By JIM McKEEVER We create false worlds to survive. I guess this has always been the case, human nature and all. But as humanity and collective empathy crumble around us, the false worlds we create have become more apparent. And more dangerous. How much time, energy and money do we devote to things that distract …
By JIM McKEEVER The blue and yellow flags of Ukraine that flew so proudly in our communities last year have faded. Many have disappeared from front porches, yards and windows. I guess we’re tired of reading and hearing about the war, more than a year after Vladimir Putin invaded the sovereign nation next door. (Perhaps …
Editor’s note: Five additional portraits are below McLaughlin’s essay. By BILL McLAUGHLIN Many years ago while working on environmental issues and getting quite angry at the political and corporate entities that were contaminating the air and groundwater in the rural area where I was living, an experienced activist and dear friend gave me some advice …
By JIM McKEEVER The woman eases herself into a chair across from a man in the waiting room, sets her walker aside and goes into detail about her many surgeries. “I’ve been cut 24 times,” she says, launching into a laundry list of diseases, including diabetes, renal failure, fibromyalgia. She says she is 57, grew …
By JIM McKEEVER If you had the opportunity to provide comfort to a child, or a family, sleeping outside in the cold, you’d do whatever you could, right? It’s what any decent human being would do. Not the United States Border Patrol. Here’s what’s been happening for weeks now at the US-Mexico border in Friendship …
By JIM McKEEVER I heard many stories during a recent “water drop” in the desert with Border Kindness, a not-for-profit humanitarian aid organization in southern California. One in particular told by a fellow volunteer will stay with me. The story marked the beginning of the 34-year-old man’s transformation a quarter-century ago. As a young boy …
“Are birds free from the chains of the skyway?” — Bob Dylan By DENNIS HARROD I was behind a pickup truck the other day and it had a sticker on the back window that said “Freedom” and what looked like it might be an American flag. It was hard to tell. It had vertical stripes. …
By JIM McKEEVER Mexicans can be heroes again. A U.S. District Court judge last week overturned a 2021 U.S. Customs and Border Protection policy that had stopped Mexicans from crossing the border to donate plasma. In May 2021, I noticed long lines outside the three plasma donation centers within a few hundred yards of the …
By JIM McKEEVER We need a better word, something stronger. When we talk about divisions in the country and the ways we reinforce and protect our beliefs, we fall back on words like “echo chamber” and “bubble.” This is where we prefer to stay — our “safe space,” to use another popular term bordering on …
By JIM McKEEVER For the past few months — has it been longer? — I’ve half-jokingly said that we should change the name of this website to “Sense of Despair.” It pretty much sums up where many of us have been lately, whether it’s the pandemic that won’t go away, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, lies …
Sense of Decency 