By Ariel M. Goldenthal The day after the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, I lied to my second-grade students: You are safe at Hebrew school. You will love learning the Aleph-Bet this year. Yes, you can open the windows and feel the early fall air ripple through the gaps between your outstretched fingers. You can [...]
By Kelsey D. Mahaffey “In the book of the earth, it is written: nothing can die.” – Mary Oliver The morning after it happens again—weary with all the thoughtless use of prayer, I return to the Native path— for solace, for remembrance, for release— But grief is a heavy hold. Last night, I lay awake [...]
By Mark Williams I’m scrolling through my Facebook feed—sunsets, cats, lost dogs, cats—when I see a post from a friend I’ve known for thirty-plus years. Someone like someone you know, I bet. Your someone might roof Habitat homes, deliver meals to shut-in’s, conduct sing-a-longs at elder cares, teach kids to read. Without divulging my someone, [...]
By Dotty LeMieux The gun tucked neatly in the large man’s waist I avoid his stare, move slowly, lock the door I move slowly out the door Cap pistol held at the ready The gun moves out in the large man’s hand Children run fast across the lawn I cross the lawn going pop pop [...]
By Flavian Mark Lupinetti when the gun smoke clears and the EMTs bring the bodies to my ER and I ask why they bothered and they say we need someone to pronounce them most times I say you pronounced them just fine but today I can’t bear to make that joke because these aren’t so [...]
By Holly Stovall I opened the search bar, typed in "middle-aged women support Black Lives Matter" and narrowed the results to "images." Google spit out a white couple, on the stairway in front of their mansion, pointing guns at protesters marching by. It's not what I was looking for, but Google taunted me—Aren't you curious? [...]
By Phyllis Wax Fly the flag at half-mast all the time because every day, someone kills himself or someone else or a bunch of someones with a gun. Fly the flag at half-mast because America loves guns more than she loves people. Social issues are a major focus of Milwaukee poet Phyllis Wax. Among [...]
By Heidi J. Lobecker Ring-a-round the playground A backpack full of bullets Pop! Pop! Pop! We all fall down. Heidi J. Lobecker has lots of fun writing. If it‘s not fun, she finds something better to do, for example: reading, sailing, camping, and eating s’mores. Photo credit: Edwin Rosskam, Chicago, Illinois, 1941, via the [...]
By Kathy Lauderdale December 25, 2016 finds me in Richmond, Virginia, trying to put a festive face forward while feeling stark desolation and heartache. The election leaves me questioning the values of my neighbors. Everything I know to be true has shifted, resulting in an odd sense of being off balance. My sweet daughter-in-law, Katie, [...]
By Jane Rosenberg LaForge They are offered in rote as if the supply is bottomless; like abstractions, inaction and aesthetics; they could be meaningless or mean anything, so long as they are not so sustaining as steak & lobster for the impoverished; more like succotash & wilted lettuce. Maybe they’re a law firm the kind [...]
By Dina Honour From Business Day: A big name greeting card company today announced a launch date for its highly anticipated new range of greeting cards. The Second to None cards were designed in response to the increase of gun-related casualties, and specifically targets consumers looking for a way to reach out to friends or relatives affected by gun-violence. The [...]
From: Director of Market Research, Irrational Fears Division To: Executive Director, Enough Already with the Guns, USA (EAWG USA) I’m writing to follow up on our discussion about whether any lessons can be learned from California’s speedy abolition of open carry after the Black Panthers’ armed protest at the state Capitol building in 1966. I understand [...]
