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Beside the Golden Door
First published at CounterPunch “Let nature do the freezing and frightening and isolating in this world. Let men work and love and fight it off.” —Jack Kerouac I woke up early this morning, like I do most mornings—especially in cities where I don’t have a mailing address. It’s not that I’m a “morning person” by… Continue reading
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Condolence Payments: On Fatherhood, War, Trauma, Healing, and Learning How to Accept Help
An edited version of this essay was first published in The Awakenings Review, Fall 2026, Volume 13, Number 2: Works by Poets, Writers, and Artists Living with Mental Illnesses. The journal is print-only, so if you’d like to read it, and there’s plenty of great work in there, you can order a copy here. When… Continue reading
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Far From The First
This essay was first published in Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature, 18th edition: Belonging, Summer 2026 I’m up before the sun this morning, as I am most mornings, fresh cup of coffee in hand, heading out to the back porch and the pre-dawn solitude. There’s something about this early hour that’s hard… Continue reading
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View from the Sixth Floor: On Privilege, Disparity, and Knowing When You Have Enough
Originally published at Counterpunch I’m currently working from the roof of the Austin Public Library, or at least I was working until I got distracted and started writing this instead. And before you picture me sitting cross-legged in gravel between a fire escape and an HVAC unit, I should clarify that our library has an… Continue reading
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Trump’s Iran “Victory” Echoes Iraq’s “Mission Accomplished”
Originally published at The Fulcrum It didn’t exactly end well the last time a president declared victory this quickly. On May 1, 2003, President George W. Bush landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln in a flight suit, strutted across the deck for the cameras, then changed into a suit and tie, stood in front of… Continue reading
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Show Up and Be Seen: Veterans at the No Kings Protest Reckon With Another War
Full article available at Slate, where is was originally published I can usually pick them out before I get close enough to read their shirts. There’s something in the way most combat veterans carry themselves in a crowd, not quite military bearing anymore, that gets worn down over time, but something residual, a way of… Continue reading
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What Always Returns: On Baseball and War
I’m writing this on the morning of Opening Day of the 2026 Major League Baseball season, and the news is mostly full of Iran, yet another war that isn’t being called a war but sure looks like one to the families whose sons and daughters have already come home in flag-draped caskets. It’s been a… Continue reading
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What We Can’t Afford: Healthcare, War, and the Lie We Keep Believing
A shorter, edited version of this essay first appeared in HuffPost. This is the full version, originally published at The Chaos Section. Last year I had to have a fairly minor surgery to repair my badly deviated septum. According to what I read today on a few different websites, the surgery I had costs on average… Continue reading
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If Democrats Write Trump a $50 Billion Check for Iran, They’re Giving Up the Only Leverage They Have Left
Politico ran a story this week with a lead that should make every Democrat in Congress feel something in the pit of their stomach: “Democrats won’t rule out giving Trump more money for Middle East war.” The number being floated is $50 billion, and that’s on top of a trillion-dollar defense budget Congress already approved for… Continue reading
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A Party That Seeks to Nationalize and Control Elections Has Entered Fascist Territory
An edited version of this essay appeared at The Fulcrum. I’m well aware that using the word fascist in the headline of an article about Donald Trump invites a predictably negative response from some folks. But before we argue about words (and which labels are accurate and which aren’t) let’s look at the most recent escalation… Continue reading
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The Killing of Alex Pretti Should Be the Breaking Point
An edited version of this essay first appeared at CounterPunch. Alex Pretti’s death shows what happens when armed federal agents are given political cover to operate above the law and the public is told to ignore what it can plainly see. When the state kills in public and lies about it afterward, neutrality is no… Continue reading
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