“As an eleven-year-old boy I could not do much for Kader Mia as he lay bleeding with his head on my lap. But I imagine another universe, not beyond our reach, in which he and I can jointly affirm our many common identities (even as the warring singularists howl at the gate). We have to make sure, above all, that our … [Read More]

On July 6, 1943, a Wehrmacht court martial sentenced war resister Franz Jägerstätter to death by guillotine.  The sentence would be carried out on August 9. The prisoner was given less than twelve hours’ notice: “This morning, at about 5:30 am we were told to get dressed immediately and informed that the car was already waiting for us. Then I, along … [Read More]

We all know that picture of the late Warren Gamaliel Harding Calvin Coolidge bedecked in a Sioux war bonnet.  In my own youth, in late May thirty seven years ago, a rather less honorable man crowned himself with a construction helmet bearing the title Commander in Chief, a consolation prize for the honorary doctorate my Alma Mater withdrew at the last … [Read More]