Confrontation forces attention on neglected issues. It also polarizes. When people turn the language of opposition into the language of enemies, they have turned the language of democracy into the language of war and legitimized acts of war on the democracy. Too many of the protests for justice, legitimate and needed, have turned into revenge […]
Fellow writer, Hema Vasavada, responded to my blog about the rhetoric of war with this op ed piece she wrote for the Moscow Pullman Daily News. I think it is well worth sharing as a part of our on-going exploration of the cause of the nation’s on-going crisis. MOSCOW PULLMAN DAILY NEWS OCTOBER […]
Last week I talked about unlocking our brains from the media’s toxic fixation on the battle that goes nowhere and instead viewing the values of the two sides as differing in priorities, not in kind. If you’ve unstuck your brain now, take a moment to walk in the other fellow’s shoes—a longstanding habit […]
I pondered the title of this blog, then decided to leave it alone. Everyone will know what I mean. Strange, isn’t it? But I think the state of the country is on everyone’s mind. Which is good. It’s high time we stopped taking democracy for granted and give civics—the behavior necessary for the […]
I’m a writer. I believe in the power of language—for good and for evil. Words matter. In the last decade, the nation has been swept by masters of language, first to believe in itself, then to terror and rage at a huge and overwhelming enemy. […]
I once asked my writing class, which was attached to a course in communication, to identify themselves as Republican, Democrat, or Independent, group up, then write a description of their party—the values that united them. Then I asked them to write a description of what the other groups believed. When they were finished, they […]
If you grew up with Walt Kelly’s comic strip, Pogo, you know the image above became the icon of the age. Americans acknowledging the mess they’d made of the world. This is part of a strip published on Earth Day, 1971. Today we need another such image of the mess we’re making of our democracy. […]
In browsing through old blogs, I came across this “bogey” tale which seems particularly apt for today. Friend and author, Priscilla Long, who writes a fascinating column in the American Scholar, shares this story by author, Brian Doyle, on the origin of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Findings – Summer 2006 Findings: A Bogey Tale […]
Politically Correct judgments freeze the pen. Whether writing an e-mail, a job resume or a novel, your internal censors pause the pen, aware of the self-appointed judges on either side of the political divide waiting to spot heresy. For a fiction writer, such judgments strike at the core, at imagination. It is […]
Mark your calendars. The ebook version of END OF THE RACE is on sale again! August 8 through August 28 $0.99! We write because we need to, we write because we love it, we write for release—and then we wait for the affirmation of others. Below, just to whet your appetite, are some reviews […]
One of the frustrating aspects of the current polarization is that it freezes everyone in place and eliminates the journey through multiple groups and identities that we call life. For a writer, that is a deep freeze, for stories lie in the journey, in crossing the boundaries out of the world where you were […]
Time to change the tune from stories of conflict to stories of love. Here are some scenes from END OF THE RACE that give a picture of Annika’s and Brian’s childhood bond. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brian, Age 10 1984 Brian braked his bike. Ahead, where the creek alongside the path drifted into a pond, a girl in […]
Judith Kirscht lives and works in the beautiful Puget Sound area. She is the author of four published works of fiction with more to come soon!
