News & Commentary from Veteran Writers/Activists
I teach creative writing in a maximum security prison in Philadelphia. During the week I scour two thrift shops for 35-cent paperbacks that I haul in to stock a small lending library I created for inmates. Amazingly, the prison had no library. In the process of collecting used books, I’ve surveyed the crime, mystery and noir genre of popular fiction. I've read many of the books in part or end to end; the range of … [Read more...]
Members of the class of 1961 gathered on an unseasonably cool September evening at the Hibernian Hall in Babylon, Long Island to commemorate the fiftieth year since our graduation from the local high school. More than eighty graduates had committed to attending. Adding spouses and partners, well over a hundred men and women filled the hall for the Friday evening buffet. Not to belabor the obvious, but most folks on … [Read more...]
Perhaps the most chilling movie I’ve seen during the past decade -- while the American led, once-termed “Global War on Terror” rages on and on and on, ever-expanding both overseas as well as within the Homeland -- was the 2006 movie Children of Men. Its Mexican director, Alfonso Cuaron, has described his dystopian film as the “anti-Blade Runner". The 1982 Ridley Scott directed film, Blade Runner, likewise … [Read more...]
Saturday, December 17th was Bradley Manning’s 24th birthday, and at least 300 supporters gathered outside Fort Meade, Maryland, where the military was in its second day of a preliminary hearing process that’s expected to take about a week. Manning worked in military intelligence and is alleged to have released military secrets to WikiLeaks, which released the material publicly. After collecting at the main gate, … [Read more...]
My name is Jim Scarborough. I'm a former infantry officer and a Vietnam combat veteran. Some of you have seen the sign I'm carrying, urging other veterans to join us in support of the Occupy movement. However, I'm not here today because I'm one of the 99%. As a veteran, I'm proud to be a member of a very elite group of our society - not one of privilege, or wealth, or power - but one bound together by shared … [Read more...]
This past Monday, October 31st, was All Hallows’ Eve in the Catholic tradition, secularly known as Halloween, a time of ghosts and goblins when children dress up in costumes to scare each other and go trick-or-treating. Today, unlike in my childhood well over half-a-century ago, kids are accompanied by their parents, since today’s streets in many areas, whether rural, suburban or urban, are mostly unsafe for children … [Read more...]
I teach creative writing in a maximum security … [Read More...]
Members of the class of 1961 gathered on an … [Read More...]
Saturday, December 17th was Bradley Manning’s … [Read More...]
My name is Jim Scarborough. I'm a former infantry … [Read More...]
