Our School District Gave Us A Choice

Also: We Want To Be More Than Just Alive ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  [View in Browser]( | [Donate [WBUR]]( [WBUR](  [WBUR]( July 19, 2020 Dear Cog reader, The debate over when and how to open schools continued this week. Linda Wertheimer, a Lexington resident, gave us a window into the decision she had to make about whether her 12-year-old son would do a hybrid program (one week in school, one week out) or go full-time remote. Her take on the anxiety many parents are feeling right now: “[This is a dizzying nightmare]( Sara Shukla also wrote about the school conundrum. When her husband, an ER physician, moved out this spring to care for COVID-19 patients, she quarantined alone with their three young kids. Now, she worries [teachers are the new frontline workers]( -- without the rallying cries of support and PPE. "... How do I ask teachers to put themselves on a kind of frontline for the next year?" she asks. Plus, the conversation about race continues. Huma Farid articulates how the racism she's experienced in her own life -- and in her efforts to be a "model minority" -- [cowed her into silence]( moments of injustice. And Desmond Hall wrote a searing, can’t-miss piece. When his teenage daughter prepared to join the protests against police brutality, he couldn’t help but recall his own encounters with violent police. "I went flying onto a neighbor’s lawn,” [he writes of one incident](. “There I lay, blades of grass tickling my nose, pressing against my face, at the mercy of the red-faced white man with the badge pinned onto his chest." This is an essay about legacy, and the love (and hope) between a father and his daughter. We also have pieces on [hugs]( (I miss them!), the [paradox of time]( during a pandemic and the difference between [this year and 1968.]( Cloe Axelson Cognoscenti, co-editor newsletters@wbur.org Must Reads url['It Doesn’t Matter If It’s Your Fault': I Warn My Daughter About Police As My Father Warned Me]( Desmond Hall has personally experienced police brutality. He’s been recalling the anger and shame he felt during those incidents as his teenage daughter joined the protests against police violence. [Read more.](   #%23%23[Twitter](  #%23%23[Facebook](    [Are Teachers The New Essential Frontline Workers?]( Sara Shukla's husband is an ER doctor. After all the fear and anxiety our family went through this spring, she writes, how do I ask teachers to put themselves on a kind of frontline for the next year? [Read more.]( [How To Cope When We’re All Locked In The Perpetual Present]( Without all the milestones that segment weeks into days and days into hours, writes Julie Wittes Schlack, we find ourselves in that liminal state between blissfully unanchored and disturbingly unmoored. [Read more.](  Support the news [Our School District Gave Us A Choice: Remote Learning Or Part-Time In School. Here’s How We Decided]( Lexington parents have to decide whether their children will attend school in person this coming year. Linda K. Wertheimer describes how she and her husband made the difficult decision. [Read more.]( [The 'Shame And Rage' Of Being A Minority In America Kept Me Silent. Not Anymore]( I will never be the one with a bullhorn, leading the rally, writes Huma Farid. That doesn’t mean that the only other alternative is silence that will uphold the status quo. [Read more.]( [Protests, Chaos, Needless Deaths And A Looming Election: It Feels Like 1968. Why 2020 Is Different]( We don't know how far Trump will go to hang onto power. That makes 2020 even more threatening than 1968, writes Michael Ansara. [Read more.]( What We're Reading "Eventually, it was clear that waiting around for the president to run the nation’s response was hopeless; if we delayed any longer, we’d be condemning more of our citizens to suffering and death. So every governor went their own way, which is how the United States ended up with such a patchwork response." ("[Fighting Alone: I’m A GOP Governor. Why Didn’t Trump Help My State With Coronavirus Testing?]( The Washington Post) "That the police were able and willing to perform such brazen violence when surrounded by cellphone cameras and when the whole world was watching at this moment more than any other, underscores how police feel and know they will never be held to account in any meaningful way even for the most egregious acts of violence." ("[N.Y.P.D. Says It Used Restraint During Protests. Here’s What The Videos Show]( The New York Times) "You don’t get to pick your family of origin or the place you grow up. But you do get to choose your friends, and those choices say something about the kind of world you want for yourself. This is one of the many ways friendship is political. We’re not just talking about whether you have people in your life who voted for the opposite party or whether you’re carpooling to the protest march with your friends ... White people can’t be surprised that white supremacists are marching in the streets if their own lives are racially segregated. The choices that each of us makes every day about who we include in our lives end up shaping the larger world we live in." ("[There’s A Divide In Even The Closest Interracial Friendships Including Ours]( New York Magazine) “ We’re all thankful to be alive, but we want to be more than just alive. — Desmond Hall, '[It Doesn’t Matter If It’s Your Fault': I Warn My Daughter About Police As My Father Warned Me]( ICYMI [If Remote Work Is Our New Reality, Is Boston Still Worth The Trouble?]( State and local leaders need to start thinking of Massachusetts, and Boston in particular, as a product they need to sell, not only a location they need to govern, writes Ian Campbell.      If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📨 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. 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