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COMMENTARY
COMMENTARY
Lincoln and Douglas are Still in Illinois
While coastal politicos like to believe that large decisions must be made within sight of an ocean, reality differs: It was in seven frontier towns carved from the Old Northwest -- our Midwest – that the idea that “A house divided against itself cannot stand” was given shape and form. All else flowed from that.
Lincoln and Douglas are Still in Illinois
While coastal politicos like to believe that large decisions must be made within sight of an ocean, reality differs: It was in seven frontier towns carved from the Old Northwest -- our Midwest – that the idea that “A house divided against itself cannot stand” was given shape and form. All else flowed from that.
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No Son of Mine
I didn’t say, as they told me how they owned a boat and spent much of their summer cruising Maine’s coastline, that my mother’s biggest dream was to get out of West Virginia, that her biggest love was the ocean, that she hoped to die listening to the sounds of the waves.
Three Poems by Jacob Schepers
By Jacob Schepers The Creeping Gait These old haunts get older and pace from town [...]
May Day is a Rust Belt Holiday
May Day isn’t just an estimably American holiday, it’s a particularly Rust Belt holiday, forged in the cauldron of Chicago’s streets and factories, born from the experience of workers in the mills and plants of Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland.
Pittsburgh Was Better Than NYC
Would a return to my hometown after 20 years in and around New York prove the perfect move for a mom determined to say “yes” and kindle community? Here’s how it went for me.
Vinton, Ohio on a December day, 2021
A poem by Keri Johnson.
Queering Appalachian Agriculture
Kent follows the pattern of Rust Belt city decline with recovery, including a focus on sustainability. Edible Kent fits in the framework of moving toward sustainability while also addressing economic needs for low-income folks, while the city’s economic recovery and development strategy has been so focused on gentrification that one could call its view of sustainability anti-poor.
Colleen Moore’s Fairy Tale Castle of Chicago
Moore used her fairies and their castle to stitch up an alarmingly tattered social contract, providing an occasion for people of all ages, races, classes and backgrounds to look together at an astonishing object and to contemplate how collaboratively through the pooling of their individual contributions, they could move proverbial mountains.
Jobbing with Dave Newman
For many working-class folks, the job can become an integral part of who they are, a reason to be. Yet when pressed to share his views on jobs as identity, Newman cuts against the grain, saying “I try to separate the idea of work and jobbing. Jobbing is what most of us do to pay the bills. Work is what keeps us alive and sane. Writing is work. Cooking dinner is work. Gardening is work. Work is a creative task that is essential.
Botticelli in the Burgh
All of these paintings, the originals in Tuscany, are also viewable down to the most granular detail, by the most strict parameters of verisimilitude, in an Italianate building of white granite and red terra cotta roof in the middle of Pittsburgh.
Execution of an Innocent Man
One hundred years ago today, a Pittsburgh man was executed. He was likely innocent.
Confessions of a Radioactive Man
I wanted to travel to Bridgeton, Missouri’s West Lake Landfill to see the kind of radioactive waste dumped there, a journalistic urge to see things firsthand.
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