By Joseph Orosco (June 3, 2020) The past week has seen an explosion of urban uprising that has not been experienced in the US in decades. Almost 5000 people have been arrested nationwide in protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd at the hand of police in Minneapolis. What is unique about this moment is that a majority…
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By Zakk Flash (April 28, 2020) It took 20 years, from 1955 to 1975, for the United States to lose 58,220 men and women — 47,434 in combat — in Vietnam. In less than four months, just as many Americans will have died from the #Covid19 pandemic — the toll, on April 26, stood at 55,383, a few thousand shy of the…
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By Louis Colombo (April 27, 2020) I’ve seen too many posts implying that opening up the economy/getting back to work is simply an effort to boost the profits of the rich. Invariably, these posts come from folks on “the left.” I won’t debate the truth in that claim, but if this is all that gets posted, seen, shared, communicated, then…
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By Rivera Sun (April 21, 2020) I want to share a story. It’s personal. Here in Taos, NM, our governor was on the early side of the stay-at-home orders. Our businesses closed, the town turned into a ghost town. We even have a nightly curfew. But here’s the thing: our total COVID-19 cases are 15. They have plateaued for two…
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By Zakk Flash (April 20, 2020) They don’t want to “open the economy.” That’s bullshit language, cooked up in some think tank and seized upon by the media as a neutral descriptor instead of a right-wing euphemism for dooming hundreds of thousands of immunocompromised, elderly, homeless, imprisoned, and marginalized people to an early, painful death. These folks need our support….
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By Red Corbeau (April 19, 2020) It is difficult to argue for a ‘stay at home’ strategy to limit the deaths when so many unemployed people are now wondering where the money is going to come from for food and rent. I understand the temptation to deny the severity of this pandemic and, out of fear, clamor for an immediate…
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By Louis Colombo (April 6, 2020) In a properly civilized world, we would view this pandemic as nothing but a reminder of our interconnectedness to nature, a reminder that we are part of, but not above, nature. We would treat this time as a time to pause, retreat, reflect, be with those we love, tend to those we care about….
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By Joseph Orosco (March 31, 2020) Some thirty years ago, Cesar Chavez staged his last major hunger fast. This fast went on for thirty-six days. In his statement issued at the end, Chavez said he had begun the fast because he had to do penance; he was ashamed of himself. For all his years as an organizer, he said…
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By Tom Motko (March 30, 2020) (For National Viet Nam Veterans’ Day 3/29) Please do not thank me for Viet Nam. Just welcome me home and let me finally rest. Gratitude misplaced grants you no absolution. Congratulate my survival and my brothers’ but atone for your country and its sins. Do penance for the whores and the half bloods, put…
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By Zakk Flash (March 25, 2020) We’re going to see some serious supply chain problems as my fellow “essential workers” and I fall sick. Workplace protections have never been good in most industries; I’m grateful for the Teamsters collective bargaining agreement that I work under that gives me a bit more security. Unions are going to be a big part of what…
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By Joseph Orosco (March 24, 2020) Looking around for articles that highlighted speculative fiction responses to pandemics, I ran across this piece from Alan Yuhas from a few years ago. Yuhas mentions some obvious things such as Camus’s The Plague and The Walking Dead, etc, but what I found most interesting was a mention of Italian Renaissance writer Boccaccio and…
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