That’s the title of a short article I wrote for an issue of Democracy in Action, a publication of the now-defunct NGO called the Institute for Democracy (Idasa) in South Africa. That was in April of 1995, at the end of my two months in Cape Town where I’d been teaching the art of radio documentary and also co-producing two half- hour programs with local producers Sue Valentine, Siviwe Minyi and Jackie Davies. Though I’ll […]
Read moreCategory: Writing
Moment of Truth
Polling will begin in some places in just over twelve hours. Like millions of Americans, I’m terrified. For one thing, Trump is determined to declare an election winner by end of day tomorrow, before all the results are counted. If I got my wish it would be for a landslide for Biden, but even if he does win big—which is a hard thing to have faith in after 2016—I imagine there will be uprisings from […]
Read morePushing Up Daisies
I just finished taking two writing classes at OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, which offers courses for retired people under the auspices of UC Berkeley). One class was in memoir, and the other in children’s picture books. Here’s something I wrote for the former. The assignment was to describe a setting. Here ’tis: With wood-paneled walls a dark shade of honey, the bedroom was just big enough for a couple of bureaus and the queen-sized […]
Read moreMister Rogers
I got tears in my little ole eyes while watching this. He was such an amazing man. The idea that he wanted to give a farewell message to all his fans is classic Mister Rogers. An excerpt: “I know how tough it is, some days, to look with hope and confidence on the months and years ahead.” This was just a couple months before he died. [Editor’s note: Oh, dear. The video I had originally posted […]
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