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Suzette Hackney tells us what she has coming up. You're going to want to read it.


I am working on an occasional series of columns about everyday Americans trying to survive the clutches of poverty. As inflation rises, does the avalanche of folks who are struggling to make ends meet.

My first piece will highlight the challenges an Indiana woman faces as she recovers from leg amputation surgery. After Catherine Hembrecht, 70, pays for basic necessities like food and shelter, she usually has about $2 left to her disposal until her next Social Security check rolls in. During a good month, she’ll have a $9 surplus.

“I really don't want anyone to feel sorry for me because I feel there are people out there who are worse off than I am,” Hembrecht told me. “There are people living on the street, and we owe those guys and girls so much. The government is ignoring them. I have a roof over my head. I've got food. I’ve got clothes. I’m doing OK. Sometimes at the middle of the month I might have one or two dollars, but it's like, OK, I can do without things, too, because other people have to. So I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me.”

- Suzette Hackney

What else has Suzette been writing? 

It's up to us students to help make schools safer from gun violence

By Hannah Beechler

In the late morning of May 25, 2018, my mother sent a text saying that someone was firing shots in the Noblesville West Middle School, only a five-minute drive away from me in Indiana. The school was under lockdown. 

Only later that day would I learn what had happened. 

A seventh grade boy, brandishing two handguns, had shot classmate Ella Whistler and science teacher Jason Seaman before the teacher disarmed and tackled him. Both Whistler and Seaman were then taken to the hospital and underwent surgery for serious injuries. Read more...

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