I was born Puerto Rican. I was actually born in New York, but that doesn’t make me a New Yorker any more than being born in Hawaii or Japan makes my cousins Hawaiian or Japanese just because their military parents happened to be stationed there...

I have recently become particularly interested in exploring what sign language and spoken language interpreters have in common and what we do not. One thing that seems crystal clear, especially now that so much public health information is conveyed through televised press conferences, is how...

I was listening to an interview of Korean American author Cathy Park Hong about her book, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning. She spoke of a mythical We that does not really apply to all Asian Americans because it lumps together the Pacific Islanders and...

I love birthdays, anniversaries, and—of course—new years, new decades, and new millennia. Each one gives me a chance to let go of whatever has been happening in my life that was just not going well at all and start again. It gives me a chance...

I’ve been thinking about the lists of wonderful gifts children wish for when the holiday season rolls around, and what I would want on my list if I could have any of those gifts delivered, as if by magic. For one thing, I would want to...

“Wherever you are, be totally there.”  Eckhart Tolle My father is 90 years old. He recently wrote an open letter to his family that started with the words: “With so much time in my hands, I have decided to write...

I’m sure most, if not all, of you have heard about emotional vampires or relationship vampires. Those are the people who suck your emotional energy and leave you feeling drained after they’ve been near you for any amount of time. Well, there is something else...

I like being tucked away in some nondescript area of a courtroom, where I can see and hear everyone but no one is paying attention to me, where I can have complete anonymity as my voice flows from a wireless microphone to a receiver in...

Even in the middle of a pandemic quarantine, none of us were spared. We all got hit right between the eyes. The racial prejudice. The senseless death. The social bias. The raw fear. The failure of the very foundations of our criminal justice system. A...