“Everybody in the Mississippi Delta was a racist, white or black. Racism was built into our bones. It is a thing we will never recover from having committed, but it also had its side that we always benefitted from…I lived… Read More ›
Month: April 2014
Following in Potentially Vanishing Footsteps: A Latina’s Journey From LA to an Ivy & Back Again
Author’s Note: I thought this piece might have particular significance in light of the Supreme Court’s 6-2 majority decision to allow the state of Michigan, and by extension all states, the right to enact legislation banning the use of consideration… Read More ›
Watching As He Wastes Away: How a Kentucky Prison Let a Mentally Ill Man Starve to Death
As I type this, a delectable, carbohydrate filled pretzel bagel from Servatti’s is busy baking in the convection oven of my favorite coffee shop. Within the next minute or so that bagel will be brought out to my table and… Read More ›
“Because The Money’s Too Damn Good to Leave” : A Look Inside North Dakota’s Oil Boom
There is no acceptable English word to describe how hot it was on the day I ran into Toby. When I started talking to him on the corner of South Main and Charleston in Las Vegas’s arts district it was… Read More ›
Same as it Ever Was: Anti-Semitism in the Ukraine
I am a Jew. I was confirmed in the Episcopal Church, attended a Jesuit college, know The Lord’s Prayer and The Nicene Creed by heart and have never been inside a synagogue for any other purpose besides watching a friend… Read More ›
All That Glitters Is Not Gold: A Look At Detroit’s Lackluster Renaissance
I’ve always found it strange that the melting pot is go to metaphor for those politicians and public figures looking to expound upon the merits of America’s diverse populous, when all a melting pot does is mix ingredients about until… Read More ›
Mob City: How Cincinnati Became The Poster Child for Unstable Race Relations in America
In the early morning hours of April 7th, 2001, a familiar scene was being played out in the Over-The-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati. A 19-year old black man, Timothy Thomas, was walking past a nightclub called “The Warehouse” when he was… Read More ›
Watering Lawns in the Desert: What Las Vegas Can Tell Us About Climate Change (and Ourselves)
If one were to nominate a poster child for the ecological insanity of Western Civilization, the city of Las Vegas would certainly make the shortlist. Take so much as a cursory glance at the landscape on which Las Vegas rests… Read More ›
Dragged Over The Rubicon of Sanity by a Newtown Truther
At this point, I think it’s pretty safe to say that the pioneering physical presence behind the creation of Occupy Wall Street is dead. The movement that it spawned is very much well and alive, but the locus of it… Read More ›
The Eye of God Looks Upon You: Eastern State Penitentiary & The Failure of Solitary Confinement
In three of the four Gospels of the New Testament, the two thieves crucified on either side of Jesus are but bit players. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark portray them as impertinent and ignorant men who readily echoed the… Read More ›