Published inThe Uncanny·May 3Member-onlyAgency: It’s Place & ValueIn 2009 Raj Patel wrote words that have reappeared to me as if out of a thick fog: “The future will be shaped by our will to imagine a different kind of market society, and new ways of valuing the world without resorting to the tic of free markets.” I…Agency4 min readAgency4 min read
Apr 16Member-onlyAmerican Carnage: A Culture of Death & the Illusion of FreedomMIDDLEBURY — On Sunday, April 9, at 10:28 p.m, Middlebury College received a hoax call of an active shooter in the Davis Family Library. The Davis Family Library, once a symbol of knowledge and hope, has now become a trigger — a stark reality. Let me reiterate: a library, a…American Carnage5 min readAmerican Carnage5 min read
Published inThe Uncanny·Feb 25Member-onlyAn Uncanny Confluence: The Talibanization of America — is it possible?Could The Talibanization of America actually be possible? That is, a total shut down and repression of American life? What are the signs? Elected officials wearing AK-47 lapel pins; aggressive, vociferous attacks leveled at President Biden while delivering The State of the Union Address; the removal of books from the…Taliban6 min readTaliban6 min read
Published inThe Uncanny·Feb 17Member-onlyThe Absurdity & Incongruity of War — Vietnam, Yemen, Afghanistan & Ukraine“In my dreams, the war is silent,” writes Bushra Al-Maqtari in What Have You Left Behind? “No missiles, nor air raids, no murder, no famine, no fear, no hatred. But when I wake, the war is still raging, just as it has been the past four years.” From Al-Maqtari, and…War4 min readWar4 min read
Published inThe Uncanny·Feb 6Member-onlyThe World on Fire: A Failure to Establish TiesA close reading of the US Embassy, in Islamabad, Pakistan, document, which was handed to a young woman, a high school student from Afghanistan with two US acceptances and scholarships to elite private schools, reveals the following language, after the menacing, “A Failure to Establish Ties: One main requirement to…Afghanistan5 min readAfghanistan5 min read
Published inThe Uncanny·Jan 16Member-onlyThe U.S. State Department Aids The Taliban in Erasing All Hope for Afghanistan — Especially WomenIn 2005, Middlebury College admitted our first Afghan student, a candidate from the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women. The following year another woman followed; eventually, there were 12 Afghan students whose different paths lead to the college (three were young men). I was fortunate to have taught all of them. …Afghanistan6 min readAfghanistan6 min read
Published inThe Uncanny·May 16, 2022Member-onlyFinding WaldoFor 12 weeks, September to December, 2022, a total of 30 hrs, I taught in-person every Monday and Wednesday, 8:40 am to 9:55 am, in Middlebury College’s Axinn Center for the Humanities, room 104. …Democracy4 min readDemocracy4 min read
Published inThe Uncanny·May 7, 2022Member-onlyThe Divided States of America: The Disillusion of Speech, Education & Culturefor my students, present and long inside the world of confusing animosity Only a fool would maintain that the concept holding the nation together, the United States of America, still holds true. From the Big Lie to the storming of the Capitol to the leaked Roe v. Wade Supreme Court…Identity Politics5 min readIdentity Politics5 min read
Published inThe Uncanny·Dec 7, 2021Member-onlyAbortion and the MidwifeOn a mild autumn day in Rosario, the largest city in the central Argentine province of Santa Fe, on the west bank of the Paraná River, on May 14, 1928, Liberata Baroni, my great grandmother and midwife, eased into the world Ernesto Guevara, the future Che. Dr. Ernesto “Che” Guevara…Abortion3 min readAbortion3 min read
Published inThe Uncanny·Nov 18, 2021Member-onlyWhy (I) WriteI’ve been writing and thinking about writing ever since middle school when a nun not much taller than I was in seventh grade pulled me aside and handed me a piece of paper with a magazine cutout of the word GOLD glued to the top of the page and said…Writing4 min readWriting4 min read
