Sarah Ratliff |

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Journalistic Integrity

As writers and journalists, we have an obligation to tell the story: accurately, completely and truthfully. Good writers don't have to embellish to make a story gripping. By being truthful and accurate in our reporting, the words tell the story. To do otherwise means we're no better than Fox News and The National Enquirer. We…

I recently pitched an article topic to a publication with the title, "Am I no longer employable?" I'm not prone to hyperbole, but rather I was reflecting on what I continually referred to as a run of bad luck with nightmare clients. The thing was, I wasn't taking responsibility for why I had had this…

"There's a trick to the 'graceful exit.' It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, or a relationship is over—and let it go. It means leaving what's over without denying its validity or its past importance to our lives. It involves a sense of future, a belief that every exit…

Baseline Temperature The first thing I did was take my temperature for a baseline: 97.7, which is normal for me. Then I familiarized myself with the most common symptoms associated with Covid. Recalling back to the earliest cases in which many people needed to go on a ventilator, my takeaway was that people's airways weren't…

Following is a stream of consciousness I wrote in a comment on a Facebook post. It describes the absurdity and reckless behavior of the so-called healthcare industry that I've encountered most of my adult life that has only gotten worse the older I have gotten. Now in my 50s, whenever I see a doctor, they…

This ode to Willis and his sneakers is meant to be one part humor, two parts seriousness. Willis is my cousin by marriage. I have a first cousin named Nicole. She is the daughter of Tom and Kathie in upstate New York. Her great-grandmother (and Tom's grandmother) and my paternal grandmother were sisters. Nicole's husband, Willis,…

Is Puerto Rico quietly trying to restrict abortion, joining eight U.S. states doing an end run around Roe v. Wade? I'm not sure how this got passed me. And further, why isn't this being reported in U.S. mainstream media? Only seven days after the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico's Senate introduced restrictions on…

Both before and in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria (September 20, 2017), whether in person or online, I have been involved in hundreds of discussions about preparedness. For those of us who've been through a natural disaster, we know being prepared was / is the difference between having one be an inconvenience or catastrophic. Obviously…

This is the story of a driver of a Little Red Hyundai who think she's behind the wheel of a Little Red Corvette and who's got issues. So I was driving down the mountain this morning, on my way to the town of Arecibo to do my food shopping, this red Hyundai sedan appears in back…

I spend many hours a day chained to my desk researching and then writing articles. After several hours of staring at the computer, with a pair of glasses to protect my eyes, wrist braces to prevent repetitive stress injuries, and repeated breaks to stretch my tired hands, back and hips (um and butt), I walk…

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Featured

Journalistic Integrity

Penetrating the Cloaking Device: My Renewed Love for Freelancing

Goodbye Facebook

Healing Covid Using Mother Nature Alone

Conversations with Doctors that Make Me Wanna Roll My Eyes

An Ode to Willis and His Sneakers

Puerto Rico Joins Four U.S. States, Restricting Abortion Rights

Sarah’s Tips for Preparedness: Minimizing the Impact of a Natural Disaster

Little Red Hyundai

Why Writers are not Farmers