One a week. One middle age woman dies from an opioid overdose every week in Orange County, CA. How many more suffer, losing themselves and all they have worked and hoped for? How far does the pain radiate? Children? Spouses? And how close is this to you? To me? One year ago I was diagnosedContinue reading “The Trials of Tramadol”
Author Archives: Kari Kopnick
Women of a Certain Age: Five Ways
I am two minutes from turning 50, maybe three. I pictured my post-kid world as full of opportunity and new horizons, but here’s the truth: that’s not the way the system works. It’s rigged. Women, especially middle aged women, are still clawing our way out of the valley of misogyny and trying to pave overContinue reading “Women of a Certain Age: Five Ways”
Fighting About the Bleeding
I admit it. Black Lives Matter was a hard sell for me. The lives I love the most in this world are the lives of my kids and my husband. Those are Asian lives. Watching pop culture racist jokes hurled by Black celebrities at Asian people just made me angrier. Chris Rock can go suck anContinue reading “Fighting About the Bleeding”
#BoycottUnitedAirlines
I get it. We were an airline family for 20 years; one or both of us working for an airline and flying all over on standby. Safety means that we need clear lines of authority on a plane. But… If you can’t buy people off at $700 or $800 then you go to $1000 andContinue reading “#BoycottUnitedAirlines”
Never, Ever, Ever, Ever, Never Read the Comments
I read the comments. I know I’m not supposed to. I know that proper mental health hygiene calls for never reading the comments. I think this advice applies to not only press articles online but also on the “stand up and have your say” commentary that people post these days on social media. Because ofContinue reading “Never, Ever, Ever, Ever, Never Read the Comments”
Triangle of Death
OK, there’s not a triangle of death. But I do have this cool graphic about white supremacy to share. And I have NO idea where it comes from. I have done a reverse image search and looked through hundreds of places where it COULD have originated. I give up. Its’s Friday. I want a glassContinue reading “Triangle of Death”
Oh, no. Hate Mail.
I got my first hate mail today. It’s 2017 so it was hate email. And it was really only a little hate-y. It’s not bothering me. I have been taught that the discomfort that I feel as a White person when I am confronted with the hard truth about the prizes and kickbacks I get in this worldContinue reading “Oh, no. Hate Mail.”
Whitewashing
I got two pieces of news today that would seem unrelated but they’re not. My youngest son was not cast in the big show for spring quarter. “Ghost in the Shell” appears to be a box office flop. Related? What? One word. Whitewashing. Whitewashing is a casting practice in which White actors are cast in rolesContinue reading “Whitewashing”
Doing it Wrong
So how do I, a White person, work on fighting white supremacy without, you know, trying to smear my white privilege all over and muck it up? I get a little frozen here, sometimes. OK, all the time. Because I don’t want to do it wrong. I don’t want to do something to make more trouble,Continue reading “Doing it Wrong”
So, tell me about your hair?
I was a late bloomer, as in I think I bloomed underground and then had to fight my goofy, wrecked up daisy head out of the dirt to see the sun. I didn’t finish my BA until one day before my oldest son graduated with an engineering degree. It meant a cobbling together of credits from allContinue reading “So, tell me about your hair?”