America the Dutiful By Michael Murry In the Land of the Fleeced and the Home of the Slave Where the cowed and the buffaloed moan Where seldom we find an inquisitive mind And the people pay up with a groan While at home on the range when the firing begins Not a word of encouragement…
W.J. Astore This summer marks the 100th anniversary of World War I. Today in my daily “alert” from The New York Times, there are five articles related to the war. Steven Erlanger writes about how the war brought fundamental changes to the world; Jim Yardley writes about the Yanks in the Second Battle of the…
b. traven A dimwit president and his neo conservative handlers have left a feckless president and his neo liberal handlers a conflicted, imponderable, and explosive world we now live in. Obama, with the same nationalistic hubris of his predecessor has pivoted our massive sea power to the Pacific and Far East to thwart what he…
Andy Piascik Summer approaches and the stench of war is all around. Or, as the great Bob Marley put it, Everywhere is War. Start with the commemorations over a five-week span of Memorial Day, Flag Day and Independence Day, all presented varyingly as celebrations of our war dead, symbols of our greatness, the freedoms we…
By Michael Murry. Introduction by William Astore. In 2007 I wrote an article for TomDispatch entitled, “If We Lose Iraq, You’re to Blame.” Its premise was the notion that those most responsible for losing Iraq (Bush/Cheney and Crew) would succeed in deflecting blame from themselves and shifting it onto anyone who opposed the war. Turns…
W.J. Astore Readers of The Contrary Perspective are privileged to read the searing “polemical” poetry of Mike Murry. A Vietnam veteran, Murry writes insightfully and powerfully about U.S. culture and history. His poems are challenging in the best way, because they challenge us to think again about America’s legacy and the harm we often inflict,…
by Alex Dunn So, further rumblings from the old countries have reached the shores of the United States. A familiar sound, but this time originating from a different place – Ukraine. The sound itself? Russian tanks, once again bulldozing their way into a peace-loving nation. To European ears, the rumble is louder and more disconcerting…
Daniel N. White The best ever analysis of the United States’ strategic position comes from a speech Abraham Lincoln made in Springfield, Illinois, in 1858 if my memory serves me rightly, at the annual Springfield Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner. Lincoln got to talking about the United States and its position in the world, and said: “All…
b. traven I’ve got to admit that a pet peeve of mine is senior members of the Democratic party who talk the talk of liberals or progressives but walk the walk of self seeking hypocrites who are only interested in their own careers. Of course my leading peeve is our liberally eloquent president who can…
We have appointed Michael Murry as the Contrary Perspective’s “poet laureate” and have decided to bring his ” Polemical Poetry” to our readers as a regular feature that will appear every month. From time to time established poets have written verse that is political and verges on the polemical but Michael has brought his poetry…
The Contrary Perspective 