Letters to the Moon....

My Happy Place-a Letter to the Moon Hello Luna, how are you? Long time no see! Only kidding, I saw you the other night, shining in all your brilliance. You looked great, Luna. It was great to see you. So much has happened since the last time we spoke. The global pandemic that I wrote you about is only getting worse. We are seeing over 100,000 new cases daily. In my home state, we're averaging 5,500 cases daily. We have also had days with over 8,000 new cases! Those numbers are obscene!  Back when we were in lock down in March, April and May, we had about 400 new cases daily. I don't know why we aren't in lock down. Personally, I feel like a canary in a coal mine, being out in the workplace.  It is not a question of "if" someone will contract the virus, it's a question of "when." Either a co-worker will get it and transmit it to me, or I will get it and transmit it to a coworker.  My prayer is that it doesn't kill anyone when it comes. Talks of va...

I have a yearly tradition that I love to indulge in-Christmas cards. It is a practice of a bygone era. That being said, millions of Christmas cards are still sent through the mail every year. I use 2 sets of cards per year-one for friends and family, and the other for work colleagues.  I have a ritual when it comes to my Christmas cards:  -In July I go through my cards and decide which sets to use that year -In November I fill out the cards and put them out to mail on Thanksgiving night Of course, this ritual takes place during a normal year. Nothing has been normal this year. We're in the midst of a global pandemic, a civil rights crisis, and a contentious Presidential election. The world has turned upside down, and we're all clinging to whatever we can, hoping to weather the storm as best we can. But this year, I could not make a decision about the Christmas cards. It's not a hard decision-you look through the Christmas cards you own, you pick a set of cards, ma...

Vote? Are you serious? Why should I vote?  I used to be one of the Americans that felt that way, that did not exercise their right to vote. I did not know then how terribly wrong I was. I did not then understand that people fought for the right to vote. I did not know that people died for the chance to vote. How stupid of me to not exercise my fundamental right to vote. This is a historic year for the U.S; this is the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S,. Constitution which gave women the right to vote. Well, I should clarify-it gave white women the right to vote. It was the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that gave everyone fair and equal voting rights.  As the field of candidates narrowed in the Democratic Party in this year's election, I hoped that a woman would be the front runner for the party. Now the official nominee is Joe Biden. For his running mate, he chose senator Kamala Harris, the first woman of Indian and Jamaican descent, to be on a Presidential ticke...

  Common Ground-a letter to the moon Hello Luna, my dear friend. How are you? It's been eons since we've talked. How have you been? How's Sally? Please give her my regards.  Please forgive the lateness of my letter, Luna. It's been hard to write lately. Everything has been disjointed, fractured. All of my recent attempts at writing haven't come to fruition. As I feel that the world is disjointed, that is how my writing efforts have been. In fact, that's how many of us are feeling right now. This year has been especially hard, on everyone here on Earth. I know you can't tell it from where you are, but there is a highly infectious disease circulating in our air that has changed millions of lives forever. During March and April of this year, much of the country was ordered to shelter in place, to prevent the spread of the disease. Since reopening in May, cases of the virus have surged. Globally there have been over 27 million cases, and over 815,000 deaths arou...

Hello there, my name is Esperanza Habla. And I am a Face of Ace. Today is the last day of Pride month. As such, I thought I would take a moment to talk about my experiences after coming out. When I came out as demisexual three years ago, I had no idea how my life would change. I never dreamed of the responsibilities inherent in coming out, nor the opportunities that would come my way. Before I knew how I identify, I had always thought of coming out as a one time event, as when friends had come out to me. However LGBTQIA+ people can come out several times in their lives. When I share my truth with someone, that is another coming out. I think I have come out a dozen times. When a person comes out, they then become a representation-or face-of that orientation or identity. For example, when Janelle Monae came out as pansexual, her announcement broke the internet; millions went online to find the definition for the orientation. When people think of celebrities who are LGBTQIA+, it becomes e...