That Peace Train Track
Something good has begun Oh, I've been smiling lately -- Cat Stevens There is environmental degradation under Trump, for sure. However, it would be a major mistake to think that things were better under…
Something good has begun Oh, I've been smiling lately -- Cat Stevens There is environmental degradation under Trump, for sure. However, it would be a major mistake to think that things were better under…
The mother of one of the dozen third graders I was teaching last year in a home school setting crossed paths with me the other day. She reminded me of…
Dedicated to the incomparable Sylvie... who introduced me to Rose Dunn and Poco's song about the fifteen-year-old last night "You're the one they'd turn to, the only one they knew…
I intend to help reduce gang violence in my new county -- festooned with gang members of various stripes -- and I'm praying that good folks already engaged in addressing the issue…
"Educators must not shrink from meaningfully dealing with the impact of electronic images or other cultural factors on literacy." -- one of the author's home schooled teens, having just read…
"People need to push the envelope with regard to the Pope's encyclical while simultaneously forcing a discussion about overpopulation, but neither subject is being properly addressed in any quarters." -- Valleria Ruselli…
"The Beatitudes of Jesus are a new and revolutionary model of happiness that contradicts what is usually communicated by the media and prevailing wisdom." -- Pope Francis in his Message…
Special note: Don't read about any of the films mentioned here prior to watching them. This "review" won't spoil anything. "I remember loving The Promise over twenty years ago." -- Annapurna Tosca Sriramarcel…
"And no one dared Disturb the sound of silence" -- from The Sound of Silence New Orleans is known, in great part, for its music. Perhaps that "truth" in its…
It's good, of course, that Dr. Binoy Kampmark documented the recent Gina Haspel Hearings. And it's encouraging to hear that former CIA employee Ray McGovern is writing articles about torture and continuing to…
After the American Civil War, and largely because of it, the South was the poorest region of the United States. Even today, the states that had very large slave populations…
"I feel silly but I don't know anything about Bangalore or Flint, Michigan." -- one of the graduates of a local institution of higher education who the author interviewed yesterday The…
In a local college newspaper I came across a piece on allergies, and the young writer concluded the article lamenting the difficulty people have trying to find the medication they…
Special note: I humbly and respectfully ask that if the good people of La Puente, California read this article that they understand I don't mean to denigrate them. As indicated…
"This Lower East Side is the site of slow motion genocide." -- Miguel Pinero "O bailan todos o no baile nadie" -- the 60s Uruguayan Tupamaros It was around the time…
"Each of us has to be like that kid in the Hans Christian Andersen tale, the one where he calls a shovel a shovel. Why? 'Cause today it's being…
"The only girl I've ever loved was born with roses in her eyes...." -- Jeff Mangum Spoiler Alert: With virtually all reviews of films readers should be warned. This is no exception. That…
“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” -- Blaise Pascal I want to volunteer to serve the community in Stockton, California,…
"Like the Platters said so long ago, only you can make the darkness bright." -- Annapurna Tosca Sriramarcel With 105 Cruise missiles costing about $1.4 million each, $147,000,000 was blown away with…
"Earth Day has become a very general celebration festooned with music, food and feeling good about being with others who are politically correct, acknowledging the importance of Mother Earth…
"That film is a piece of fiction. And through the struggle for independence Gandhi’s greatest antagonist was Dr. Ambedkar. He doesn’t even make an appearance in the film. He doesn’t…
"It's one thing for folks to applaud 'A Raisin in the Sun', Richard, and quite another for them to force legislators to deal with the housing horrors of Harlem and…
"Barry Sanders' book is a brilliant, disturbing reflection on the collapsing moral order of post-modern America. If literacy is the wellspring of selfhood, as Sanders makes clear, our aggressive, image-addicted…
"What Upton Sinclair accomplished the year that Adolf Hitler became the Fuehrer of Germany should inspire everyone around the world." -- Annapurna Tosca Sriramarcel "Twenty-four EPIC candidates, among them…
You'll notice that I end each paragraph in this piece with a question or two. It's the last one, though, that's crucially important. Will you read it twice for…
Echoes of Caryl Chessman have been present at every death penalty and execution in the United States since he was delivered to the gas chamber at San Quentin Prison on…
"I know that you're job-hunting at present and/or looking to volunteer with non-profits. If your article gets posted, it'll stand to undermine your chances of being brought on board in…
"Recidivism has a lot to do with resignation. Ditto for other ills." -- James Baldwin Why do people go back to prison repeatedly, until they die or are too feeble to…
Twenty years ago, geologist Mark Crawford came out with his Toxic Waste Sites: An Encyclopedia of Endangered America, listing the 1300 Superfund sites that -- as the worst pollution locations…
