Facing the Burden of History
Dorothee Sölle, The Arms Race Kills even without War This is a short collection of talks (rallies, radio programs) mostly given to German audiences in the days when West Germany still existed. The context for…
Category: Dissidents
For Friends in NYC: Norman Finkelstein Lectures
Check out Norman Finkelstein at the Brooklyn Central Library for his lecture series, “Bracing for the Revolution: Landmark Documents and Speeches in American History”: Bracing for the Revolution is a free ten-week class offered as part…
Falcone
Just finished watching the 2005 film, Excellent Cadavers, and reading John Follain’s book, Vendetta: The Mafia, Judge Falcone, and the Quest for Justice.
Our Only Salvation Lies in Words: On Arenas’s Before Night Falls
All dictatorships are sexually repressive and anti-life. All affirmations of life are diametrically opposed to dogmatic regimes. It was logical for Fidel Castro to persecute us, not to let us fuck, and to try to…
Where the Tortured and the Torturer Shook Hands
How many of our most famous novelists, for instance, have bothered to take the two-and-a-half hour flight from Miami and see for themselves what’s going on here? —Lawrence Ferlinghetti I first read Seven Days…
Giving No Peace to Those in the Country Who Are Violating All the Laws of Truth
She represented the honor and conscience of Russia, and probably nobody will ever know the source of her fanatical courage and love of the work she was doing. — Liza Umarova, Chechen singer Colleagues helped…
Alexander Cockburn on Edward Said
Only last week did I learn that Alex Cockburn had a book that came out in 2013, A Colossal Wreck. Earlier today I was reading entries from 2003, and came across this tribute to Edward…
“Why Must the Poet’s Mouth Be Bloodied, His Teeth Caved in?”
More than a decade ago, octogenarian Jesuit felon Daniel Berrigan spoke at the local Jesuit university (in the auditorium of the business school, no less). During the Q & A, a friend of mine asked…
Anna
It is we who are responsible for Putin’s policies, we first and foremost, not Putin. The fact that our reactions to him and his cynical manipulation of Russia have been confined to gossiping in the…
Who Is Learning from History?
1. Oscar Romero’s Letter San Salvador February 17, 1980 His Excellency The President of the United States Mr. Jimmy Carter Dear Mr. President: In the last few days, news has appeared in the national press…