African Tapestry At first lightAfrica is like our soulsLong dark green hillsLoping into a distanceWhich can't be measured.Alive like nothing we have met beforeAnd longed to meet.The pounding of small delicate hoovesEchoing the pounding of the heart We travel never reaching thereThose colors dependent on a distanceWe never find ourselves insideThe singular color that lies... Continue Reading →
Observations on Racism (part 2)
Reverse Racism, Affirmative Action and “Partisanship” During the last week, an episode occurred that should help clarify some things I said about racism in part one of these “Observations on Racism.” That sad but revealing event was the noose found hanging in the garage of the only prominent black NASCAR driver, Bubba Wallace. It... Continue Reading →
Some Observations about Racism (Part 1)
In the ongoing debate about racism in our country, there seems to be a lot of confusion about basic terms. This is often a serious obstacle to any real dialogue. With that in mind, I thought I would share a few thoughts and try to clarify things a bit. To my mind, this is not... Continue Reading →
“The Great Evasion,” Building Community, and Masking
Frontier Con-Man In a previous post (On Radicalism, “Civil Disobedience”, and the “Anti-Lockdown” Protesters), I mentioned my old history professor, William Appleman Williams. Williams was a member of “antifa” (that is, a decorated executive officer in the US Pacific fleet during WWII). I believe he also marched with MLK and was targeted by Senator Joe... Continue Reading →
Wicked: A Poem on the Demonization of Others
Wicked is from an unpublished collection entitled “Nursery Rhymes for the New World” What a lot of wicked peopleDreaming wicked, wicked dreamsPitch a missile in their midstHear their wicked, wicked screams There see the wicked widow keeningFor the fragments of her wicked manAnd a wicked son, a wicked daughterIn silence holding wicked hands Nearby a... Continue Reading →
The Absurd Fallacy that Both Sides are Really the Same
A few days ago, I posted a flyer on Facebook. It was a little spoof on the old dance craze “The Limbo.” In it I suggested that Trump’s supporters were constantly “lowering the bar” and that, as a result, we were all “dancing to the same tune” (i.e. reacting to Trump’s nonsense) and would all... Continue Reading →
The “Covid Conniption”: A Star Trek A Parody in 7 short parts
“The Covid Conniption (part one…) The Starship Enterprise has returned to Earth from the distant future to the old earth year 2021. We are on the bridge… Chekov to Kirk: (excitedly) “Captain, I’m getting a recorded distress call from a continent on this planet.”Kirk:(tensely) “What does it say?”Chekov: (puzzled) “It just says, “Testing, testing, testing”... Continue Reading →
Oxymorons: A Poem
When people speak from both sides of their mouth you get…. Oxymorons People who once liked the old segregationLater turned and became fans of deregulationThey boast of their love of our great constitutionBut still wave the flag of the confederate solutionThey boast that they’re patriots and wave high the flagBut simple “voting by mail” somehow... Continue Reading →
The State of the Ship
The helmsman of the ship of stateDrunk on power, at his wheel pratesOf terror, evil, and bad menWhile his servile followers "ahem" Surrogates note every lame botched wordBroken syntax, the absurdAnd loyally his words transmuteInto a fine bold stance that sounds astute War isn't war but reconstructionJustice is equal to obstructionTorture doesn't bring one shameIf... Continue Reading →
America as a “Battlespace”: A Note on Traumatic Stress in the Age of Trump
I have noticed a strange thing in the last few years. I used to know and play a lot of protest songs—mostly civil rights and anti-war songs. More and more often I find I can’t play and sing these songs without becoming extremely emotional. It is like a wave of grief just rises up and... Continue Reading →
Mind-Cast 