A Journalist/1
1. The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. –Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting 2. She had first traveled to Vietnam in 1955, glad to see that…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
A Prayer
1. The following prayer was composed by Dr. Gordon Livingston, who graduated from West Point and did three tours in Vietnam as a surgeon with the 11th Armored Calvary Regiment. At a 1968 ceremony for…
Community: The Structure of Belonging
Jean Durel, Jim and J’Ann Allen will share their perspectives and lead a discussion on Peter Block’s book, Community: The Structure of Belonging at the Allens’ home on 4519 Oakland Avenue in the Forest Park…
Julian Assange, Enemy of the State
Listen to Julian Assange speak from the Ecuador’s embassy in London to a side meeting of the UN General Assembly last Wednesday.
Reading Can Change Your Life (Or At Least Your Friday Night)/Patisotagami*
“So last night I went with my friends to this bar The same bar they’ve been going to for two years Drinking the same overpriced drinks they always drink Making the same chit-chat with the…
Some French writer once posed this question: “Do you want to be read one time by 10,000 people, or 10,000 times by one person?”
I could identify with some of the following, as regards both The Book of Mev and Dear Layla…. “Some people may have thought that this book was too personal, too confessional. But what these people…
Bodhisattva Training
To me, the Five Mindfulness Trainings are the substance of a bodhisattva. A bodhisattva is a living being animated by the strong desire to help awaken other people, relieve their suffering, and bring them happiness….
A Poem by Dorothee Sölle: hospital in haiphong
doan is three years old in his head a fragment of that handy bomb that leaves buildings undamaged never puts a factory out of production doesn’t even harm bridges
Happiness
Sitting here with you No agenda Breathing in and out No to-do list Being calm and at ease No strategic plan Looking into your eyes No rubrics
Coming to Clarity during the Vietnam War
At first I would not believe that our allies, our liberators, the Americans, would plan and carry out programs which were total annihilation sweeps. I felt as did so many good Germans during the Nazi…