Steven LaChance

  • If you believe in free speech and the First Amendment, then you also have to believe in the right of others to speak their minds, even when what they say clashes with your own beliefs. That is the hard truth at the center of democracy. Free speech was never meant to protect only the voices…

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  • The Zeitgeist of Hate

    I came to an understanding recently. What we are dealing with in the United States is not political and should not be framed that way. It runs deeper than red or blue. Yes, people often line up that way and the extremes on both sides dominate the noise. But most Americans live in the quiet…

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  • When I first began writing Grace, it was not because I wanted to predict a future. It was because I was watching the horror of hate and how fast a city and a nation could ignite into flames. The story began for me in 1992 after the Rodney King verdict when I saw how quickly…

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  • I woke up this morning missing my dad. The thought of not being able to talk to him leaves this sickening hole in my heart. The grief takes you by surprise and knocks the wind completely out of you. Something good happens and you want to tell him. Something bad happens and you want to…

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  • For years I told myself I would find a man and build a life that did not have to exist in bars or bathhouses. I wanted something steadier. I wanted a partner I could grow old with, a man I could have a family with, someone who would walk beside me in the ordinary days…

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  • I first walked down Zombie Road in 2006. I’d heard the stories for years and finally gave in. I thought it would just be a spooky night walk with friends. Instead, it felt like stepping straight into The Blair Witch. I went back again and again. I led groups down there, even filmed with a…

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  • Examining the gap between the Constitution’s ideals and lived reality Many will tell you the United States is a great country. In some ways, they are not wrong. There is a difference between the ideals written on paper and the reality lived by its people. For some, especially those who are white, straight, and Christian,…

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  • This photo shows Keith Gregory in makeup for A Haunting: Fear House. It’s from the one scene that people always seem to remember. The truth is, I had a very hard time with how that scene was presented. On screen it came across almost like a moment from IT, a full-on horror clown. But that…

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  • The Bearer of Bad News

    When someone leans in to whisper bad things about another person, take a moment before you believe them. They may dress it up as concern with words like “be careful,” or “stay away,” but those warnings are rarely as pure as they appear. More often than not, the danger lies not in the person being…

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  • The Kind of September

    “Try to remember the kind of September.” That line has been echoing in my head all day, and maybe it is because September once carried a very different meaning. When I was young, Labor Day was not just a holiday. It was the last day of freedom before school began again. In St. Louis, we…

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