by Emily Rose Herzlin
- USA -

Katie’s eyes twinkle mischievously from across the classroom, sparkling from behind her red hair falling over her face. I wave at her, and her gaze never totally meets mine. She raises her hand and gestures back to me briefly, not sure whether I am a friend. Just as quickly, her attention goes elsewhere, back to her work.

Eleven-and-a-half year old Katie attends a rigorous school where the students are pushed harder than most of us have ever been pushed in our lives. Her curriculum consists of learning how to identify familiar people, make a snack, sort laundry, and rollerblade. Katie has autism, and is one of just a handful of girls at the school she attends that specializes in the disorder. The student body consists of just under thirty students, only four of whom are girls.

by Emily Rose Herzlin
- USA -

I’ve never been able to remember my parents’ ages. I wrote my dad a birthday poem one year that began:

Dear Dad, don’t be blue,
Just because you’re 53 or maybe 52.

He taped it to his fridge next to my crayon scrawled sketches of Pocahontas. My father is having another birthday this year. So is my mother.

Everyone in my family except for me has had cancer. Even as I say this I worry that I am tempting the fates. Father: skin cancer. Sister: non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Mother: breast cancer. I wonder when it will be my turn, and what kind it will be, and what part of my life I will have to put on hold when it happens.

by Emily Rose Herzlin
- USA -

“I'm voting because I care about the future of this country. It's my right as a U.S. citizen [to vote] and it'd be shameful not to; it'd be like a slight to the founding fathers and women like Susan B. Anthony who all believed in the right to vote. If the next four years are terrible and I don't vote, I have no right to complain as I made no attempt to have it be otherwise.” – Nicole Long, 21

“I’m from a swing state. It’s necessary for me to be heard and have my vote counted.” – Dorie Kurtz, 22

“I already have my absentee ballot in hand. This is the first major election year that I can vote, so I'm taking full advantage of that.” – Allison Ahlgrim, 20

“Yes I'm voting – My mom would remove me from the family if I didn't.” – Lily Mundy, 21

by Emily Rose Herzlin
- USA -

On July 1st, the top post on the ID Project’s Blog proclaimed: No More Plastic Bags Y’all! We are going Back to the Sack!

Where’s your plastic bag stash? Everyone has one. It’s a kitchen cabinet or a drawer stuffed to the gills. It’s a corner of the hallway closet. Better yet, it’s a plastic bag filled with plastic bags. One New York City meditation center, The Interdependence Project (ID Project), has taken on the environmental issue of plastic bags as part of their ongoing effort to connect their meditation practice to their everyday lives. July 1st marked the start of their Low Impact Consumption Month and “Back to the Sack” initiative to eradicate plastic bag usage in New York City.

by Emily Rose Herzlin
- USA -

“Theatre is ephemeral,” proclaims Geoffrey Decas as he waxes philosophic and waters the plants on his terrace in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Cars whiz by on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway as the smell of marinated tofu wafts into the apartment from the grill on the terrace. “I’m a vegetarian so I get to decide what people eat,” Geoffrey says mischievously. “Which means the rest of us have to eat vegetarian since he’s cooking,” chimes in TJ Witham.

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