I’ve been absent from this blog for nearly a year, during which I underwent some surgery and then moved out of the 3rd-floor walk-up where I’d lived for 37 years to a garden apartment in another part of Brooklyn. I’m finally recovered and settled, more or less, and ready to write again. It’s good to be back! It seems fitting that … Read More
LIFE AMONG THE TREE-CREATURES: From Personal to Political
I have a lifelong soul-deep connection with trees. It began in rural America where I grew up, and deepened in New York City, my chosen home. COUNTRY TREES At … Read More
Women and Kids Form a “Living Petition” for Free Speech
After Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act in June 1917, it became illegal for U.S. citizens to express “disloyalty” when the nation was at war. WITCH-HUNT FOR … Read More
LEGACY OF LITTLE ROCK
September 4, 1957 was supposed to be the first day of school for nine black students with good grades and superb coping skills, selected to help Arkansas comply with … Read More
Women in Pretoria Shout “You Have Struck a Rock!”
In Pretoria, on August 9, 1956, 20,000 women stood for a full thirty minutes in silence. It is said that even the babies … Read More
Hiroshima’s Children Remember Sadako
On the clear, sunny morning of August 6, 1945, a United States airplane, the Enola Gay, suddenly appeared in the sky … Read More
Mother Jones Makes a Hot July Hotter
Mary Harris Jones lost everything. Everything! When the Civil War ended, she was eager to raise her family in peace, … Read More
Ireland’s “Pill Train” X2
In 1971, no one could have imagined that Ireland would have a pro-contraceptive female president (Mary Robinson) by … Read More