Sassafras Mama

When I first began teaching 8th grade Civics, the Summer reading assignment was an Annette Gordon Reed essay on Juneteenth and its history a...

  I read Invisible Child for the faculty book club at school.   I knew of the story from having read some of it in the New York Times, wher...

When the House of Representatives met earlier this week to select the new Speaker of the House, I kept my fingers crossed in the hopes that ...

My corner of New Jersey is about one inch above the water table on the best days and on Wednesday evening, as the remnants of Hurricane Ida ...

On Monday, a major water main in my corner of New Jersey broke, as 100 year old water mains will sometimes do.   The water authority notifie...

In the New York Times today there was an article about Covid (and it seems like every article is about Covid…..but that is a topic for anoth...

  I had so many thoughts about Wednesday’s events tumbling about in my head as I tucked into bed that night,   My mind was still whirring wh...

The backstory: As we watched the January 6 Senate debate unfold (more on that soon), Kelly Loeffler, Republican from Georgia, stood up to sp...

Today is my birthday and, like an extra treat, I had the day off from school.   It’s been such a tentative week, filled with hope at one mom...

On election day 2016, I came home and started to put together the snacks that would form our celebratory Election Night supper.   As I liste...

I have an app on my phone that I use to countdown to the anticipated events of life.   Most of the time, the events are the small treats tha...

  For as long as I have taught classes on government and politics, I have taught my students that in a democracy citizens get the government...

All summer long, in preparation to once again teach 20th century history, I read (and re-read) books about the last century   One of the ver...

I was in the car Friday evening, half listening to NPR, when the top of the hour headline reported that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had pass...

I have a vivid memory of reading about each of the lives of the people killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. For some time, I had taken to doi...

It’s no secret that I am a progressive liberal with a longstanding belief that social justice must be at the core of our democracy.   I...

Before I make a New Hampshire prediction, it seems appropriate that I acknowledge the mess that was Iowa. In terms of my own predic...

Today is the day!   More accurately, I suppose, tonight is the Iowa Caucus.   In the current Real Clear Politics average, Sanders is as...

The primary season has been underway for a long time but tomorrow's Iowa Caucus, signals the start of actual voting.  I am glad it’...

As the farce that is the Republican-controlled Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump unfolds, I find myself turning toward the comin...