Doug Anderson: The Dictator
He built a wall around himself and demanded
that his image be painted on the inside of the wall
looking back so he could imagine the shouts
on the outside were cheers for him
Lornet Turnbull: 7 Ways Protestors Showed Up for Black Lives
Amid the outpouring of outrage over George Floyd’s death are glimpses of solidarity and hope.
Molly Fisk: Let Me Call You Sweetheart
Yesterday a young man called me sweetheart and then widened his eyes and asked “Is that OK, to call you sweetheart? I call everyone I like sweetheart, even the men.” … Continue reading
Lawrence W. Britt: 14 Characteristics of Fascism
Historian Lawrence Britt studied the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile) and found they had 14 elements in common. He calls these … Continue reading
Joe Saltzman: Journalists Under Assault from Police
There have already been more than 100 instances of journalists being assaulted or harassed while covering recent protests.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox: Protest
The few who dare, must speak and speak again
To right the wrongs of many.
Marc Jampole: Are the George Floyd Riots the American Reichstag Fire?
Police in Pittsburgh, Nashville, and Minneapolis suspect that riots in these cities were started by white nationalists.
Arlene Weiner: A Photo of Jalen, Age 12, in a Batman Costume
Say yes, sir when the officers stop you
for the fourteenth time, looking
for somebody
Michael Simms: And Jesus Wept
Our friend Christian, an African-American and one of the best men I know, told my wife that when he saw the video of the murder of George Floyd, he wept for hours.
Gaby Garcia: Heat
When the world burns, we will be like the women
of Pompeii who left their bread loaves to bake—
our laundry mid-cycle, newspapers turned
to the op-eds, windows open to catch a breeze.
Abby Zimet: I Just Want To Live
America rages, reels, mourns. Brutal police violence – tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, batons – blazes across the country, in Minneapolis, Atlanta, Houston, Denver, Chicago, Detroit, New York, possibly inflamed by white nationalists seeking to accelerate the carnage.
Stephen Dobyns: Fly
They can hide. What’s the point of hiding?
They can run. Why bother running?
They feel defeated by the world’s terrors.
Video: Liberal Redneck | Minnesota Burning
Justice for George Floyd. These cops are out of control, y’all.
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II: May the Screams and Tears and Protests Shake the Very Conscience of This Nation
If we want to reach a better place on the other side of this, we must refuse to be comforted too quickly.
Michelle Bitting: Walls
Worst I had to deal with, well, I suppose that time my son was shut in a padded room and shit himself at the special needs school. He was 13 and having one helluva wiring crisis. I got called to come get him after he graffitied his feces across white walls.
Barrett Swanson: The Soldier and the Soil
Their prose often stood head and shoulders above the standard freshman drivel, exhibiting a certain rigor of thought and depth of feeling that perhaps comes from having witnessed whole anthologies of trauma—entire villages razed by fire, wide-eyed children draped in gore, wives screaming beside mutilated husbands.
