Category: Column
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Commentary: As the lockdowns end, the responsibility lies with us
By Dick Ramsdell Whether we call ourselves Children of God. lost souls, homo sapiens, or simply human beings, there are almost 8 billion of us on the small ball in space which we call Planet Earth, and we make up a veritable playground for what has emerged as our universal enemy: The Virus. It doesn’t…
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Coronavirus Diary #2 — In Pandemic America 2020, Flint knows we are “collateral damage in a rigged deck casino”
Ed. Note: Here is the second of an East Village Magazine’s new feature, the Coronavirus Diaries — personal accounts and commentary from our writers to attempt to capture some of what we’ve all been going through and reflecting on what it means. By Robert Thomas Like an old crow perched on the very thin wire of…
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Coronavirus Diaries #1: Viral time and the witching hour — when the dead wander in and out
By Teddy Robertson Ed. Note: Here is the first of an East Village Magazine’s new feature, the Coronavirus Diaries — personal accounts and commentary from our writers to attempt to capture some of what we’ve all been going through and reflecting on what it means. Sunday has become my day to write to friends. It’s a…
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Village Life: one day of coronavirus means milk and bread, MiracleGro, Jesus and a cello
By Jan Worth-Nelson Not surprisingly these days, I’d had a restless night’s sleep. Sometime in the darkest time before dawn, my mind started obsessing on two things: bread and milk. Bread and milk, bread and milk. We have to get some bread and milk, my mind said, badgering me repeatedly, an urgency just shy of…
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Village Life: New life as community journalist opens up hard realities about Flint
By Tom Travis I have attempted to dissect the reasons why I chose to leave my job at 50 years old after more than 10 years. I think I’ve figured out the reasoning but it is deeply personal. And I’m more likely to tell…
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Commentary: An open letter to my Republican friends
By Paul Rozycki To my Republican friends: While we may disagree on many things, there is no doubt that the Republican Party has a long and honorable history. It led the nation through a brutal civil war, ending slavery. It was an early advocate for civil rights and racial equality, in the years following that…
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Village Life: Every day, I dream of Down Time
By Jan Worth-Nelson Every day I keep dreaming of Down Time. I used to crave adventure, no day complete without a conscious tablespoon at least of risky business, a routine to kickstart adrenaline, an agenda to keep me in the loop – the loop of life, baby. I aimed to be a player. If I…
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Village Life: The Flint River dumped us, but we got a story (or two)
By Jan Worth-Nelson I told Sarah Carson the river would give us solace—that was how I talked her into it, for my part always wanting an accomplice in my adventures. Two writers who revel in sedentary hours alone. Two writers—one young, one old—rampantly hopeful but almost comically expecting the worst. Two writers who’d never…
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Book Review: “American Dialogue” offers indispensable conversation between “then” and “now”
By Robert R. Thomas In assessing the here and now, history offers an indispensable perspective. American Dialogue is an enlightening example. As author and historian Joseph Ellis puts it, “The study of history is an ongoing conversation between past and present from which we all have much to learn.” Subtitled The Founders and Us, his book’s…
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Village Life: A raptor crash heralded my life with birds
By Teddy Robertson Smack! The front legs of my chair leave the floor, my hands pop off the laptop keyboard; I jerk backward. A split second, then a tinkling sound ripples over my left shoulder. I turn and look: in the storm window beside me fissures radiate outward as if pushed by an invisible hand. …
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