May 6, 2013
May 6, 2013
Trade liberty for safety or money and you'll end up with neither. Liberty, like a grain of salt, easily dissolves.
The power of questioning -- not simply believing -- has no friends. Yet liberty depends on it. ***
Many thanks to Michael DeLang & Phyllis Feigenbaum for their contribution. Please help Swans financially. Year to date: $950.54.
Note from the Editors:
Just that you know we have been publishing Swans for 17 years without interruption, in spite of many inconveniences and accidents, and little money, always attempting to bring food for thought to our readers and an opportunity for our collective of writers to express themselves, with careful attention to editing and formatting details. We hope we shall be able to carry on, which is not a given. This said...we begin with a powerful piece by Glenn Reed on the oil and natural gas boom that is rapidly altering North Dakota's landscape; the beauty of the environment and the majesty of the bison falling victim to the whims of the free market. If bison can become pawns of the free market, why not people? Case in point: the prison-industrial complex -- not a laughing matter, but an interesting topic for a brilliant comic to which Paul Buhle introduces us. So what is the solution to a more equitable society? Not irrational ones like macrobiotics, as Michael Barker concludes in Part II of his series on the food faddists. Irrationality is the bane of Gilles d'Aymery's existence, particularly that of the conspiracy industry, whether 9/11 or the Sandy Hook school shooting and now even the Boston Marathon massacre. And no, more guns are not the answer...all this and more in his Martian Blips.
Turning our attention to Germany, Peter Byrne offers two perspectives: a short story on getting to know the Germans through different eyes, including the Italian Neorealist filmmakers, and his thoughts after a recent visit to Berlin on the real and the fantasy city. Raju Peddada reflects on the death of a father and Hector Abad's searing memoir on the subject, Oblivion, and Guido Monte gives us a glimpse into his night thoughts through his dreamy poem. We close with your letters, on Jan Baughman's article on gun control and child victims, and the butterfly effect of the chaos rippling through the French economy, psyche, and presidency.
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Ecological Destruction
Boom And Bust In North Dakota
The road curves upward through the eroded clay hills, their colors muted under the white a couple of inches of snow. Suddenly, on the left, I see the furry head of a huge bison as it stares at our car from just about twenty feet away. I think of the days when native people bravely hunted these beasts from horseback. I try to imagine massive herds of bison trampling across the prairies in their thousands. It's been said that it could take days for them to pass. More... Glenn Reed is a long-time activist and author from Fair Haven, Vermont.
Hungry Man, Reach For The Book
Incarceration Illustrated
Every close observer of penal trends knows that something has gone very wrong in a society that consistently leads the world in prison populations and, in the current drift, soon will have incarcerated a quarter of its African-American males and a sixth of its Latino counterparts. Whatever prison was supposed to do in the old-fashioned model of rehabilitation, teaching skills, and imparting better moral attitudes, seems now to have worked in reverse. Forget the costs of the defense budget, Social Security, and Medicare for a moment. How can society pay this bill? A thought leading to another: What went terribly wrong? What kind of democracy do we live in? More... Paul Buhle is a retired academic and comics' editor who lives in Madison, Wisconsin.
Patterns Which Connect
The Macrobiotic Faithful (Part II of III)
How George Ohsawa envisaged the global spread of his macrobiotic spiritualism is confusing to say the least. This is because in his frequent rants about education, he says that schools and professional education itself are "the makers of slaves," as their didactic methods are the "cause of all misery and unhappiness." As an alternative he suggests that solutions should emanate from within, not from teachers. More... Michael Barker is an independent researcher who lives in London, England.
Tidbits Flying Across the Martian Desk
Blips #135
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Gilles d'Aymery is Swans' publisher and co-editor.
Travelogue
Our Germans
Who were the Germans anyway? There came to mind those Midwestern figures of a schoolboy's daydreams. Memories of their being hard done by in Chicago during the First World War troubled him. Hadn't his German uncle been what they called a doughboy? Uncle Walt had a framed photograph to prove it, memorable because only eight inches high and three feet across. More... Peter Byrne is an American-born teacher and writer who lives in Lecce, Italy.
Everybody's Berlin
The River Spree hurries through Berlin offering excuses for trespassing. It doesn't belong. It's not welcome. Without the gravity of the Seine, Thames, or Liffey it still could have made Berlin a city nobly astride a waterway. But Berlin hadn't the patience, preferring sheer muscle power. Look at the Bode Museum in swollen 1900 Parisian style. The French had the sense to keep postprandial megalomania away from the banks of their gracious Seine. More... Peter Byrne is an American-born teacher and writer who lives in Lecce, Italy.
Arts & Culture
Hector Abad's Memoir: Oblivion
Wounds don't heal as quickly as we think, or are led to believe. "Move on" is what we hear frequently from others. It influences us, like a coating of Pepto-Bismol on our laceration, but it doesn't last long. Wounds fester, especially psychological wounds acquired in the loss of a loved one, no matter how many years pass. Higher intelligence, reason-cognition, and memory become a burden in the aftermath, as we deny everything and grope forward. The world obfuscates pain that becomes uncomfortable for sympathizers to handle, with self-serving clichés, denying us our own lachrymosity. More... Raju Peddada is an industrial designer who lives in Des Plaines, Illinois.
Multilingual Poetry
as if a dream
we walk down the street, each of us in his own night, while the time is deleting me and you. it's useless crying when everything is heavy and serious... sbarbaro used to talk about the weight of the soul. a radio echoes from afar, then ceasing in the cold wind, dans le vent froid. More... Guido Monte teaches Italian and Latin literature in Palermo, Italy.
Letters to the Editor
On Jan Baughman's article on gun control and child victims, and the butterfly effect of the chaos rippling through the French economy, psyche, and presidency. More... We appreciate your comments. Please, remember to sign your e-mails with your real name and add your city, state, country, address and phone number. If we publish your opinion we will only include your name, city, state, and country. Thank you.
Swans by Subject
- Activism under the Radar Screen Keep in Mind...
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