Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in The Swamp.
1924
Maybe I’m obsessed with validation and purpose. A needle is in my stomach. It pokes me periodically. Where are you from, poke. What is your purpose, poke. Who is your family, poke poke. I asked Them, the two relatives who would know family history, for a deeper understanding of the bodies, beings, minds, occupations, preoccupations, histories of my family. I asked Them for traditions. I asked Them for ethnicities. I asked Them for hometowns and cultural practices and stories. I want flesh and blood. I want answers. I want identity.
By MINDSOCKET6 years ago in The Swamp
Secrecy of labor unions and capitalist bankers
Secrecy of Labor unions and capitalist bankers The two main controllers of all economic activity are too secretive. Both labor and capital are too important to be left just to their own structures. They are both, naturally, focused on self interest but they have such strong influences over everyone else that these self interests need some form of accountability to the rest of the population. If we are to have democratic government, then surly we need open democracy within the two main levers of economy. We are all so interdependent in the the modern time, that the economy affects and to a degree, controls us all. Having elected government without any form of democratic control over these twin pillars of economic activity, is detrimental to democracy itself.
By Peter Rose6 years ago in The Swamp
Paranoid Politics and the Murder of Ahmaud Arbery
In 1964, historian Richard Hofstadter published an essay called “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” where he defined the cyclical way in which humans attack their political opponents using illogical propaganda.
By Eliza Mae Winfree6 years ago in The Swamp
It's a Hard-Knock (Black) Life
The lights in the room darkened and the Hollywood classic, “It’s A Hard-Knock Life” began to fill the silence, and a young girl named Annie appeared on the screen. With her curly hair and little red dress, Jamie Foxx’s remake of the Hollywood classic, Annie, hit the big screen again, but the new twist was that the actress playing the orphan was black. This field-trip made me excited to see a major blockbuster featuring an actress I can relate to. As the opening scene began to roll, I became absorbed into Annie’s fictional world, but my trance suddenly broke when a classmate named Amelia uttered, “I’m not trying to be racist or anything but why do black people steal everything?” The blood drained from my face as I craned my head to stare at her porcelain skin, but was unable to say anything as she giggled at herself in approval of her own words. While the film continued to play on screen, my mind unlatched its own reel and memories from history class began to project in my thoughts. Suddenly, chains, diseases, and colonialism of the transatlantic slave trade began to flash in my mind, and the images quickly morphed into blackface, police brutality, and the death of Tupac Shakur.
By Erin Haynes6 years ago in The Swamp
Introducing the Coalition
We each have an exact moment when it happened. When we each experienced the experience that begins our external existence in the universe. An exact moment marks the occurrence of this experience for each and every one of us. Each of our experiences of this event is uniquely individual, yet collectively amounts to the same overall experience.
By Jeff McCarty6 years ago in The Swamp
Activism vs Governance
If you've seen the movie "Up in the Air", George Clooney and Anna Kendrick have contrasting approaches to delivering the same message. In fact Anna's approach was supposedly a modern trend, in tune with the cost saving measures that every company incorporates, but the repercussions were severe. On the same breath, think about the message of the effects of Global Warming on the environment. The message is well known, but the way the activists vouch for it versus how governments implement them, vastly differ. An activist is selfish about their cause, people in governance need to care about all aspects. An activist is vocal, steadfast and gives it their all, but they do it solely for the cause that is near and dear to them. While in governance, you need to care about everyone, including those who didn't vote for you, then agree on a compromise that would work out to be the best. With Greta's picture profiled, you can argue isn't the environment for everyone? Hold on to that thought, I will definitely come back to it.
By John Francis 6 years ago in The Swamp
The State Withdraws: The volunteers move in.
We're often told by the left that we require the overwhelming state to provide nearly every public service in society on these fair shores. We simply can not live without the Government - it is impossible and every retreat of that state, in all its mighty glory, will automatically equal yet another child in poverty.
By Tom Guyton-Day6 years ago in The Swamp
White Privilege
Throughout this article I will be using the photos I found on @courtneyahndesign 's Instagram because she so beautifully and simply laid out the meaning of white privilege in a way everyone can understand. All credits to her, go give her a follow!
By Madeline Keys6 years ago in The Swamp
