The Big Lie that fueled an attempted coup now forms the basis of an entire political party’s strategy for holding on to power: make it hard for people who are likely to vote the “wrong way” to cast a ballot, label any election they lose as fraudulent, and slowly give themselves the power to overturn elections they disagree with.
Justice can only be achieved by the judicious application of power. Yet all around me I see emergencies–climate change, a Republican party rapidly descending into full-on authoritarianism, a shockingly unequal global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines–and good people failing to use […]
After another week of mass shootings and police murder of unarmed Black men and boys; of despicable voter suppression laws; of political cowardice; and of corporate doublespeak, I’ve had it. For how much longer are we going to pretend that […]
The passage of the American Rescue Plan Act is good news for a nation still reeling from the ongoing pandemic and resultant economic crisis, but it is perhaps even better news for another element of America that is sick: our democracy.
Even after he came close to ending the American experiment, the vast majority of Republicans, including those backed by Koch, continue to stand with the former president. America’s political illness has led to great suffering, death, and inequity.
I used to think that the turning point in the battle against climate change wouldn’t come until the impacts were too obvious to ignore. My fear was that, by this point, it would be too late to forestall the worst outcomes, but at least humanity would wake up to and deal with this existential crisis.
Sometimes, taking a break from the news and work,
I’ll spot the collected works of this or that poet
and, for a moment, have context for despair.
One might reasonably ask why any nonprofit, let alone a nonprofit lender, should dare to comment on politics. Isn’t that best left to pundits and politicians? In ordinary circumstances, I might agree—to a point. But these are not ordinary circumstances.
How lovely it would be to live in a nation where
poetry put down insurrections. Then I might bang out
this stanza and go sue a wolf for stealing the moon.
I try on a suit to look handsome for the moon
ask the mirror what I’ve gained and what I’ve lost.
I mourn the death of those yet to die,
seek an urn to hold the ashes of what might have been.