Photo: Selma High School students (l-r) Grady Broadnax, Fatima Salaam, Tad Bartlett, Jacinta Lake Thomas, and Malika Sanders Fortier, on the steps of the Selma Board of Education building, January 8, 1990. Patricia Cavanaugh McCarter, photographer. I was six when my family moved to Selma, Alabama, during the recession that closed . . .
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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 . . .
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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 . . .
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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 . . .
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(Photo from “Where are They Now: Ballparks of Bull Durham”) Two decades before the small old ballparkbecame a shrine to Hollywood nostalgiaI was there, a college kid, new in town,sitting alone, ten rows from the fieldand five hundred miles from home.The sparse crowd that steamy Sundayunder a milky August sky, the park itself,with . . .
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(Hurricane Katrina, https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/) I was seated at my computer, trying to convince myself that watching one of my favorite YouTuber’s “Top Ten Nude Lipsticks” videos was germane to my dissertation research (it was not), when the short audio tone from my “digital assistant” Alexa—yes, I caved and along with 100 million other folks . . .
Read More“First, let’s get one thing straight. I’ve never set foot in a war zone.” Those were the words that began my last post on this site, on May 23rd, two days before the cold-blooded killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police. At that time, I wanted to be explicit about the . . .
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My wife said it took only one week for hydroxychloroquine to turn me into an old man. I’d been diagnosed with lupus, and it’s the drug of choice used to combat that disease. But for many people it’s difficult to tolerate, curiously causing problems that mirror the disorder. On the medication, my . . .
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(Demonstration in Rochester, New York, on May 30, 2020. Democrat and Chronicle.) I sat in front of the television set three nights ago, watching replays of a video of the choking death of a hand-cuffed and pinned-down African American by a white policeman in Minneapolis earlier in the week. These were alternated with . . .
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