Author Archive
Pink-Jacketed Woman
By THOMAS R. SMITH No one could track all that was going on,but a pink-jacketed woman horrifically,dangerously close caught it on video.Alex Pretti beaten to the ground,shot in the back ten times in five secondsshe recorded through terror and confusion,and managed to escape without ICEseizing her phone. Helped by a womanwho gave her a different coat for cover,the “pink-jacketed woman” vanished,escaped to explode the regime’s lies.When I hear the word “cowardice” I thinkof muscle-bound, gun-toting thugs claimingself-defense against protesters with signsand whistles, and how Homeland Securityshields them from legal accountability.When I hear the word “heroism” I thinkof Stella Carlson, the “pink-jacketedwoman,” who absorbed the trauma up closeand with nothing but her braveryto shield her gave the whole world the truth. THOMAS R. SMITH is an American poet, essayist, teacher and editor. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals in the U.S. and [...]
Grace in the Face of Destruction
from the series Peace House Community Journal... By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby Last month I wrote about the need to use power wisely, and the temptations that everyone faces when they get power over others. Power can be used for our own prestige and comfort, or for the good of others. We have plenty of examples every day of each of those options playing out in front of our eyes. Since I wrote that article, I have been reading Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide by George E. Tinker. It is a wonderful example of using power well, along with being a great book on many other levels. Tinker looks at four missionaries who are revered for their work among Native peoples in North America, but he shows how they all contributed to the destruction of Native societies, and the results that still haunt us today. One of the missionaries he writes about is Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple, an Episcopal clergyman who worked in Minnesota and after whom the [...]
