Children with Sparklers in Provincetown (Robert Frank)
Nation
A World Without Borders
I just wanna feel myself, you want me to kill myself
Patriotic Culture (and Cant): George Bancroft’s History of the American Revolution
How loud did “the shot heard round the world” sound when you were young?[1]
The Age of Paine
“Where liberty is, there is my country,” declared Benjamin Franklin, to which Thomas Paine replied, “Where is not liberty, there is mine.”…
Future’s So Bright I Need VR Goggles
I still feel the hunger after all these years. The pangs spark at the strangest times—as attention wanes at co-worker’s oft-told story; ascent 302 of the thousand times I climb my apartment staircase, moments of confusion amidst a girl’s mixed signals. I want to go back to that safe, warm, strong place of my childhood. I want to play video games again.
Back to the Future
First is reposting (below) what Nathan Osborne wrote in November 2017 after the mass shootings in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs.
The Thing (A Month of Facebook Posts)
July 5: Stop reporting on the Thing as if he were a real anything.
Our Amy (Klobuchar in Iowa)
It was a very warm and sunny Saturday when Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar came down from the north country for a visit.
The Progressive Bubble
When is a fact not the truth? When it’s incomplete.
Nile. Hudson. Rio Grande.
i.m. Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and Valeria Ramirez
Black History Soundtrack
Sparked by outrages on the southern border, The Rev. William Barber will speak in Raleigh, North Carolina tomorrow where he’ll aim to update Frederick Douglass’s most famous speech: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of the July?” Rev. Barber’s address is titled: “What to the Immigrant and People of Color is the Fourth of July?” He’ll be speaking at the Pullen Memorial Baptist Church and the name of that institution reminded me of a hero of black music who grew up in Raleigh’s Baptist community. Don Pullen made blue-black music as profound as Douglass’s testament.
For Rev. Barber (and every citizen), three shots of Pullenspiration…
MC/DC (Biden Now)
Although the rain had thoughtfully let up, midday remained overcast and chilly on Wednesday 1 May, so it wasn’t the weather that brought me, one of my Boys, and a couple hundred other people to an Iowa City brew-pub located in a non-site, amidst building construction and a city-park-in-progress. And it wasn’t to celebrate International Workers’ Day, either. No, we were gathering to hear “Middle Class Joe” Biden.