Archive For The “Odds & Ends” Category
To do what nobody else will do, in a way that nobody else can, in spite of all we go through, is to be a nurse. – Rawsi Williams, JD, BSN, RN, PhD I work as an ICU nurse. For the past two years I have “lived” in an N95 mask at work, except for…
We must remember that refugees are almost always people whose homes, family members, and everything they once loved and held dear are either destroyed or seriously at stake…They are simply trapped in a zone in which staying under such circumstances and swallowing humiliation in the “host” countries is unbearable; going home is impossible, because often…
But always – do not forget this… – always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on…
Go where the Amen corner isn’t. – Bill Maher Walking around the neighborhood, on a sunny Sunday morning, I am struck by my minority status. Wonder what Jews felt, headed back home from the market in Nazi Germany those early years. When it was all talk of freedom and payback and then some voter suppression…
A man falling into dark waters seeks a momentary footing even on sliding stones. – George Eliot You probably heard about the school shooting. Which one you ask? The one where the shooter’s parents ran for their own safety and went into hiding like somebody was trying to gun them down. Mom wrote a letter…
One thing is sure. Democracy is doomed. This is our last election. It is fascism or communism. We are at the crossroads; I take the road to fascism. – Father Charles Coughlin The German-American Bund was an even more formidable grouping than the Silver Shirts, reaching a height of 25,000 members. The Bund’s leader, Fritz Kuhn,…
Humans are vulnerable and rely on the kindnesses of the earth and the sun; we exist together in a sacred field of meaning. – Joy Harjo Yesterday was the last day of this month, National Native American Heritage Month. Longer than Black History Month, it must be noted. What did you do to celebrate real…
I call them “Dogged Writers” because you got to call them something. Dogged Writers are not necessarily the best or the greatest, whatever those words mean in literature, these are the authors I would want to talk a walk with maybe and share a few drinks. Just looking at them would make me feel better….
“God Almighty has himself drawn the color line.” – Louisiana Governor Samuel Douglas McEnery The Thibodaux massacre was an episode of racial violence that occurred in Thibodaux, Louisiana on November 23, 1887. It followed a three-week strike during the critical harvest season in which an estimated 10,000 workers protested against the living and working conditions which existed on sugar cane plantations in four parishes: Lafourche, Terrebonne, St….
Silver Legion of America The Silver Legion of America, commonly known as the Silver Shirts, was an underground American fascist organization founded by William Dudley Pelley that was headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina. History A nationalist, fascist group modeled after Benito Mussolini’s blackshirts, the paramilitary Silver Legion wore a silver shirt with a blue tie, along with a campaign hat and blue corduroy trousers with leggings. The uniform shirts bore a scarlet letter L over the heart: an…