#5SmartReads - April 21, 2023

Hitha on manual aspiration, LeVar Burton's enduring lessons, and the threat to democracy

After 3 years, The Riveter’s Amy Nelson still fighting Amazon and DOJ (Seattle Times)

I don’t have any words to describe the trauma that Amy and Carl and their families have lived through the past 3 years.

And while they had a hard fought win last week, their legal battle with Amazon and the DoJ is far from over.

This is one of the first major newspapers that has covered the Nelsons’ battle in its entirety, and it’s worth your time to read and understand just how powerful a single corporation is and how it influences the government.

In the three years since the FBI raided the Nelsons’ Seattle home, Carl Nelson has yet to be charged with a crime. Amy has documented this case exhaustively on TikTok, and it would be the most engaging legal thriller if it were fiction.

That it is reality is a tragedy of just how powerful American corporations, and the lengths they will go.

---

How I Came Out, Got Divorced, and Landed In SI Swimsuit (Sports Illustrated Swimsuit)

Lauren Chan is nothing short of iconic - and that was before she landed SI Swimsuit.

Chan is the ultimate multi-hyphenate - a former editor, a longtime model, and the recently exited founder of Henning. She marked her SI Swimsuit debut with an incredibly powerful essay, where she comes out publicly with such honesty and grace.

“I discovered that something in my mental code had caused me to repress my feelings, and therefore, my sexuality. In hindsight, I think the rare connections I had with men were ones of deep friendship or chosen family, which I mistook for sexual or romantic attraction. That’s likely because of compulsory heterosexuality—the way our culture assumes all people are straight and coaches women to be desirable to men. If I’d ever felt attraction toward a woman, I didn’t clock it as intimate, I just figured it was because I worked in an industry that trained me to appreciate female beauty. And didn’t give it more thought. I was doing what we were all “supposed” to, I married my best friend, and I didn’t ever consider that I wasn’t properly feeling desire.”

Take the time to read every word of this. Brava, Lauren, on everything. I can’t wait to see what you’ll manifest next.

---

‘A gamechanger’: this simple device could help fight the war on abortion rights in the US (The Guardian)

In the recent reporting and restrictive measures about abortion, we’ve largely heard about both medication and surgical abortions, both being the most frequently sought to terminate a pregnancy.

Manual aspirations have largely gone unnoticed and unreported - but this simple procedure, which can be performed in a physician’s office to restore one’s period after a few missed cycles, may be a saving grace for reproductive healthcare in this country (especially if mifepristone ends up becoming banned by the Supreme Court, which is a whole other issue).

It can also expand abortion access in states that have protected abortion rights, given that it’s a fairly simple procedure with a brief training (compared to medical school and residency). For states that have banned abortion, this procedure can be performed to treat miscarriages (and miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy care has suffered in states with abortion bans).

I have the deepest respect and gratitude to Dr. Joan Fleischman and the MYA Network for offering and training physicians to perform manual aspirations, and for their work in this fight for our reproductive rights.

---

LeVar Burton Looks To The Next Generation (Fatherly)

“Are you crying?” my husband asked as we watched Star Trek: Picard.
*sniffles* “Maybe.”

Many, many moments have made me cry in this season of one of the best shows ever. But LeVar Burton’s scenes with his daughters (one of them being his real-life daughter) have the tears falling down my face, with such gratitude to see the multitudes of fatherhood finally shown on the screen.

LeVar Burton has been a part of many of our lives, as the host of Reading Rainbow (I stream old episodes from YouTube for the kids), and when I was a baby Trekkie watching Star Trek: The Next Generation (it was one of two non-cartoon shows my parents let me watch).

Reading Rainbow made me feel safe and empowered as a child, with Burton’s calm strength. This article made me feel the same way in my parenting journey - this quote in particular:

“Deep inside we struggle with knowing that truth and the convenience of peace and quiet for the time that they are distracted by the device. And that’s the challenge of a modern parent, striking that balance. We need to have the courage of our convictions and be willing to say no to our children. That’s something that I know this generation of parents struggles with. But we need to trust our children more, that they have the sort of resilience that they will need to survive life’s disappointments, of being told, “No, you can’t have screen time now.” That’s part of good parenting.”

---

Report finds democracy for Black Americans is under attack (Associated Press)

A brief reminder:

• critical race theory is not and has never been taught in K-12 schools, and rarely taught in undergraduate studies (it’s predominantly taught in law school).

• American history is Black history, and should be amplified and not erased from our curriculum and textbooks.

• Black Americans are the leading target for hate crimes in this country

It makes perfect sense that democracy for Black Americans is under attack - and for all Americans as well.

This is a sobering and tough article to read, but a necessary one. Please take the time to read it and reflect on the reporting.