“Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba.”
Children run for cover, trampling each other in a desperate sprint for safety.
In the street an 8-year-old boy
lies
motionless as his savior on the cross,
wounds front and back.
His mother rushes to hold him,
somehow knows
where there’s no compassion,
compression can save lives.
Her hands cover his wounds
try to stanch the blood
hold the life within. Continue reading
“Your Tax Dollars Help Starve Children.”
I read this in my newspaper as I bite into my egg sandwich.
Sadness mingles with guilt, egg with cheese, and what am I to do but go on?
I send money to counter the money already spent in my name, hope to undo what I’ve already done without knowing will it be enough, will it save one life, and what is one life balanced against 85,000, against 12 million? Continue reading
The much-awaited Senate proposal to repeal/replace Obamacare has occupied much of my attention this week. Here are a few articles I think do a good job of outlining and analyzing its provisions and impact.
Regardless your position on the United States’ decision to pull out of the Paris agreement to combat climate change, How the GOP Came to View Climate Changes as Fake, in today’s New York Times, is an insightful look at the increasing influence of moneyed interests on American public policy and politics. Even Republicans who accept that climate change is real and believe we must act to stop it are largely afraid to speak up on the issue. Interestingly, among its other insights, this article tells us of a handful of GOP lawmakers who are hoping to buck that trend.
While Trump’s decision on the Paris accord fulfills a campaign promise, that doesn’t necessarily signal a trend. When his infrastructure plan comes out—it’s expected this coming week, although not with all the details in place—it won’t include nearly all the funding he talked about during the campaign. Cities, states and private businesses would have to pitch in to make up the difference: Details form the New York Times in Trump Plans to Shift Infrastructure Funding to Cities, States, Businesses.
The Church of the Informed Citizen—i.e., my house—held services today on the back deck in beautiful, sunny, spring-like Memorial Day weekend weather. Now, as the potatoes boil in preparation for the traditional potato salad of summer—and before I clean my house—here are a few recommended readings.
Two themes emerged for me today. One, inevitably, is the continuing expansion of the investigation into contacts and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The other is children and how our governments serve or fail to serve them. Continue reading
I have a new “Accidental Critic” piece up at Escape Into Life, a review of the book Cast of Characters, which examines the early years of The New Yorker magazine.
I hope you find it interesting, insightful, or some combination of the two. Without giving away the punch line, I can tell you that the book hasn’t yet been returned to the library because my husband now wants to read some or all of it. Fortunately, it’s not yet overdue.
I followed up Cast of Characters by tracking down a collection of essays by (Oliver) Wolcott Gibbs, one of Harold Ross’ first and key hires at The New Yorker. I wanted to read his profile of Henry R. Luce, “Time… Fortune… Life… Luce,” which is most famous for one sentence in which Gibbs mocked the writing style in the Time magazine of his era: “Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind.” Continue reading