The rich get richer A great deal of what I do when I write is to reduce word usage. For example, a small newsletter that I receive monthly contains so much information about the corporations that run this country. (No, they don’t govern it; they simply control those who do…
Hope for the Earth, our home The New York Times of Jan. 7 carried a full half-page ad signed by Michael Kurtyka of the Polish National Foundation and president of the environmental group COP24, describing the most recent U.N. climate policy conference, the Katowice Rulebook. Negotiators from 196 countries and…
Why should your child die from a gunshot wound? The doctor has found the task a most difficult and onerous one and who wouldn’t? Dr. Marianne Haughey of St. Barnabas Hospital in Jersey City, N.Y., has been assigned victims of homicide for 25 years and one of her tasks has…
Why should your child die from a gunshot wound? The doctor has found the task a most difficult and onerous one and who wouldn’t? Dr. Marianne Haughey of St. Barnabas Hospital in Jersey City, N.Y., has been assigned victims of homicide for 25 years and one of her tasks has…
Forgotten victims of war Recently I read a newspaper article about the so-called “comfort women” of World War II and it reminded me of my visit with several of these women years ago. Marianne Hamilton and I were in the Philippines protesting something or the other that Bill Clinton had…
The widespread influence of the Koch brothers Without question the Koch brothers, David and Charles, exert more influence over legislation—both federal and state—than any other entities in this country. Rock-ribbed conservatives, they are the protectors of corporate power. Their dollars support the removal of a ban on flavored tobacco. a…
False arrest and imprisonment creates criminal record The so-called criminal action involving the son of the wonderful woman who weekly cleans my apartment just got out of jail. (We’ll call him Eugene.) He’s about 30 years old and was working as a waiter in North Minneapolis. He’s soft-spoken and smiles…
Armed conflict major cause of world hunger. One of the publications I subscribe to is a newspaper-size 8-page periodical, The Catholic Agitator, the cost of which is minimal. It has a definite viewpoint: that of the poorest, not just the poor but the very poorest, the homeless and the hungry,…
Everyone needs an education I don’t know why the idea didn’t create a real stir around the country. To offer education classes to convicted criminals is such an absurd suggestion! But it really did happen in the 1920s, and the program worked. The prison was the Charlestown State Prison in…
BY POLLY MANN What can be done with guns? In 2012 after the rampage shooting of 20 school children and six educators, in Newtown, Conn., Connecticut lawmakers passed some of the toughest gun measures in the country: 1) expanding an existing ban on assault weapons; 2) prohibiting the sale of…
BY POLLY MANN What can be done with guns? In 2012 after the rampage shooting of 20 school children and six educators, in Newtown, Conn., Connecticut lawmakers passed some of the toughest gun measures in the country: 1) expanding an existing ban on assault weapons; 2) prohibiting the sale of…
BY POLLY MANN Waning water supply produces civil war Certainly, most adult Americans are aware that the planet is growing warmer, which is not a good thing, but now we’ve another issue to be concerned about—our water supply. Yes, water, not only for drinking, but as one of the factors…
Good News The New York Times headline of Dec. 14 read, “The Pentagon Is Not a Sacred Cow.” Of course it isn’t, and our readers know it and so do we, but for the Times to acknowledge that is like finding a shoveled path to navigate after a winter snow…
BY POLLY MANN The New York Times headline of Dec. 14 read, “The Pentagon Is Not a Sacred Cow.” Of course it isn’t, and our readers know it and so do we, but for the Times to acknowledge that is like finding a shoveled path to navigate after a winter…
A wrongfully-convicted man’s vision During these depressing “Days of Trump” a little positive news is helpful. Therefore with anticipation I began to read the Oct. 6 New York Times article entitled “An Innocent Man Who Imagined the World as It Should Be.” His name was John Thompson, a resident of New…
