Meridith Byrne

When SNAP Disappears, millions of working families will feel it first at the dinner table. I’m one of them. I’m a mom, a teacher, and a pantry scavenger who’s learned to make soup out of onions and hope. No time to cry, I'm starting my survival guide right now. Here’s how I’m feeding my family, holding onto dignity, and proving that hope still has flavor.

When white denial slips, the truth burns through. This essay is a reflection on racism, silence, and the cost of looking away. The veil has fallen. What once softened the truth now lies in the dirt. When I became an educator, I caught my first glimpses behind the veil that white America has long employed to pretend we were living in a post-racist world. Until then, I could, if I chose, dismiss echoes of hate as jokes, misunderstandings, or euphemisms. Racial violence didn’t happen anymore; or...

Hard work matters, but it’s not the whole story. Some fields flood, some forests burn—and still we judge the ones left in shadow. #We Can Thrive challenges the myth of moral merit and asks: what if thriving was something we protected for everyone?