Diverse Reading: Why You Should Not Choose Protagonists Who Look Like You

People ask online all the time, “I’m looking for book recommendations featuring a protagonist that- (fill in the blank) is homosexual, is a man, is a strong female, is a minority, is asexual, is a redhead, is a single parent, etc. etc.” It’s even better when readers ask for these roles in their favorite genre.Continue

PROPaganda, Part 2 of 2

A 2018 documentary called, “Do No Harm: An Opioid Epidemic,” featuring Dr. Andrew Kolodny (to whom I recently wrote an open letter) and “working closely with Dr. Kolodny and PROP“, is a classic propaganda film that’s been influencing a lot of viewers and, therefore, a lot of lives. I viewed this film a few nightsContinue

Me, My Rights, and I

Originally posted on The Midwest Courier:
A Culture of Individualism Without Personal Responsibility Makes for Spoiled Adult-Children “There’s something unique about the United States, a sense of individual rights and freedoms, and a sense of social and civic responsibility that we contributed to so much of the world. We lost that mission in the 1980s…

PROPaganda, Part 1 of 2

Addiction is, indeed, a terrible thing, and I am glad to see it being recognized, less stigmatized, and more genuine help offered to those struggling. But agenda-driven propaganda will not help those with addiction, in fact it has already been shown to cause harm to both addicts and chronic pain patients…

Williamson, West Virginia and the Opioid Crisis (Fake News Alert!)

Headline: 20.8 Million Pain Pills Flood Tiny Town in WV Let’s talk about Williamson, West Virginia, the little town in Mingo County that has been featured in the news for the past several years as a sort of starting point for the opioid epidemic. According to sources, 20 million (give or take about 1 million)Continue