News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Tuesday December 16th 2025
Movie Corner: “Lord of the Flies” (1990)
By HOWARD McQUITTER II
Did you ever wonder what you would do if you had to fend for yourself after a holocaust and the survivors around you, whether you know them or not, are strangers? Similar to that question is what”™s going on today with the pandemic coronavirus where “normal” human encounters are truncated as if in clouds of uncertainty—social distancing, wearing masks, sometimes wearing gloves, confining ourselves to home or apartment, maybe daily watching the dreary stories of Covid cases and deaths on CNN. In these times where coronavirus faces you in its unseen and mysterious form wondering if that sneeze near you will infect you or the doctor or nurse hands on patients with coronavirus may turn up postive.
In “Lord of the Flies,” schoolboys escape a place crash in the ocean making it to an island. Ralph (Balthazar Getty) quickly goes into survivor mode by giving each boy an assignment. Shortly after each boy is assigned a duty, a rebel named Jack Merridew (Chris Furrh) decides to slip the campfire and, when the other boys go on search for him, they miss the chance to be seen by a helicopter. What follows is the group divides among themselves under the leadership of Jack, who is a tyrant.… Read the rest “Movie Corner: “Lord of the Flies” (1990)”
Keep citizen journalism alive!
The Fateful Day in Duluth: June 15, 1920
BY HOWARD McQUITTER II
On June 15th, 1920, three young African American boys””Elias Clayton, 19 years old; Elmer Jackson, 19 years old; Isaac McGhie, 20 years old””working for the John Robinson Circus were lynched by a white mob.
False accusations of rape of a white woman of nineteen years old by six African American men spread throughout Duluth. Although a physician found no physical evidence of rape, it didn”™t matter because the white mob (estimated between 10 and 15 thousand) was determined to lynch the three boys already in jail. The mob was able to break into and nab Clayton, Jackson, and McGhie and the mob tried to break into a more fortified part of the jail where more Black men were jailed, but were not successful.
While the mob was in a frenzy, other African Americans who unfortunately may have been in the way were thrown into Lake Superior. Contrary to popular belief, about 21,000 African Americans lived in Duluth before the lynchings. After the 1920 lynchings, the number of African Americans living in Duluth drastically declined.… Read the rest “The Fateful Day in Duluth: June 15, 1920”