history
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A mutual acquaintance arranged our clandestine meeting. We left the lecture hall and entered the fluorescent hallway that appeared shadowy that night. He hesitated, glancing around. Then he motioned me to follow him. We came to a narrow, corner space where we had a clear view of the hallway and he could slip into the…
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PART ONE: THE QUESTION BEFORE US On the morning of 12 March 1930, Mahatma Gandhi began walking from his ashram in Ahmedabad towards the coastal town of Dandi on the Arabian Sea. The distance of 240 miles required walking twelve miles a day. He was 61 years old. Seventy-eight men and women left with him.…
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“A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:9). What are my obligations in these times of the emergence of a dictatorship, political discord, and economic chaos? I am merely one voice in a chorus of voices. There are moments when I think writing these blogs is a waste of time.…
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April 5th marks the beginning of a Solidarity Movement here in the States. Those of us who are older remember the nonviolent struggle against the Polish authoritarian communist government. The movement was a coalition of union workers, students, intellectuals, farmers, and the Church. On the streets of cities and towns of the United States, we…
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To an independent outsider, the quarrel and discord between oppositional wings have made the Democratic Party appear obsolete. Neither the DNC leadership nor the operatives, those attached to the traditional role of polity, appear capable of recognizing who their constituencies are, let alone defining what they want from the Party. The predictable course of any…
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The other day I received permission from Canada Resist to republish this from their blog on Substack. There are lessons to learn from history. The question is whether or not we are willing to learn and apply those in this time of peril. I hope you, dear readers, will circulate this post The Power of…
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PART ONE: ON MONARCHY On February 11th, Justice Sonia Sotomayor reminded faculty and students at a Florida college that, “Our founders were hellbent on ensuring that we didn’t have a monarchy, and the first way they thought of doing this was to give Congress the power of the purse.” Her words brought to mind a…
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There are times when one must pause to remember. Today is such a day for me. At 10:30 on the morning of February 23, 1945, a 54×28-inch American flag was raised on a volcanic island in the Pacific. The island was Iwo Jima. Names are often forgotten, and dates become mere numbers on a calendar…
Charles van Heck's Woodhull Journal 