SOCIAL JUSTICE BLOG
Read and share extraordinary stories from the frontlines of social change
Survivors, Veterans, and Truth-Tellers: The Plaintiffs of Farrell v. Department of Defense
We served across every branch of the military. Sherrill and Lilly served in the United States Navy. James is an Army veteran. Hayden was in the Air Force. I, Jules Sohn, served in the Marine Corps. Yet for years, many of us did not feel we could call ourselves “veterans.” Because we were discharged under policies that criminalized our identities—often with “other than honorable” or similar discharges—we were denied not only benefits, but dignity.
Each of us is a survivor in our own way.
Judge Rules Texas Foster Care System Unconstitutional
In her Dec. 17 ruling against Texas' foster care system, U.S. District Judge Janis Jack was scathing. For more than two decades, she wrote, the state has created a situation where "children have been shuttled throughout a system where rape, abuse, psychotropic medication, and instability are the norm."
I was one of those children. I was born in Dumas, deep in the heart of West Texas. I entered the foster care system shortly before my 10th birthday. My mother was an addict — meth being her drug of choice — and would routinely beat me when she was high.