Blog / Our America

His Way with Words

July 10, 2020 - By Ward Schumaker

Donald Trump finds some stiff competition in the words of former presidents:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident...” Thomas Jefferson
“A house divided against itself cannot stand...” Abraham Lincoln.
“Speak softly and carry a big stick...” Theodore Roosevelt
“The only thing we have to fear...” Franklin Delano Roosevelt
“The buck stops here...” Harry S. Truman
“Ask not what your country can do for you...” John F. Kennedy

And so many others.

Yet Donald has a way with words, a way like no other. No matter how often we might assume we’ve already heard his best, he still manages to awaken us each day with some even more amazing statement on Twitter.

We may be...

This Is Now

July 4, 2020 - By Kwame Ture

Editor's Note: On July 3, 2020 ("Independence Day, observed"), the POTUS delivered a speech on illegally occupied land sacred to Native Americans, with a monument sculpted by a friend of the KKK as his backdrop. To many, the aim behind his intentionally divisive words seemed clear: to win reelection by igniting a new Civil War. In response...

Idolatry

June 23, 2020 - By Ward Schumaker

In the year 2020, is it still comforting to be assured that God is on our side? Do we sleep better, knowing God put Trump in the White House? That he is the Chosen One? That the people working for him were brought to their position by God's providence? Or that Trump has a spiritual advisor capable of scaring the hell out of demonic spirits?

One nation, under God: that's us!

See Ward's other posts Kids-In-Cages, Trump Papers, and Fiddling during the First 1000,000.

WARD SCHUMAKER is an artist known in particular for his hand-painted, one-of-a-kind books. An...

The Knee: A Short History

June 17, 2020 - By Erri De Luca

In 328 BCE, Alexander the Great added the gesture of genuflection to his court ceremonies, following the practice of his vanquished enemy, Persia. It was an act of humility already practiced in Babylonia—diminishing one’s stature to a greater degree than a simple bow.

The practice is common to many religions and extends to private use, by a suitor in proposing marriage.

The human body is expressly political. To participate in a demonstration is already to declare your role as a single drop, part of a dense liquid channeled into a current. In the bleachers at sporting events, the crowd stands up and sits down, intentionally conveying the image of a human wave. The body has public eloquence that everyone can understand.

The knee is the human organism’s...

Bull Durham, 1965

June 12, 2020 - By Allen Stein

(Photo from "Where are They Now: Ballparks of Bull Durham")

Two decades before the small old ballpark
became a shrine to Hollywood nostalgia
I was there, a college kid, new in town,
sitting alone, ten rows from the field
and five hundred miles...