Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in The Swamp.
The Carmel in My Coffee
This morning, a pretty average almost summer morning in late May, I, a pretty average white guy had left for work to make my hour plus commute to the bank. A little rain, a little sun, the highway lightly traveled, and my mind drifted away from the pandemic of the century, to the sweetness of my coffee. Hazelnut with the delicious finish of carmel, just nutty enough to get that earthy feel and sweet enough to cover the bitter.
By Jack Robertshaw6 years ago in The Swamp
Trump’s Tulsa Oklahoma Campaign Rally: What went wrong?
According to many published reports, the President was angry at the first campaign show in Tulsa with a sea of empty seats at the Tulsa arena, the venue for Trump’s first campaign rally in the era of Coronavirus. The brunt of Trump’s anger understandably was directed at his campaign manager Brad Parscale. From all accounts the arena was half-empty the original plan was to carry over the overfill crowd to an outside stage when the arena was full to capacity. That plan was scrapped.
By Paul Oranika6 years ago in The Swamp
As Well
I get it. I really do. I am a black man and it has been wearying, even for me, the worldwide movement that is Black Lives Matters. That is not to say I am sick of hearing about it. It is, unfortunately, a necessary movement but like the Me Too movement of recent years, a movement that was adopted by Hollywood but in truth was created a decade before to highlight sexual abuse and harassment, something related to half of the world’s population.
By Q-ell Betton6 years ago in The Swamp
Instead of Tearing Down History and Monuments, Why not Build It Up
So the statue issue has come home to a nearby community in Mt. Kisco, New York. Facebook allowed the opposing sides to fire the first salvos. On Father’s Day, a town group exploded over a petition to tear down a statue of Christopher Columbus, and let me tell you, it was on. I offered one brief comment. But I decided to take cover and engage here. In the interest of full disclosure, though, let me first reveal the long standing bias that begins my point of view
By Rich Monetti6 years ago in The Swamp
Happy Juneteenth
Looking back this was something that celebrated every summer when I was a child. This event was usually a few weeks after school over for the summer there was a celebration at the park for Juneteenth. Being from Cleveland, Ohio in the 90s this was either usually Gordon Park, the beach at Lake Erie, or my Grandmother’s house. I was told by parents that this was a day where the slaves were freed and we should celebrate this because we could be still slaves today if events that had not taken place had taken place. Though I had questions beyond what my young mind could grasp I took their word and proceeded to partake in the barbequed food that I loved so much and participating in shenanigans with my cousins. Most of the time we would have left until a fight would break out across the park for any given reason or in sometimes even a shot or two would break from the crowd no word if anyone was actually killed during those times.
By Shanda Gantt6 years ago in The Swamp
Dear Fellow White Women: Want to Smash the Patriarchy? Stand Against Racism. Top Story - June 2020.
When Emma Stone, at the 2018 Oscars, referred to the Best Director nominees as 'these four men and Greta Gerwig', she was met with a mixture of praise and heavy criticism- and it wasn't from misgoynists. Sure, the actress was right to call out the ridiculously low number of female nominees- but she was swiftly criticised for ignoring the fact that "these four men" included a Latino man (Guillermo Del Toro) and a black one (Jordan Peele). Men of colour, as Stone's critcs pointed out, don't exactly get everything handed to them. Why should they- along with women of colour- celebrate one wealthy white woman for cheering on another wealthy white women, ignoring their experiences, and calling it feminism? (Plus, no-one's forgotten Aloha.)
By Emma Curzon6 years ago in The Swamp
What Really Happened with the Off and On-Again US-China Trade Talks?
Both the US and China are struggling to recover from the woes of a health care and economic crisis. This is not a good time for either country to escalate trade tensions. The last thing either country needs at the moment is to cause financial market, business or consumer sentiment turn negative at the moment. That would surely slow the recovery process for both countries. As a case in point, witness the reaction of US and Global financial markets when they heard White House Advisor Peter Navarro hint that the Phase 1 trade deal with China was over. Not surprisingly, the retraction and clarifications came swiftly from both U.S. President Trump and Mr. Navarro indicating that the statement was not true and that the Phase 1 trade deal remained solidly on track.
By Anthony Chan6 years ago in The Swamp
How the Tides Almost Turned
They came off the boats to a world they never could imagine. Some called this southern land of swamps and Spanish moss their home from birth, while others derived from another continent, across the ocean. However, the one thing that these people did have in common was their status as human capital; animate tools for the institution of slavery, which fueled the economies of every nation which claimed the land as theirs; from France, to Spain, to France (again), and finally to the United States. The prosperity of an ethnic minority would be built and supported, for generation after generation in this region until the end of the Civil War, by the toil, complacency, and suffering of enslaved Africans; people with virtually no sense of freedom or enfranchisement in a nation conceived in the Enlightenment ideas of liberal democracy, personal liberty, and equality for all. Yet, for one brief moment, this system of morally putrid exploitation, would be violently challenged and bear the potential of stipulating the power of American expansion. In January of 1811, 500 slaves of Louisiana’s German Coast (an agricultural region dominated by plantation homes and sugar cane fields) rose up in defiant rebellion against their masters and nearly took New Orleans for themselves; to become a center for an independent black republic. Yet, this was by no means an anarchic act of racial resistance created in the heat of the moment. Rather, it was a masterfully organized, ingeniously calculated, and strategically planned effort to undermine the slave-owning class and reinforce such Enlightenment ideas into a full and legitimate practice. This is the story of the Louisiana Revolt of 1811.
By Jacob Herr6 years ago in The Swamp
What Would I Do In Their Place?
Many years from now I will face certain crises if I'm ever elected into office. Our current President endures many a kind of public criticism or backlash for his behavior. Former President Barack Obama has called President Donald Trumps' response to the coronavirus crisis a chaotic disaster, which makes him even more sure that 45 must be defeated in November. Strong government leadership is not happening during this crisis, because the election that is coming up determines battle lines being drawn against selfishness, tribal attitudes, being divisive and causing others to see each other as enemies. This is what we are fighting, negativity at large, causing the world to believe narcissistic lies.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez6 years ago in The Swamp
Action or Dissatisfaction?
Action or Dissatisfaction? George Floyd, another involuntary martyr, a black body slain for the slaughter Oh, does it make you annoyed that I won't avoid, saying his name with my first breath but ohh no you must recognize his death.
By Leon Sanders III6 years ago in The Swamp
