Elstir’s Point of View
Lubna, If you lived here (or I there), we could have a bi-weekly Proust Reading Club! The following passage is from Marcel Proust, Within a Budding Grove: It was along this train of thought, meditated in silence…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
Magan
O Maestra! O Lovely Miranda in Forest Park! O 6 North Coffee habituée and conversationalist! “The path does not exist. The path, you make by treading on it. By walking, you make the path.” O…
Carpe Diem, U.S. Americans
You have a rich tradition of resistance. You need only read Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States to remind yourself of this. Hundreds of thousands of you have survived the relentless propaganda…
Gospel Subversive
Even when they call us mad, When they call us subversives and communists And all the epithets they put on us, We know that we only preach The subversive witness of the Beatitudes, Which have…
The Price is Worth It*
For Brooke Adams Large nations do what they wish, while small nations accept what they must. –Thucydides Imperialism says it wants to make us happy! –Ernesto Cardenal One does not become revolutionary from science, but…
On Nervousness and Gnats
1. pros•e•cute (pròs¹î-ky¡t´) verb pros•e•cut•ed, pros•e•cut•ing, pros•e•cutes verb, transitive 1. Law. a. To initiate civil or criminal court action against. b. To seek to obtain or enforce by legal action. 2.a. To pursue (an undertaking,…
Jesuit Values
The Jesuits clearly influenced me with their strict organization, their discipline, and their values. [p. 118] I believe that Christ was a great revolutionary. That’s what I believe. His entire doctrine was devoted to the…
The Scholars by William Butler Yeats
Bald heads forgetful of their sins, Old, learned, respectable bald heads Edit and annotate the lines That young men, tossing on their beds, Rhymed out in love’s despair To flatter beauty’s ignorant ear. All shuffle…
A Lifetime of Letters
The Letters of Allen Ginsberg, edited by Bill Morgan (Da Capo Press, 2008) I have a file titled “Noam Chomsky” that contains several letters from the linguist during the 1990s. I first began writing him…
Refuseniks
On Peretz Kidron, Refusenik! Israel’s Soldiers of Conscience (London and New York: Zed Books, 2004) 1. General, your tank is a powerful vehicle It tramples the forest, it crushes a hundred men. But it has one flaw:…