I first listened to Amanda Gorman’s Inaugural Poem via radio broadcast on KPFA, but her gorgeous, unforgettable work is equally wondrous to watch or to read, as you prefer. You may do either or both below. Gorman perfectly captured a moment in the history of our “nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished” and an…
It was one hundred thirty years ago today, on January 3, 1891, that L. Frank Baum published an editorial in the aftermath of the Wounded Knee Massacre that called for the total annihilation of the Native American population. Baum would, nine years later, write The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Read on for Baum’s editorial in the…
Sure Could Use that Peace Dividend Now Thirty three years ago the front page of the New York Times featured a stunning report on the possibility of a complete reorientation of the U.S. economy away from war, toward peace. It was all the more remarkable as it was neither written by nor about peace activists…
Fifty-three years ago, the October 12, 1967 edition of the New York Review of Books published “A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority” as part of antiwar activists’ efforts to support draft resistance in opposition to the war in Vietnam. Over 20,000 people signed it, including academics, clergymen, and writers. It urged “that every free man…
U.S. concluded Ho Chi Minh was a Vietnamese nationalist first and foremost, who used the U.S. Declaration of Independence as a model. Ho did not yet see the Soviet Union as a willing or able ally U.S. assurances to the Philippines that it would gain its independence after the end of WW2 encouraged the Vietnamese…
“All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth…
Hughes – the Promise of America was Meaningless Unless Universal Langston Hughes saw Trump coming at least as early as 1936, with the publication of his poem, Let America Be America again. I have journalist Paul Rosenberg to thank for reminding me. As the racist, overgrown child and tv con man who currently occupies the…
Fifty years ago, on Sunday, August 3, 1970, the Reverend Daniel J. Berrigan stepped up to the pulpit of the United Methodist Church of Germantown, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and gave the sermon below. Berrigan, a Jesuit, pacifist, and dedicated anti-Vietnam War activist, was also a fugitive at the time as a member of the Catonsville…
First Full Day at the Pentagon for Ellsberg is a Memorable One 56 years ago, on August 4, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson used an attack on U.S. warships that never happened to justify “retaliation,” and the massive expansion of the U.S. war effort against North Vietnam. Squadron commander James Stockdale was one of the U.S.…
Note from the editor: ‘Booboisie’ is a term coined by that legendarily discourteous American journalist, H.L. Mencken, which he used to refer to those prone to willful ignorance and stupid mistakes.- RR Forty years ago, as the sun rose, illuminating the gleaming skyrises of the Detroit, Michigan riverfront on the third week of July, 1980,…
