Every Monday on Global Comment, we share the slow, thoughtful, considerate words that our brains – and souls – need but that it’s easy to miss in our busy world. We distil the best of the web and recommend just three links every week that you absolutely must see.
No fluff, no fuss, just three exceptional reads.
Here are this week’s recommendations:
Inside the Psychiatric Hospitals Where Foster Kids Are a “Gold Mine” (Julia Lurie / Mother Jones)
How was it possible, Edwards wondered, that passing thoughts of suicide had landed her in a “mini prison for children”? She says that when she mentioned suicide to her foster mom, she hadn’t meant it literally; she’d meant that she felt miserable and wanted someone to sit down and listen to her. The chaos of the facility felt like the opposite of what Edwards needed. A few weeks into her stay, she filled out a “personal de-escalation plan.” It asked, “What are some things that do not help you calm down or stay safe?” She checked all the boxes on the sheet: things like “loud tone of voice” and “being ignored.” She also wrote in her own answer: “Being in North Star.”
Now 23, Edwards has a round face, a quick laugh, and an unfiltered way of speaking that’s disarmingly charming, even if she’s telling you that you’re an overcautious driver and that you’ve had something in your teeth all day—which she did, the first time we met. She giggles while telling traumatic stories. In those first days at North Star, she banged on the windows, hoping to be rescued. “When people would walk up, I’d be in the window, thinking they could see me cry for help,” she explained with a laugh. “They couldn’t see me at all.”
Read more.
The Lurker (Erika Hayasaki / The Verge)
Though S. had never acted on any of her outlandish threats, Sinha had no idea what she was capable of. What if the online trail led her to act on the threats? Sinha told himself he had a family to protect. “If I didn’t see it, and I didn’t prepare, and something happened,” Sinha told me, “I would never forgive myself.”
At one point, Sinha read a tweet that suggested their S. had been watching him and his wife in a public place. The comments described seeing them in a specific spot where the couple often took walks together.
We live in cities you’ll never see on screen (Bella Hadid)
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Image: Joshua Woroniecki