Get out there and stick up for yourself and the people around you. Our feature this month is a quick primer in Civil Resistance. Barbara Lloyd McMichael describes what happened this summer when she participated in her library’s annual reading program Book Bingo. Manny Frishberg writes about the Ngombor Community Development Alliance, a new organization with roots in the West Nile region of Uganda, that is helping to educate smallholder farmers and traders. While we’re on the topic of education, please see my book review on Brian Dillon’s Essayism On Form, Feeling, and Nonfiction. He is a writer’s writer who is a cut above all the rest of us. Even if you are not a writer, there is no harm in taking a glimpse at truly good writing. –Patricia Vaccarino
Educate Yourself: The American Resistance by Patricia Vaccarino People who resist fascists share common characteristics: integrity, compassion, and a conscience. People of integrity have deep and abiding compassion and will commit acts of conscience. Acts of conscience manifest themselves as Civil Disobedience or Civil Resistance. Meet two citizens: Will Thomas from New Hampshire and Vivi Tallman from Oregon who are making a difference in their respective communities.
Ngomber: Hope in the Heart of Uganda by Manny Frishberg Ngombor is a difficult word to translate because there is nothing so concise in English, but it is not a hard concept to get across – “ngombor” means the sense of hopefulness that comes from persistent effort. That hopefulness and the commitment to work to achieve it are at the heart of the Ngombor Community Development Alliance. The group is helping farmers and traders learn how to integrate modern technology with rural agriculture.
Education, Books and Bingo by Barbara Lloyd McMichael An Annual Summer Reading Program sparks big ideas about life, learning, and the pursuit of arts, culture, science, technology, all stymied by politics in the year 2025.
What You Can Do Now by Robert Reich In light of Trump’s worsening cruelty, vindictiveness, and ever more belligerent attacks on democracy, many of you ask: “What can I do now?” Here are a baker’s dozen of recommendations.
Remember and Compare by Annie Searle In the past 15 years, Annie Searle has analyzed the progress made on the 9/11 Commission recommendations. As we near a quarter century since those tragic events, she presents the lessons we have not yet learned that are applicable to the current chaotic world conditions.
Robin Lindley Interviews Dr. Charlotte Jacobs Robin Lindley interviews Dr. Charlotte Jacobs about her new biography of Setsuko Nakamura Thurlow, a champion for peace who was rescued from the fiery ruins of Hiroshima 80 years ago.
The Art of Deflection, Look at Soldiers in Cities – Forget the Epstein Files by Nick J. Licata There is a clear link between media coverage of the child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s files and Trump’s deployment of Federalized National Guards and Marines into the Democratic-leaning cities of Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Trump has also promised to send troops into other cities that heavily voted for Democrats.
Featured Book Review: Essayism On Form, Feeling, and Nonfiction by Brian Dillon
In Essayism, Brian Dillon dispels the notion that the essay is an excuse for not being able to commit to a long-term project. Some essays, for example, On Being Blue by William H. Gass or Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes, are over a hundred pages, hardly the output of an uncommitted, dilettante writer. In love with the written word, and immersed in the world of the written word, Brian Dillon reveals the true métier of a writer. He is a writer’s writer, explaining that the more you write, “the more likely you are to feel that it is not, never will be, enough.” –Patricia Vaccarino