Better than What?

Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter             Earlier this month, in the course of one twenty-four period, thirty-three people were killed during two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. According to CBS News, as of August 5th, there have been over two hundred fifty-five deaths resulting mass shootings in this country since …
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Giant Steps

Giant Steps             Toni Morrison, one of America’s great visionary authors, passed away last week. We lost not only a supremely talented writer, but also a woman of profound courage, incisive vision, and sublime sensibilities. As an African-American woman, her writing enveloped and embraced the marginalized in our society—her society. Novels like Sula, Beloved, The Bluest …
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Civil Obedience

CIVIL OBEDIENCE             I heard a great story the other day at my barbershop, that time-honored venue for a good conversation and the occasional bawdy tale. Things have changed, of course, and the barbershop is now not always a stronghold for the masculine sensibility. And that can be a good thing.             The story I heard concerns …
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The Blurry Line

Artwork by Michael DiMilo             This last week, my family and I took a mini-vacation to the family cabin in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. The cottage has been in our family for a little over fifty years and sits on a beautiful spring-fed lake. After my father passed away, my mom—as she’s fond of telling—used to …
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