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
Mary Oliver: The Artist’s Task
It is a silver morning like any other. I am at my desk. Then the phone rings, or someone raps at the door. I am deep in the machinery of … Continue reading
Brian Mittendorf: Why New York AG Letitia James is suing the NRA
New York state Attorney General Letitia James is suing the National Rifle Association and four of its current and former officials. The primary goal of the New York lawsuit is to dissolve the NRA completely.
Alexis Rhone Fancher: Post Mortem
It’s the last time, I swear, except this time I mean it. The last time I mourn Kate so hard I don’t eat, unless you consider alcohol a meal. The last time I drive drunk the five miles to Chuck’s house, at midnight, despondent, disheveled, swigging Stoli…
Paul Christensen: The American Muse
We let the unresolved issues and crises that face us mount up beyond the poet’s window, as the writer gropes for a language in which to imagine something beyond the claustrophobic assumptions we have accepted as our grasp of the world.
Video: Pokey LaFarge "Garbage Man Blues"
Pokey LaFarge performing “Garbage Man Blues” at Music City Roots from the Loveless Cafe in Nashville.
Michael Simms: Oh Darlin’
The intimacy
Of strangers is luminous, the way
We wish well for the man who lost
His car keys, the woman coming in
Out of the rain, the girl who missed
Her bus, the boy who stutters.
Dr. Michelle D. Holmes: Black Lives Depend on the U.S. Dietary Guidelines
Black Americans need science-based dietary guidelines in an acute way as they disproportionately benefit from federal nutrition programs that are mandated to follow the guidelines, such as school breakfast and lunch programs.
Yehuda Amichai: A Child is Something Else Again
A child is something else again. Wakes up
in the afternoon and in an instant he’s full of words,
in an instant he’s humming, in an instant warm,
instant light, instant darkness.
Helen Caldicott: The Lessons We Still Haven’t Learned From Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The United States needs to rise to its full moral and spiritual height and lead the world to sanity and survival.
Donald Krieger: Hiroshima Haiku
memorial bridge
ahead and in my rearview
winged souls drift by
Jake Johnson: Postal Union Leader Warns Trump Assault on USPS and Mail-In Voting Puts Nation on ‘Dangerous Path Toward Dictatorship’
Anyone who believes in the right to vote should enthusiastically embrace voting by mail. Without it, tens of millions of voters will be denied the opportunity to safely exercise their cherished right to vote.
Tayve Neese: Blessing the Locusts
Let them, in their fixation,
make one song from a thousand bodies.
Karen J. Greenberg: Accountability in Trump’s America
All told, the U.S. president has been a perfect model in deflecting all responsibility, even as the death toll soared over 150,000 with more than four million cases reported nationwide and no end in sight.
Sarah Browning: Petworth, Early Evening
A man is stabbing women in my neighborhood. Most poor people in my city are Black and because of the warnings of 400 years I assume the man stabbing … Continue reading →