"Right now teachers are-- understandably -- fighting for their rights, but not for the lights that need to be turned on for our youth. And journalists cover up what's most…
"Do something fresh, Richard, for God's sake!" -- Lorraine Hansberry, an atheist, to the author in the early sixties... when he was a young instructor of Dramatic Art Let's have a new…
"His vision, from the constantly passing bars has grown so weary that it cannot hold anything else." -- from Rilke's The Panther I've worked, recruited, organized and serviced -- in various…
Let's play a game. Let's see if you can guess what two crucial questions are not addressed... or not addressed properly in the report directly below. When Albert Wong…
I met with five administrators of schools in San Joaquin County, California this week, and those principals and vice-principals of public and private educational institutions in the Golden State…
"You can't deal with obesity without dealing with poverty and nutrition, and too few educators and parents are getting those connections. It's not enough to put food on the…
"Excuse me, Mr. Murray?" "Yes?" "I just, I just... I just think you're the best!" "Well, kid, then you've got to get out more." -- an exchange which took place…
"Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels' hierarchies?" -- Rainer Maria Rilke The first time I was in Savannah, Georgia -- which was around the…
"A few of the major textbooks don’t even mention the Black Panthers, while most give the organization only a sentence or two. Even the small number that do devote…
Dedicated to my new community... with the intention of providing a model for many communities across the globe. One way I can contribute to reducing gang violence, securing shelter for the…
"Activists would benefit immeasurably by reading Dostoevsky." -- Howard Zinn While U.S. citizens -- "Americans" -- were engaging in the unnecessary bloody Civil War and its horrific aftermath, Feodor Mikhailovich…
Standing on the gallows with my head in a noose. Any minute now I'm expecting all hell to break loose. Troy was in trouble in 2011. Innocent, but on Death…
Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) is a process by a United States government commission to increase United States Defense Department efficiency by planning the end of the Cold War realignment and closure of military installations. More than 350 installations have been…
"Against Nature's silence I use action In the vast indifference I invent a meaning I don't watch unmoved I intervene and say that this and this are wrong and…
Special note: The author is not addressing Heisenberg's uncertainty principle here. "I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart's affections and the truth of Imagination – What…
“The geologist takes up the history of the earth at the point where the archaeologist leaves it, and carries it further back into remote antiquity.” -- Bal Gangadahr Tilak, The…
"Foul, coarse language is a first cousin to apocalyptic talk, and nihilism aligns easily -- finds a home --with writers who have a limited and hard-edged vocabulary. Where is…
"She was the greatest healer of modern times." -- The Venerable Pope Pius XII "She was the greatest saint of modern times." -- Pope Saint Pius X "The Little Flower demonstrated…
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." -- Martin Luther King, Jr. I trust that the thrust of this article will resonate with…
Joan: I hear voices telling me what to do. They come from God. Robert: They come from your imagination. Joan: Of course. That is how the messages of God come…
The recent "mistake" in Hawaii which sent many people running for cover, as if they could actually protect themselves from an incoming ballistic missile from North Korea pushed my…
"Glory be to God for dappled things" -- Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty "The big conversation we need within government has still not begun." George Monbiot responding to UK Prime Minister Theresa…
“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” -- Jorge Luis Borges “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go…
I'm in with the in crowd I go where the in crowd goes I'm in with the in crowd And I know what the in crowd knows -- opening…
The decision to try the leading Nazis at Nuremberg meant developing a system of due process, providing them with defense attorneys and, it has often been forgotten, with access…
"He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, 'Truly I…
"A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now." -- the first line of Thomas Pynchon's incomparable Gravity's Rainbow (describing a…
"I have't. It is engener'd Hell and night must bring this birth to the world's light." -- Act I, Scene 3 of Othello, where Iago speaks about his plan to…
"Teaching children to acclimate is necessary to some degree, of course, but that currently comprises well over ninety per cent of educational effort 'cross the country, 'cross the board.…
by Richard Martin Oxman and the Oxman Collective "The bad news: Your wages are declining. The worse news: Surveys documenting falling wage actually under-estimate how much your wages are declining." --…
"Chomsky has provided irrefutable analysis on the U.S. continuous violation of human rights, both within and outside its own borders." -- from a lead in to a Democracy Now!…
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