Video: The Addams Family dancing Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones
For a brief moment, forget the hurricanes, the threat of nuclear war, the fires burning in LA, Montana, Washington, DC and the hearts of white supremacists. Breathe in. Breathe out. And repeat after me. “Hey Ho……Let’s go!”
Adrian Blevins: My Problem with the Rules
If my nine-year-old son behaves in any manner contrary to the rules and regulations by which humankind has agreed to conduct itself since the day we got civilized and invented … Continue reading
Molly Fisk: Washington Square — New York, 1941
His eyes lose focus,
and his other senses — so long ignored in deference
to saturated color — come alive, more vivid now
because of their confinement.
Lawrence W. Britt: 14 Characteristics of Fascism
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 the … Continue reading
Greg Thielen: The Work of True Freedom
I recently moved back to Arizona, the state where I was raised, from California, to help my mother take care of my father who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. My … Continue reading
Michael Simms: Hammer
On East Carson Street, skinny white boys
Slump in front of tattoo parlors
Scratching their arms.
Video: Lawrence Ferlinghetti reads “Pity the Nation” (text included)
. Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (born 1919) is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. Author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, … Continue reading
Stephen Dobyns: Stars
The man took the wrong fork in the road. It was out in the country. They saw no signs. It was getting dark. They began to blame each other. Should … Continue reading
Joshua Wilkey: Blessed are the White Trash
I grew up poor. Often, when one reads memoirs or oral histories from folks who grew up where I did — that is, in Appalachia, or in the South, or somewhere … Continue reading
W. H. Auden: Refugee Blues
Say this city has ten million souls,
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place for us.
Video: Operatico Politico vs Trump (Rossini Edition)
. Opera singers Rebecca Nelsen and Eric Stoklossa of Operatico Politico brilliantly summarize the Trump administration with a little help from Rossini. .
James A. Lucas: US Has Killed More Than 20 Million People in 37 “Victim Nations” Since World War II
After the catastrophic attacks of September 11 2001 monumental sorrow and a feeling of desperate and understandable anger began to permeate the American psyche. A few people at that time … Continue reading
Lena Khalal Tuffaha: Circling the Dome of the Sky
What she called home was a jar of olives shaken from the tree by hand sorted and stabbed then pressed one against the other doused in lemon and salt. What … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: Another Birthday and the Heart Sutra
Now well past the age T’Ang poets sent old men
to the mountains to wander and live close to the bone.
