The spark reached the powder keg 50 years ago. The fuse was lit long before. “Scarface Jones said ‘It’s too late to quit. Pass the dynamite, ’cause the fuse is lit.’” — Jerry Lieber/Mike Stoller, “Riot in Cell Block 9” On April 4, 1968, I was standing in the parking…

The Day the World Stood Still February 3, 1959. sixty-four years ago today. I feel like a recordite. I should be sitting on the courthouse steps, dust laying in the wrinkes of my neck, rambling inanely to anyone who will listen. For some reason there is no dust, there are…

A strange dichotomy divides Black heroes and villains The great American film director John Ford gave us a film (referred to by some as his “apology film”) in 1960, following his awkward attempt at portraying American Indians as victims in “Cheyenne Autumn” with a very good, if not commercially successful…

A note to my father, who died on Thanksgiving morning, 1999. Hey Dad, Thanksgiving is a week away and it will be a different sort this year, but then it has been different, progressively, since you left. It sucked you had to die in a hospital bed after a protracted…

Our fair republic has embarked on the celebratory weekend of another Independence Day, aka: 4th of July. Here in a certain suburban small city outside Washington, DC, the plan is always to start the noise on the Saturday nearest the 4th, as today, July 2, when it had to compete…

It’s not Just About Christmas Anymore Epiphany — Twelfth Night — is celebrated by Catholics and Anglicans — and a lot of other people, too, because it’s a nice way to end the holiday season. Last year we discovered a new way to celebrate the recognition of the reign of…

Remembering the assassination of John F. Kennedy Age carries with it memories, and some are so deeply planted they seem always to be recalling literal yesterday. After 58 years when I think of my learning of the death of John F. Kennedy, I am once again sitting in Mr. …

Retelling a retelling of my 9/11 experience in light of recent events September 11, 2010 The Call came at 9:00 AM, from my son at his work, just a few blocks away: “They’ve hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.” His voice was strangely flat and affectless. …

“Pharmaceutical companies view Covid-19 as a once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity.” — Gerald Posner, author of Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America. I work in the healthcare field. I don’t earn a hell of a lot, but I feel I am probably compensated appropriately for the sort of work I…