HELIOLITH

I heard on NPR about ten days ago that a bus between Pakistan and India was going to start running again, despite the danger of transporting people through the Kashmir. The program aired the stories of people who hadn’t seen their relatives for years, and were willing to stay with the police […]

I went to see the Kehinde Wiley exhibit yesterday at the Brooklyn Museum during the blizzard. It was amazing, really. In “Passing/Posing” the artist paints these gorgeous vibrant portraits of young black men. They dress in their own clothes, basketball jerseys and jeans, gold chains and cellphones. They choose poses from art books, from older […]

Boing Boing posted a link to this cartoon which is to me a perfect visual counterpart to the writers in Geoff Dyer’s novels. Short and sweet post today. Happy New Year.

If none of the arguments for peace thus far have persuaded the Americans who still support the war, perhaps Reservist Wilson’s questions of Rumsfeld yesterday will hit home. When Rumsfeld went to Kuwait to give war-bound army reservists a pep talk, he found himself confronted by several angry soldiers unintimidated by rank. One asked […]

Here I am, trying to make a dent in my Easter candy (it somehow lasted longer than Halloween’s), and cleaning up my desk. I found a business card I’d almost forgotten about. Weeks ago, while I was waiting tables, a customer left the card with his cash on the table when he left. He left […]

The lettering on the homepage of Coalition of Women for Peace puts into print the ideology of the group. Arabic letters alongside Hebrew letters translated into English below.

One group, Women in Black, gathers in prominent public places wearing all black and carrying signs to protest the occupation. Another, Neled: Women for Coexistence, puts together regular […]

H’s input on our Bush/Kerry family debate was so excellent I decided I had to include it here. This is a guest entry and I will attribute the excerpt when I find out its origin. Its brilliance will have to suffice for the time being. Leave it to H to respond in rhyme! (origin […]

I am reading Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a Vietnam War novel published in 1990. This is an excerpt:
“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If […]

I visited the International Center of Photography last week, on 6th and 43rd. In a small room downstairs, there are photographs from the Abu Ghraib prison. They are photographs that most everyone has seen already. They are unframed, printed on regular printer paper, downloaded from the internet. They are tacked on the black walls at […]

In researching the Black Panther Party, I came across a website dedicated to illustrating the positive history of the political group. I found a quote on pacifism that resonates meaningfully, especially in the weeks before an election that threatens to reelect a war-minded leader. Huey P. Newton:
“The Peace Movement is extremely important, more important […]