Courage & Activism

A Hope for America

It's time for us to stop hating saints just because most of us haven't yet found the nerve to be one.

A Sign for Joe

My hat is off to you, Joe Darby, and my hand is out, American to American. Welcome home, Joe.

To Expatriates and Citizens of Other Nations

If you care about the war in Iraq, start caring about the activists, the poets, and the free voices who strive to live joyfully despite the harshness of these times.

To Mike Golby

It's tiring as hell to do so and then hear that I am not doing enough, that because I am not hammering at this twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, I must be just "another American".

Photo Proof

When a peace association or an individual is maliciously accused of wrongdoing, you can count on me for stand up for it.

Martyrdom 6: Catholic Martyrs, Attis, Pious Frauds, and BDSM

It was not for beauty that the early church fathers banned the damaged from celebrating the Mass; the prelates were more concerned about the barbarous lengths to which some interpreted scripture and pagan rites in which initiates altered themselves.

Is Spreading Love and Tolerance Asking for It?

Its purpose is to inculcate despair so that we won't work for love and tolerance, so that we will join the ranks of revolutionary movements and extremist nation states

Pfc. Jessica Lynch & Sgt. Robert Ferriol

To those troops who have fought with their eyes open and their hearts against the Iraq Occupation, I tender my apologies for blanketing remarks that I made last spring.

What if they gave an election and nobody came?

Voters would arrive at polling place doors and find themselves unable to exercise their franchise.

General Smedley Butler: American Hero

Smedley Butler and Rudyard Kipling both knew that there was too much of those guns, far too much of those guns.

A conversation

Girl: Mommy, can't we go shopping and save the world?

George McGovern is Not Dead Yet

This was the one political campaign in which I didn't feel that I was selling my soul. It was also when I started to realize how full of hot air the press was and how petty the mushy middle could be when it came to small mistakes.

The Method

They might call this plan "evil": tell them to tell that to Christ, the Buddha, and the rest of the great men and women of spirit.

The Women in Black

It relieved me to see them; they are the shadow which will not be heard in the blinding conservative sun patch of Orange County unless --

I'm Not Different. I am.

I'm secure with being myself in the world. But the fear these critics of mine show when I mention what I like -- the way they parody me as a snob and a know-it-all -- says a lot about them.

Flag Washing

Americans see the flag as themselves. Do something to the flag and it is done to them. This is why they become so irate when you destroy it

Inherit the Wind

NO president in my lifetime (born 1958) has done more to divide the people against themselves as George W. Bush.

Gandhi

It's time to focus on our objectives, to state our objectives clearly, to stand like human beings for our conscientious objectives, and to shame the powerful into ceding their power over us to us.

The Eyes of Texas -- AND the Department of Homeland Security

The mouths of Texas school teachers may be gagged and the voice of the national corporate media deliberately silent, but the eyes of Texas newspapers are open wide and the people of Texas are seeing a new kind of heroism acted out before their very eyes.

Backbone

Those who have stood up to those they don't agree with have no idea of the pain and the price you pay for standing up to those who are your friends and allies in the struggle against oppression.

Vincent Had My Eyes

My friend alina is back from her visit to Holland. She said that she saw my eyes in a self portrait of Vincent Van Gogh.

Death Roll Minus One and Blogging from a Depression

When Rich announced that he was discontinuing his other blog and when blu just disappeared for a couple of weeks, I felt lost. As long as they posted, you see, I knew that they were still fighting the fight.

Spiritual Republic of Zitser

Perhaps it was in that moment that I began to seek ways to speak as myself, for myself. When I talked as a representative, I sounded forced, untrue to myself.

New Battle of Lexington

Where now the embattled students stand

And let out the shout heard round the world.

The Real Mr. Litter King

I call upon all my readers to salute Canada Litter King as the genuine article and a true patriot

Kissinger has Character, Not Lott

I'm sorry that I got caught saying what I thought, but I am not going to resign.

Martyr for Religious Freedom

I just finished writing an article about a most unusual martyr -- a man who died not for his faith, but for the right of others to practice one with which he did not wholly concur.

The Booing at Wellstone's Funeral

The Democrats can win if they validate the just anger that people feel about the stolen election, the war against our will, and other follies of the Bush Administration.

Paul Wellstone Dead

Just two weeks ago, Wellstone put his political future on the line by saying "No" to George W. Bush's war.

Dorothy Day's Temper
Once, a holier than thou told Catholic Worker Movement founder Dorothy Day that she should control her temper better. Day...

Counter Suggestions to Thomas the Child

The problem is not anger, frustration, or despair: it is what we do with it. Do we shut it away and act as if it is not so? I think not.

Valyermo - Holy Imposters and an Angel

Lynn and I rooted our tailbones and did not join in the singing which, as it passed from the first song to "God Bless America", began to resemble the "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" scene out of Cabaret.

Jeanne Jugan

I think her story demonstrates very nicely the danger inherent in any established religious authority, particularly those based on accidents of biology such as sex.

Possessed

Joel the Angel of Wrath came out swinging the terrible swift sword of invective.

Me and St. Martin de Porres

Even though I no longer call myself a Catholic, when I see images of him, I point to them and say "That's St. Martin de Porres. I've named myself after him."

Oedipus the Hero

Oedipus is a true hero, a proto-egalitarian, the kind of man we are supposed to have in the Oval Office at this moment.

Chester A. Arthur: A Model for Ops and Others

He had to do what was good for the country.

Emperor Norton?

People just began writing to me: "Dear Emperor Norton".