My early life was marked by the American Dream. No. Not home ownership. The other American Dream: straight teeth, a stunning smile and a perfect bite. In order to achieve this dream, my mouth needed space. More space than I was born with, apparently. So at the tender age of 7, my mother listened to the advice of an orthodontist, and in one fell swoop, they extracted 10 of my baby teeth.

All I remember from that day is feeling sick from the anesthesia, gumming a McDonald’s hamburger as if my life depended on it, and hoping to hit the…

The ferocity of the waves can not be captured in a single photo of a rising sun, although my swim buddy, Aliza, tries. The waves’ height are, according to Lake Michigan Buoy #45174, 4.3 ft., coming every 6 secs. They hit the shallow sandy bottom and break with energy that easily knocks you down.

It’s impossible to confront high-breaking waves by standing upright, as if you were a courageous Black Lives Matter activist, standing your ground for decency, democracy and the First Amendment. You have to submerge or swim through them, which may feel counterintuitive. …

I don’t like swimming in 20-yard pools because it’s an extra flip turn in the 100-yard sets. I swam backstroke in high school and many, many schools have 20-yard pools. I always loved when we were at a school with a 25-yard pool because I would swim faster. Twenty-yard pools are a thing in old Chicago and many park district pools are 20 yards.

After the long Covid-hiatus, the “swim sisters” return to Chicago Park pools

Illinois made national headlines this year, and not for corruption or another governor going to prison. (Since the 1960s, four former Illinois governors, three Democrats and one Republican, have been incarcerated.) Instead, the headlines reflected groundbreaking steps the state has taken toward addressing systemic racism.

In March, the Chicago suburb of Evanston became the first locality in the United States to vote to pay reparations to Black residents. Evanston’s city council authorized a first allocation of $400,000 from the city’s reparations fund, slated to go to sixteen Black families for housing repairs or a downpayment on a new home.

The…

When Joe Biden was vice president, he congratulated then-President Barack Obama for signing into law the Affordable Care Act by famously whispering into his ear: This is a big fucking deal. Which was caught by a hot mic. Never letting a good gaff go to waste, Organizing for America, the activist wing of the Obama administration, made a t-shirt that said: Health Reform Is a BFD.

I still have that t-shirt and wear it proudly.

I hope some group comes up with a similar one for when President Biden signs into law the American Rescue Plan. …

“Happy American History Month! I am not one of those who dismisses the effort recognize Black contributions during the month of February, I just want to make it clear there would be no America without us!” — Nikole Hannah-Jones, journalist and creator of the New York Times 1619 Project, in a Feb. 1, 2021 tweet.

On Feb. 1, 1960, four Black young men — freshmen at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College — walked into a Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, N.C., and changed the world. But first Jibreel Khazan (whose name then was Ezell Blair Jr.), David Richmond, Franklin McCain…

I think we can all agree that what happened Jan. 6, 2021, was frightening and fascistic. I hope every single person who stormed the Capitol is arrested and prosecuted, especially Inciter-in-Chief Donald J. Trump. I agree with President-elect Joe Biden. It was an assault on our democracy.

The Trump presidency and the Covid-19 pandemic has put immense pressure on U.S. democracy — every single aspect of it — from elections and voting to policing and criminal justice to health care, the economy and education. This pressure has exposed systemic failings and longstanding fissures built into the country’s democratic structures.

The…