S. and B. Lett Every day in America it seems there is a report of police brutality or a shooting of an unarmed civilian, often a shooting death. The typical response from a generally white public is ho-hum. Why is this? One reason is that white people of certain socio-economic classes have no experience of,…
W.J. Astore In December 2010, I wrote the article below for Truthout. Even as the economy was sputtering and jobs were scarce, Congress was seeking to cut unemployment benefits. Eventually, a compromise was forged to maintain the benefits; the price was more tax cuts for the richest Americans. Angered by the hypocrisy and greed on…
W.J. Astore (Also at Huffington Post at this link.) This year the USA celebrates the 200th anniversary of The Star-Spangled Banner. Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics, inspired by the battle at Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, and it officially became the National Anthem in 1931. Notoriously difficult to sing (my favorite rendition…
A World War II Veteran I am 90 years old. I have lived through much. My parents were immigrants from post-World War I Europe. Following the Crash of 1929 we were very poor. Our country was awash in poverty, and anti-Semitism was widespread. When I was about ten years old, my father, who had been…
Greg Laxer The common thread connecting these three recently deceased individuals stands out like a flashing neon sign for an objective observer: they were all executed without benefit of arrest, arraignment and trial. That is why I dare to link the supposed arch-fiend bin-Laden with a young black man in a St. Louis suburb and…
Richard Sahn Listening to pundits in the last two days, both on mainstream as well as on alternative TV networks, on the death of Robin Williams has been very disappointing. I keep hearing that his suicide was the result of a neurological disease—that is, a diseased brain. He couldn’t help himself because he was “sick.” …
Clay Bonnyman Evans This essay is adapted from a chapter in a book (not yet available) about Lt. Bonnyman and Tarawa, yesterday, today and tomorrow. Despite an overwhelming post-9/11 cultural consensus, serving in the military does not automatically make anyone a hero. That’s just an empty, self-regarding myth Americans tell themselves to soothe a guilty…
W.J. Astore Dissent is fundamental to democracy. Or so we claim. Until such dissent makes us angry or uncomfortable. Then we yell at the dissenter to shut up; better yet, we denounce him or her as a traitor to … well, whatever fits. But responsible criticism of the actions of one’s government is not disloyalty;…
W.J. Astore. Also featured at Huffington Post. This August marks the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I. That “Great War” was many things, but it was most certainly a war of machines, of dreadnought battleships and “Big Bertha” artillery, of newfangled airplanes and tortoise-like tanks. Industrial juggernauts like Great Britain, France, and…
Richard Sahn When I was in the middle of my Bar Mitzvah celebration at age thirteen in Brooklyn the furthest thing from my mind was that fifty seven years later I would find myself highly critical of Israel–specifically, the Israeli government–the refuge for European Jews after the Holocaust. I’m fortunate, or maybe unfortunate, to have…
The Contrary Perspective 