Until going to the Amazon, I had never seen a black swan in my life. In fact, I didn’t actually realize they were real: I just thought they were something popularized by the hit Natalie Portman film of the same name and more a metaphor for the rare and unexpected. It turns out they’re very […]
Tag: activism
What the Left Doesn’t Get
A few days after the presidential election, I attended a conference where I heard Rev. Lennox Yearwood speak about what he thought lay ahead. He noted that the left still thinks it’s fighting Jim Crow. “But we’re actually fighting his grandson, James R. Crow III,” he told the room. He went on to make the […]
Climate activists, modern Renaissance artists
A little over fifteen years ago, my parents were driving home to West Tennessee after visiting me in Nashville when they had to pull their car over due to flooding. Mom called me panicked, unsure if it would be the last time we spoke, as the water was rising around them. Once they were safe […]
Charged with Terrorism for Speaking Truth to Power
One of my colleagues has been named a terrorist by the Egyptian government. Authoritarian regimes, it turns out, don’t like it when human rights organizations criticize their efforts to quell dissent. For now, my colleague is safe, as he lives in the United States, yet in retaliation, Egypt has jailed and tortured his cousin and […]
