The Tragic Convergence of Race, Mental Health, and Violence
Ten years after Charles "Cookie" Thornton murdered six people at Kirkwood City Hall in Missouri those who knew him struggle to identify the combination of emotions that led to his actions.
Essays
The Uneasy Past of the Veiled Prophet Organization: Part II
For more than a century, the Veiled Prophet Organization has faced race-based protests; however, during all of that time, the organization has been able to claim innocence against racism based on historical context: they made no explicitly racist comments in public, and their exclusionary practices were the same as other fraternal organizations.
Multiplying Beauty and Transcending Victimhood
Turkish writer Ece Temelkuran explains during a recent interview why targets of autocrats must not be victims, why language is the true home, and why it is children she first consults regarding the fundamental human need and capacity for beauty.
The Uneasy Past of the Veiled Prophet Organization
St. Louis’s Veiled Prophet Organization (VPO), with its historic roots in both Irish poetry and the Civil War Confederacy, is a case study in how past contexts inform present-day understanding.
Life With Rodents
I had been surprised days earlier when I found gray fur on one of the traps, from a now partially bald mouse who had a story to tell his many buddies, but here was something worse: not an uncaught rodent, but a half-caught rodent.
Lords of the Flies
Insects may be the perfect villains, but there are inherent problems with casting insects as the bad guys with whom heroes must do battle.
Animal House
Shuffling through the vaccination and microchip records, reading the myriad names, I sometimes smile with nostalgic fondness, but more often my eyes mist as I am reminded of the multitudes we have loved but lost.
Turtles All the Way Down
In a number of ancient traditions, the world is believed to rest on the back of a giant turtle, which leads to the epistemological question of what might be supporting that turtle.
Archtypes: Hook-Ups
"The Dogs' Office"
How Animals Teach Us to be Human
In some sense, animals may possess a more instinctive humanity than we do. The world is our classroom, and all its inhabitants are our teachers.