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War in Ukraine. Lessons From A Century Ago

I have a friend who is Ukrainian and Russian. We never talked politics. I have not heard from her since the war began. I write today with her in mind. Never have I known so many good people with such opposing perspectives, as those on the war in Ukraine.  Unlike...

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Bookstores are Political

Bookstores are political. Today there are the those that have banned-book clubs and offer space to Trans support groups. They feature the works of Black, Indigenous, Latine and LGBTQ authors and subjects. “Labor” is a section, and so is “AAPI.” Genocide is a fact of...

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Monumental Trauma

In the South Korean drama Rain or Shine, (to avoid a spoiler go to next paragraph), two survivors of a building collapse, interview other survivors about what kind of memorial they want. The construction company, now rebuilding on the site, had erected a memorial. A...

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The Aspiring Intersectional Feminist Traveler

I am preparing to be interviewed by the Intrepid Traveler. That caused me to consider, what kind of traveler am I? I am not intrepid. I travel loaded with fears and cautions. I think I am an aspiring Intersectional Feminist Traveler. What does it mean to be an...

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Never Again

The America’s Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is reopening in 2022. It was closed for twelve years. Milwaukee cancelled its financial support for the public history site shortly after the death of its founder, Dr. James Cameron, the only known survivor of a lynching.

Dr. Cameron got the idea for his museum after visiting the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. I have not been to this US Museum, but I have toured German concentration camps several times and I am always struck by how Germany works to never forget while the US, which must be forced to remember. The foreclosure of America’s Black Holocaust Museum, by Milwaukee officials is emblematic of that eagerness to bury the history of US terrorism.  

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