Nov 11Echoes of the American war in VietnamWe are living in perilous, frustrating, horrendous times. It’s hard to do anything — brush your teeth, take a walk, read a book — without remembering that now, right now, bombs are falling on families in Gaza, bombs made in USA. As a child of the Vietnam war era, I…Gaza4 min readGaza4 min read
Oct 23Behind the wallsHistory will judge the atrocities committed in Palestine and Israel I posted this right after the October 7 Hamas attacks, trying to reflect on the broader meaning behind the horror. I have edited it here a bit for clarity. I am so tired of seeing all these posts that exude…Gaza3 min readGaza3 min read
Jul 19The Pseudoscience of ReadingHow the New York Times Gets It Wrong Again The lofty New York Times has chosen, for some reason, to weigh in on the latest dust-up over reading instruction. Since they love nothing better than a horse race, a simplified narrative, they have decided that the latest iteration of phonics…Reading6 min readReading6 min read
May 5We Have No Anti-war MovementOne thing we can be proud of in the US is our long history of anti-war activism, especially in the years after World War II. A massive movement that included active-duty soldiers was a key factor in ending America’s criminal war in Vietnam. …Ukraine4 min readUkraine4 min read
Jan 19A Movement Veteran SpeaksA review of The Movement Made Us by David Dennis Jr. and David Dennis Sr. For the younger generation, and even for elders, “the Civil Rights Movement” gets reduced to gauzy images and simple generalizations. There was a bus boycott, freedom riders, some demonstrators got beaten, voter registration campaigns spread…Mississippi4 min readMississippi4 min read
Aug 4, 2022The wages of exile — American war resisters in CanadaI turned in my draft card and sent it back to my draft board in October of 1967. The anti-war movement was large and growing — our protests escalating and our militancy escalating — but nothing we did stopped our government’s genocidal aggression against the people of Vietnam. On this…Anti War6 min readAnti War6 min read
Jul 8, 2022A Life-changing PoemUpon being asked what was my favorite poem, I wrote this: My relationship with poetry has been fraught and complicated. In high school, William Butler Yeats was an awakening for me. My method of approaching poetry is piecemeal, a jittery chicken pecking a bit here and a bit there. I’ve…Poetry6 min readPoetry6 min read
Feb 4, 2022The times they are a’changing: Abolitionist teaching under attackIt would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous. All these manly men of the right whimpering about books their kids are reading, whining about their free speech being violated while they cancel history, literature, and the arts. The McMinn County school board in Tennessee bans Art Spiegelman’s Maus. Texas…Book Banning3 min readBook Banning3 min read
Oct 4, 2021Reading Freire in San QuentinDuring the doctoral class on Social and Critical Foundations of Education, we are digging into the work of Paolo Freire. For me, it is a visit to an old friend. For many, it is their first introduction to his great work and the revolutionary period that gave rise to it…Freire11 min readFreire11 min read
Sep 17, 2021Recall fever: All these recalls decrease democracyNow that the spurious project to recall Governor Newsom has been defeated, we can step back and review the whole bizarre episode and the lessons we might draw from it. Let’s remember that the vote, foisted on us by billionaire donors, cost the state $276 million to conduct and threatened…Recall Elections4 min readRecall Elections4 min read
