My dad taught me that language was a powerful tool.

It shouldn't be a matter of who deserves help or not, but of whether we want to be a country that allows its neediest to continue to need. Condemnation of individuals and their choices mutes all these other really important logistical questions about funding and budget and politics.

My dad taught me that language was a powerful tool.

Illness transforms the things you most fear into the things you crave and would hold onto if you could.