Blog
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Our So-Called Civilization—Part IV
As I reported in a previous post, the trials at Nuremberg and Tokyo after World War II were essentially victor’s justice: the courts were organized by the victors and went only after people on the losing side. Outside of these trials, individual countries have tried their own military personnel for war crimes committed during World…
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Our So-Called Civilization—Part III
*The photo above was taken in an air-raid shelter in Dresden, after the firebombing. The massive firestorm sucked oxygen out of the room and replaced it with carbon monoxide and other lethal gases. In my two previous posts we considered our species’ fantastic technological progress in what the current United States Secretary of Defense calls…
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What We Call “Civilization”–Part II
In this post I’m going to focus on attempts to create peace among nations, and the gap—a Grand Canyon, really—between the hopeful words of these attempts and the actual deeds of those nations. In a previous post we looked at “civilized” societies, essentially those whose economies are based on agriculture rather than hunting and gathering.…
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What We Call “Civilization”—Part I
What does it mean to be civilized? The word is related to the Latin civitas, or city. Per the National Geographic Society, “…the most basic definition of the word civilization is ‘a society made up of cities.’” It definitely does not mean that we’re decent people. Though some of us may be, others are a…
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The Case of the Purloined Raspberries
In 2003 Sylvia and I took an exploratory road trip through the Pacific Northwest, going up through Northern California and Oregon and from the coast to as far east as Boise, Idaho, and finally decided to move to the St. Johns neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. In 2005 we sold the place in Oakland and rented…
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Pride and Cowardice
This is actually not a sequel to a Jane Austen novel. I’m talking about Pride groups around the country that cancelled events this June. As many of you know, I was one of the organizers of the first protest march immediately after Stonewall. Around 400-500 brave souls came out in the street that day, July…
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Past Triumphs, Present Challenges
As readers know, I was one of the founders of New York’s Gay Liberation Front back in 1969. Around 5 years ago, a few of us formed a group to create an accurate history of our organization, and hopefully to inspire young people to keep up the struggle. Just recently I was asked to write…
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How Far to Mars?
Our moon is in the news just now—a story about four astronauts in a spacecraft jumping over the moon. So far the mission, named Artemis II, seems to have gone well except for a broken toilet. * * * When I was ten years old, in 1953, one of my favorite hangouts was the Hayden…
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We’ll Always Have Paris
Remember the movie Casablanca? And the scene where Humphrey Bogart is just about to part from Ingrid Bergman forever and she’s weeping, and he reminds her of the good times they had together, saying “We’ll always have Paris.” Well, I’m not about to part with my wife Sylvia. But we also have memories of Paris,…
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A License to Kill-Part 3
Events are certainly moving quickly. Some people say we’re headed into World War III, while others say we’re already there. I tend to hold the latter opinion, but what do I know? My crystal ball is in the shop and the mechanic says it might be time to let that clunker go. Nevertheless, I’d like…