Service Trips and Selfies

Service Trips and Selfies

Clicks and bright flashes. Hop off the bus, take some photos, hop back on, and head to the next stop. My students saw these beautiful but sad creatures in their natural habitat. Poor Ecuadorians invited us into their homes, showing us their dirt floors, cardboard...
American Dream, or American Nightmare?

American Dream, or American Nightmare?

I am living the American dream, but it’s only while people who look like Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, are living the American nightmare. You probably already know the story about my American dream. My parents grew up in working-class...
La La Land: Charm, Nostalgia, Gratitude

La La Land: Charm, Nostalgia, Gratitude

When Moonlight  won Best Picture at Sunday’s Academy Awards, it was an upset: La La Land was predicted to sweep the night away – including a win for Best Picture – and for a split second, America thought it did. Now, I think Moonlight was the Best Picture this...
A Great Offense

A Great Offense

There is a lot of bad news going around these days. From trucks driving into parades to beheadings of kidnapping victims, one’s stomach can be easily turned at the sheer badness of things. Yet in the midst of all this evil, something particularly heinous caught my eye...
The Struggle To Encounter The Other

The Struggle To Encounter The Other

It’s hard not to notice the theme of the other in recent news: executive orders, refugees and migrants, protests, racial tension within our country, and the countless occurrences of violence. Even if it doesn’t paint an overt struggle, it creates a separation between...
Fighting Fake News

Fighting Fake News

TJP sat down with Laura Field and Austin Hart, founders of Real News Revival, to learn about how they are working to promote good journalism despite the proliferation of “fake news,” and how they “trust that even a small effort will make a...
Do I Love Trump?

Do I Love Trump?

Do I love Trump? As we celebrate Presidents’ Day, I have spent a great deal of time thinking about our new President, and this is a question I am honestly struggling with. Do I love him? What does it mean for me to love him? Surely I am called to love him, just as I...