Rebekah Rodriguez

Rebekah Rodriguez · Follow 4 min read · -- I’m very good at making my father cry, usually without even trying. Today, he wished me a happy Valentine’s Day via text message; he’s always been the first person to do so ever since I can remember. From my grade school years to early adulthood, I knew I’d find chocolates, flowers, plushies, and a handwritten note waiting for me on the kitchen table every February 14th.

March 4, 2021. Everything was shit, and everyone was asleep. I was tired of calling the crisis hotline like I’d done for the past month, and I was somewhere between breaking down and breaking through. I knew I couldn’t do it here surrounded by broken glass on my living room floor, so I went for a walk, because it was the only thing that made sense at four o’clock in the morning. It was supposed to be a few laps around the school down the road but I kept walking.

The 50 states of America have long been laboratories of democracy. On many occasions, states have pioneered important policy reforms that led to urgently needed national-level reforms.