Chicana on the Edge

Mentioning the unmentionable since 2004

Ask For What You Want, Part Two: People Pleasing

Are you good at asking for what you want? Some insight into those who struggle with it.

How Chicago Failed Its Most Vulnerable: The Heat Wave of July 1995

31 years ago, a three-day disaster revealed an ongoing one.

Sudan: U.S. Has No Credibility Left

I just read a letter to the Chicago Tribune Editor that says the United States Congress passed a "non-binding resolution" that calls for the Bush administration and the U.N. to take action against the genocide happening in Sudan and begin immediate measures to help...

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Capricious Grace

So after the talk last night (part of the “Theology on Tap” series sponsored by the Chicago Archdiocese’s Young Adult Ministry), I waited to talk to the speaker, Fr. Bob Rohrich. Since I’d missed out on most of the lecture series, I wanted to know where I could go to...

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Weightlost

From my mother I inherited high metabolism. From my father, I inherited a raging sweet tooth. The combination of these two made me a kind of Archie's Comics "Jughead" when I was growing up: in spite of all the cookies I had for breakfast and bowls of ice cream I had...

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Believing in Yourself

I've been watching the Democratic presidential nominees for months now and the thing that most strikes me about them (John Kerry and John Edwards in particular) is that they never, ever doubted that they would get where they are going. There is a sureness, an...

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DNC: I’m serious

The speeches of the Democratic Convention are washing over the country as clean and fresh as untainted hope, as full of promise and excitement as Christmas eve, as energetic as the last and greatest spurt of anticipation towards a life-saving goal. Yes, Barak Obama!...

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The Sadness of Post-Arthur Andersen

I’m still realizing that I chose my current job according to a single criterion which was not a good idea. I reacted so emotionally to the corruption and collapse of my former employer, Arthur Andersen, that my job search really only had one focus: a business that had...

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Lessons of a Reluctant Corporate Mofo

Remember Arthur Andersen? After 89 years as the gold standard of accounting, in the spring of 2002 it became the poster company for corporate America gone wrong and within months had been stripped of its clients and completely dissolved. No, this is not a business...

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Birthday

Today is my birthday. I am 38 years...old. I am the same age as Carrie Bradshaw when Sex and the City ended. A year older than Mary Richards when The Mary Tyler Moore Show went off the air. The same age as my mother when she had been married for 12 years and had two...

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Longing

Longing, Part I I want to learn happiness the way others do it with lazy lunches occasional silence and coats thrown together on a kitchen chair. To stay in someone’s life, my name coffee-stained in their address book and permanently on the Christmas card list. To let...

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What I Would Say at the Democratic National Convention

As the daughter of community activists, I have spent my life being suspect of American culture, media and politics. As a product of the Reagan '80's, I learned that our government is not to be trusted and the worst things I suspect of our leaders are probably true. As...

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Nader?

I am now considering how qualified and experienced Nader is for the presidency and he doesn't look good.  Then again, neither Kerry nor Edwards has experience leading, either.    I'm also considering how effective Nader would be as president.  I...

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