BiasThe Only Open Seat Was Next to a Black Kid. His Name Was Sam.
Every signal my nervous system sent said do not sit there. I sat there because there was nowhere else to go. Within a week we were friends.
Tag: Family
Bias
FamilyNobody Else Asked. I Sat on the Folding Chair and He Told Me.
You want to know about the war, he said, making that familiar sucking sound through his teeth. It didn't start with Pearl Harbor for me.
EmergencyI Climbed Out of That Canyon at Eight at Night
Breathless at the top of a canyon at eight at night, explaining to a fireman named Kurt what had happened and where my father was.
The Hypervigilance That Ruined My Childhood Made My Career
The systematic thinking I built to predict my father's explosions turned out to be the same thinking that reads a failing system. Nobody warned me the skill would transfer.
EmergencyThe Fire Jumped the Road Behind Me. I Had Nothing in the Car.
Fire on both sides of the road, and when I looked back it had jumped behind me. Years of camping experience and nothing in the car that helped.
FamilyI Got Caught Hacking in 1981. The Professor Made Me Head of Security.
The biggest breach I ever watched was defeated by a brick propping a door open for smoke breaks. Home security fails at the human seam, not the technical one.