My mind is still occupied with thoughts of the 58 people killed in Las Vegas, and many more who will not recover fully from wounds. An apparently “normal” American collected the means, and took the time to meticulously plan a mass murder. Upon these terms the shooter decided to write the final chapter of…
Another morning. A few days ago, a sixty-four year old guy mowed down over fifty and wounded many more after careful preparation. This took place in Las Vegas, our city of excess. Several undeclared wars, Iraq and Afghanistan continue to simmer, producing a daily quotient of dead and maimed. Additional conflagrations are verbally threatened,…
Tom Petty passed away over the weekend. He was one year younger than I. There was vitality and nourishment for the spirit in those songs coming over the radio. I am sorry that I did not choose to see him live in concert when I had the opportunity. I’ve always liked this song, “Runnin’…
I was in North Carolina when the news broke on the music festival shooting in Las Vegas. I happened to check my phone news-feed late in the evening, and there it was. The text displayed a estimated number of casualties at the time. I clicked on the video/audio clip associated with the story. Immediately…
Durham of my youth was a sleepy town, seldom in the news. This changed with the advent of the Civil Rights movement of the mid 1960s. Durham was in the news recently. A crowd demonstrating against the implicit racism of the Trump administration pulled down the statue of the confederate solder that has stood…
Its Sunday morning. A few fellow guests join me for my morning coffee here at the Holiday Inn. I cannot help but overhear the collegial conversation of three older males, and several young adult males planning for a baseball game later in the day. I’d lay odds that the older guys are coaches, and…
A warm Fall evening is the perfect time for a walking exploration of Main Street Durham. The old street is substantially arrayed in 21st Century commerce and entertainment. Upscale Salons, Bars, Silicon Valley type incubators for fledgling business startups, and of course the restaurants, make up the mix of tenants for the old 20th…
Here I am in my hometown, Durham, North Carolina. It is hardly worth mention that much has changed since I left for the big city. The truism that “one cannot go home again,” is true with the sadness that is endemic to time. This place has changed and so have I. What was a…
Auschwitz (Laggiù, ad Auschwitz, lontano dalla Vistola) There, at Auschwitz, far from the Vistula, love, on the northern plain in a field of death: funereal, cold, rain on the rusted poles, and a tangle of steel fences: and no trees or birds in the grey air, or above our thought, but inertia and…
Today, the middle of the work week, the heat outside cools, it’s feeling a bit like Fall. Starbucks is a hubbub. Those present are regulars to my eye, parents, grandparents seated with children before the kids are off to school and the adults off to the days planned activities. The world is a collection…
