
Words for Our Times
Words for All Times…

… but especially these times we are living in, when free speech is under attack as seldom before. Book banning has become pandemic, and now some are even threatening arrest for teachers and librarians who give students the “wrong” books to read.
Words For Our Times
Words For Our Times
Words For Our Times
Violence in Turkey

My dear friend Sibel Kekilli — Shae, for all you fans of HBO’s GAME OF THRONES — emailed me recently to alert me to some distressing news out of Turkey. (Sibel is German, born and raised in Germany, but of Turkish descent). Turkey, under the Erdogan regime, has officially withdrawn from the Istanbul convention that combats violence against women.
Here are the details:
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/20/europe/turkey-convention-violence-women-intl/index.html
Sibel herself has first hand knowledge of what it means to experience violence, and she has long been an advocate fighting violence against women all around the world. She is not only an amazing actress (she gave Shae a depth the character never had in my books), but a very brave woman, and a true hero. I admire her immensely for all she has done, and continues to do.
And I would like to echo her message to the women and girls of Turkey: Selam Ve Sevgiler.
Stay strong.
Current Mood: determined
Words for Our Times
The Republic Under Attack

What is happening in Washington right now is shocking and dismaying… but I can’t say I find it entirely unexpected.
There have been all too many days, these past couple of years, when I feared that the United States was going the way of the Weimar Republic.
And now the moment of coup is at hand. Rioters breaking into the Capitol, even the floor of the House and Senate. One of them trying to haul down the American flag and replace it with a Trump flag. Congressmen and senators being forced to recess and seek safety.
Sickening.
This is an attempted coup. Make no mistake. I am still hopeful that it will end as a failed coup, a Beer Hall Putsch, but we shall see. The inaction of law enforcement thusfar has been shocking.
Make no mistake, these are not protestors, these are not patriots, these are rioters attempting to destroy our democracy.
They are traitors.
And the traitor in chief is Donald J. Trump.
He should be arrested, removed from office, tried for treason, convicted, and imprisoned. And Rudy with him. This is their work.
Current Mood: angry
For Veteran’s Day

Every time Veteran’s Day comes rolling around, it brings to mind one of my favorite poems, the profoundly moving “Last of the Light Brigade,” by Rudyard Kipling.
To really understand this one, it helps if you know Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade.” I am old enough to be part of a generation that learned that one in grade school. It was not quite as ubiquitous in New Jersey as in the UK, but it was taught here, at least in the 50s. In its own way the Tennyson is also a great poem… but the message of the Kipling resonates much more strongly with me.
Every November 11, we honor those who fell in our wars… even as we forget those who fought them, and survived.
Current Mood: contemplative