May 31st, 2020
by Marie Hoff
We greet each other very carefully,
Like porcupines getting ready to make love.
Arms in big virtual, barrel hugs,
Lots of embarrassed joking and choking
Hoping we don’t look as foolish as we feel.
Hope rises and falls, and rises again
Like the panting of a small injured bird,
testing Ms. Dickinson’s thesis, that it
Never stops singing, no matter what.
Funny things happen: suddenly millions of people
Need millions of rolls of toilet paper: is this an
epidemic of diarrhea or…
May 26th, 2020
#14 of On Tyranny: Establish a private life. – “Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware on a regular basis. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of the internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble. Tyrants seek the hook on which to hang you. Try not to have hooks.” – Timothy Snyder
“The only weapon of self defence I…
May 26th, 2020
#6 of On Tyranny: Be wary of paramilitaries – “When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.” – Timothy Snyder
“Men who rape, kill, torture, and mutilate because they don’t like how another person looks or behaves, what he or she believes, or for whom he or…
May 12th, 2020
“(the Federalist authors) saw that government must rest upon the will of the majority, but they saw too that majority rule must be tempered by a system of checks and balances designed to safeguard fundamental liberties and give time for sober second thought. They saw...the important distinction between the jurisdiction of government and the area of government—between the power which government must have to be effective in its proper sphere, and the area to which government must be…
May 10th, 2020
by Michael Str!ke, Krissee Grosso, Hoff, and others
A restaurant can be a very special place. It can be where you see the folks that live above, around, and beyond; coming regularly and enjoying the flow of the days, the nights, the food, and the drinks. It's where workers come together and bond, laugh, cry, work, sweat, and serve the community that keep that business running. But we have to remember that a restaurant, with nothing inside of it, can be a very different place. We know…
May 9th, 2020
by Michael Str!ke
We got the news just over two weeks ago. The state of North Dakota was going to reopen for business on May 1st. Restrictions and guidelines were promised by both the state and by our own management and owners of the restaurant I work for. I'm a kitchen worker forced to return to work during a global pandemic, and my story is probably like many others.
Like over 60 percent of Americans; I work paycheck to paycheck. I'm lucky enough to work at a place where for the most…
May 7th, 2020
#18 of On Tyranny: Be Calm when the unthinkable arrives – “Modern tyranny is terror management. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in order to consolidate power. The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and balances, the dissolution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Do not fall for it.” -Timothy Snyder
“(General…
April 30th, 2020
History and Liberty: “On the one hand is the politics of inevitability, the sense that history could move in only one direction: toward liberal democracy – a self-induced intellectual coma…On the other hand there is the politics of eternity – a longing for past moments that never really happened during epochs that were, in fact, disastrous…The danger we now face is of a passage from the politics of inevitability to the politics of eternity, from a naïve and flawed sort of…
April 18th, 2020
#16 of On Tyranny: “Learn from peers in other countries. – Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends in other countries. The present difficulties in the United States are an element of a larger trend. And no country is going to find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports.” – Timothy Snyder
“Being (rejected) by him, for he was cold to all love, (Echo) hid herself and wasted away to a voice. But Narcissus was…
April 5th, 2020
#12 of On Tyranny: Make eye contact and small talk- “This is not just polite. It is part of being a citizen and a responsible member of society. It is also a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down social barriers, and understand whom you should and should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of your daily life.” – Timothy Snyder
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the…
By Josette Ciceronunapologeticallyanxiousme@gmail.com What does it mean to truly live in a community —or should I say, among community? It’s a question I have been wrestling with since I moved to Fargo-Moorhead in February 2022.…