The original to this parody was a look back at a real Easter intentional disaster, in Ireland in 1916, the Easter Rising that led to killings and then executions by the British. I don't want to trivialize that, but a new "terrible beauty" could be born this Easter if we refuse to give human lives … Continue reading Easter, 2020: Is This What Trump Wants?
The ancestor I am named for traveled to Norfolk, VA with his daughter Esther in 1800. They both died there of yellow fever and were buried there in an unmarked grave along with other victims of an outbreak not large enough to be considered notable, so common were such occurrences at that time. Though vaccination … Continue reading Interlude: Our Lives
There are people in my family seduced White Supremacist thinking. They are young; they are male; they live outside the metropoles; they did not finish college; they are smart; they are aggrieved. They feel held back by a society that, in their view, puts more weight on the needs of women and minorities than on … Continue reading One Tragedy of White Supremacy
What is wrong with our Democratic candidates? In Las Vegas on Wednesday night, three Democratic primary candidates, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar, could do no more than try to drag down the others. Two, Mike Bloomberg and Joe Biden, stood there contributing little. And one, Bernie Sanders, simply said what he has said … Continue reading Primary Debates: It’s Time to Stop the Idiocy and Get Serious
Back when I was a drunk, everything was always someone else’s fault. Eventually, I discovered, with Jimmy Buffett, that it was “my own damn fault.” Once I accepted that, I could get sober and build something out of the ruins. I no longer had to be destructive…. Denial of responsibility, the flip side of … Continue reading Reducing White Supremacy
This is for those who don’t yet understand, not for those who have lived it. Casual employees have never been treated well. They come and go with a shrug on the parts of institutional executives. Organizations know that they need a certain number of permanent employees they treat well in order to maintain the cohesion … Continue reading Casualization: A Primer
The outrages foisted on the United States by a belligerent minority defy belief. Nothing we've experienced prepared us for what is happening now. Though the above was said, pre-Trump, by the right, it is we in the real, inclusive majority (a majority that, unfortunately, doesn't cohere as Trump's new Republicans do) who are facing the … Continue reading Overcoming the Travesty of Belief
