The Black Patriotic Songs of Shirley: Remembering a Black Children’s Writer Who Did Not Start Out that Way
On this Veterans’ Day, Shirley Graham Du Bois might be remembered in her own right as a veteran of some important battles in a long war.
Dispatches
The Gift of Attention Paid
Photo courtesy Missouri History Museum
All kids are tuned to difference, since it means survival. But when you grow up poor you become acutely aware that some people have the means to change things, even in small ways, but do not. Discouraged by the enormity of the problem,…
“An Act of Prayer”: Dorothy Day’s Influence on Daniel Berrigan (and Even Vice Versa)
Daniel Berrigan first met Dorothy Day during his Jesuit formation in the early ’50s, bringing his Brooklyn Prep students to her place near the Bowery. “It was life-changing for all of us,” he remembered. In 1961 Day attended a talk of Berrigan’s on Catholic social teaching and the influence of John XXIII. “Just like a priest!” she snapped afterward, leaving no time for others to discuss, but the next day she requested a copy of his talk for possible publication.
The Road from Berlin in 1989 to America Today
It is impossible to draw a direct causal link from November 1989 to all that came in its wake, but by making the unthinkable thinkable, the fall of the Berlin Wall set off a much larger cascade of events.
The Century of Norman Rockwell
On the anniversary of his departure, a tip of the hat to Uncle Norman, whose latter-day appeal to the contemporary MAGA crowd ought not be held against him.
00 I Told You So
Screenshot from the trailer for ‘No Time to Die,’ from MGM and Eon Productions
What do I get for predicting that James Bond would still be looking over his shoulder in retirement, and despite his heroic adventures would feel only fatigue and purposelessness? None of that was…
When We Think of Vietnam, November May be the Cruelest Month
Diem’s assassination made an impossibly bad situation mind-numbingly, impossibly worse. Franklin D. Roosevelt once famously said of Nicaraguan dictator Anastazio Somoza, “Yes, he is a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch.” No one said that about Diem.
The Huey Helicopter Still Flying at 65
Flight deck of ‘USS Okinawa’ during the evacuation of Saigon, April 1975. Courtesy U.S. Marine Corps History website
I am not in the habit of writing paeans to war machines, but the prototype of the UH-1 Huey helicopter flew for the first time 65 years ago this month,…
Ringmaster: Peter Jackson’s Hits and Misses and Hits
My esteem for Peter Jackson has limits even if, in my judgment, he remains a remarkable poet-director. Commemorating his birthday calls forth warm feelings and happy memories, but, to understand his artistic strengths, we must also acknowledge his weaknesses.
Temple Grandin: Screens Do Not Solve Autism
A review of multiple scientific studies showed that individuals with ASD consistently struggled harder with problematic internet use and showed more symptoms of internet addiction—depression, inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, opposition, and escapism. Another review found children and adults with ASD to be more vulnerable to the problematic use of video games.