Tish Durkin O'Sullivan

Activist, Care taker, Christian, Concerned citizen, Parent, World traveler, Writer/Editor

Tish Durkin has been a political writer for the New York Observer and an opinion columnist for National Journal. She has written for such publications as The Atlantic, New York, Rolling Stone; Elle and O, The Oprah Magazine, on topics from Hillary Clinton to the war in Iraq to the purchase of the perfect tuxedo. Now based in Princeton, New Jersey, she focuses on the defeat of American fascism and the flourishing of her family, particularly that of her son, an 18-year-old with profound autism.

Politics! (see above) The politics of autism (I am definitely in the "RFK, go away" crowd) Caregiving

These aren't really ideas, but a few points of political counter-narrative: 1) Although a general, supposedly common-sense consensus that "both sides have gotten too extreme" seems to have taken hold among pundits across the political spectrum, the Democratic Party of today is, in fact, much further to the right than it was when anyone alive today was young. 2) As much as our country has to fear from division, we have more to fear from healing in the wrong way. (see: Reconstruction) 3) The choice among political candidates is not center versus extreme, old versus young or any of the other dichotomies usually drawn. It's those who know how to communicate in today's environment and those who do not. Re. the culture around autism and other disorders (or whatever we are euphemizing them as this week): For the typical population, it's now deemed to be all about 10,000 hours of mastery, praising effort and not giftedness, and so on. For those with challenges, though, it's still (culturally) about the wow: the pill, the treatment, the turning of THE KEY that will make a miracle and, better yet, a TV movie. Re. caregiving: Whether in terms of children, elders, or the disabled, society cannot function without caregivers and we are totally indifferent toward them. Discuss. (Extra points if you flag the irony that in all the hand-wringing about What To Do With The Workforce in the face of AI, almost no one mentions the one highly necessary, personally fulfilling role that no chatbot can play but that many, many workers absolutely can

autism advocacy, the caregiving crisis, U.S. politics

This is my first one. Hopefully there will be a good story in losing my TEDginity.

playwriting and creative writing in general