, who put me in touch with two Maine nurses, Cokie Giles, 64, and her daughter Jessie Lambert, 38. Last week we talked via Zoom. As members of the union, Cokie and Jessie are protected from being [...]
Pat Taub