Skye C. Cleary: Philosophy shrugged– Ignoring Ayn Rand won’t make her go away
Philosophers love to hate Ayn Rand. It’s trendy to scoff at any mention of her. One philosopher told me that: ‘No one needs to be exposed to that monster.’ Many … Continue reading
Robert Okaji: Scarecrow Sees
Da Vinci maintained that sight relies on the eye’s central line, yet the threads holding my ocular buttons in place weave through four holes and terminate in a knot. My … Continue reading
Susan Sonde: The Passengers Take Their Seats and Look Forward to the Ride
Because the trip was no less important than the getting there. Because the building-up was marred by the tearing-down. Each in its own way calls for commitment. In an age … Continue reading
William J. Astore: The U.S. Military’s Lost Wars
Overfunded, Overhyped, and Always Over There. One of the finest military memoirs of any generation is Defeat Into Victory, British Field Marshal Sir William Slim’s perceptive account of World War II’s torturous Burma … Continue reading
Walter Bargen: Double-Yoked
Rain dissolves the bedroom windows. Glass puddles and glistens over the deck. Sirens and a storm arrive. Every house in south county stricken. Dawn smeared across the horizon, through the … Continue reading
Eva-Maria Simms: What can we learn from the government shutdown?
The Trump government shut-down, when seen in light of the Republican agenda, seemed like a good idea: government is superfluous, so why not shut it down?
Ofer Raban: There’s a wider scandal suggested by the Trump investigations
The scope of financial crimes unearthed so far by state and federal authorities investigating President Trump and his associates is remarkable. Paul Manafort was found guilty of bank and tax … Continue reading
Judith A. Brice: Before the Terns
It’s always the waves I hear, the lapping of the lake at Walloon— perhaps the first sound my young memory held, before the kingfishers’, the terns’ bolting splash to grab … Continue reading
Abby Zimet: A Dream Where Our Differences Are Erased
Improbably, we found a welcome break from MAGA-hatted punks and the debacle that is D.C. in Wichita, Kansas, where immigrant artists are breaking down barriers, celebrating disparate cultures, bringing together … Continue reading
Majid Naficy: Painters
They have erected scaffolds by the bay And are painting the high towers of power lines. The seagulls circle over their heads Sobbing for their lost lookouts. I count. There … Continue reading
John Samuel Tieman: Elegy for a Poet
Michael Castro 1945 – 2018 while the snow wants to melt winter loiters and I will listen I will listen for you when I need a noun a sudden muscle an animal can use to … Continue reading
Greta Thunberg: Act As If Our House Is on Fire. Because It Is.
“Adults keep saying: ‘We owe it to the young people to give them hope.’ But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.”
Sandra McPherson: Birth Mother,
19, sunsuit. The shadow . of the Nehi covers her . navel. The orange . in black and white flavors the throat . down to the amnion. Father’s grape . … Continue reading
Ruth Conniff: Our Dangerous Impulse to Demonize the Other Side
We need to check our impulse to see young white men as evil.
