Paul Christensen: The Reluctant Summer
I could feel the rage building as I saw the nation writhe, then uncoil its wrath and take to the streets. I was demoralized to realize that my whole life had been lived in the twisted emotions of a country poisoned to its soul with racist hatred.
Jane Goodall: Humanity is finished if it fails to adapt after Covid-19
The famous primatologist calls for an overhaul of food habits to prevent a future pandemic.
Noam Chomsky: Trump Has Adopted a “Viva Death!” Approach to the Presidency
In this interview, Chomsky provides insight on how we can best grapple with the current moment – and prepare for the sobering future.
Michael Simms: All-time Most Popular Posts in Vox Populi
My favorite comment about Vox Populi comes from contributor Doug Anderson who said, “Vox Populi is basically a personal blog that seems to have swallowed a small planet.”
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.
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.
Doug Anderson: Burning Man
Burning man comes from an instinct and need for carnival, a masking of the respectable self in order to release the animal/imaginative self, but with ritualized decorum and boundaries.
Sydney Lea: Spring Poem in the Season of Corona
I’ve lived enough to expect odd snow-squalls, slapped
To anger by nasty winds. I predict more hours
In which we’re sealed in rooms foursquare and flat,
Where we’ll dream of the past…
Stephanie Hiller: COVID-19 Sparks a Rebirth of the Local Farm Movement
Could this be the beginning of a new food economy?
Christine Skarbek: Musings with the Nightingale
A friend in Connecticut has lost
over 40 friends and relatives to covid-19.
Overwhelmed with grief,
he can no longer speak.
Luara Ferracioli: For a child, being carefree is intrinsic to a well-lived life
Is being carefree a special good of childhood? Is it something that confers meaning on the life of a child, without doing the same for adults? Or do adults need to be more carefree, and so be more like children, in order for their lives to go well?
Michael Simms: Ten things I should have figured out before now
Love is complicated. Courtesy is simple. Start with courtesy.
Lise Ragbir: How Coronavirus Will Shape a Generation
This generation now collectively understands that one’s daily existence can change overnight.
Carolyn Gregory: Listening
Compassion unfolds her bright blue
wings and shelters us.
