Not by Bread Alone by Randall Auxier Emma Goldman spent two years in the dank prison on Blackwell’s Island (now called Roosevelt Island) for saying in a speech to a group of workers: “Give us work. If you do not give us work, then give us bread; if you do not give us either work…
My Brother’s Keeper by Randall Auxier Chang and Eng Bunker were joined at the sternum by a bit of cartilage, and although their livers were fused, they would have functioned independently. Contemporary medicine could have separated them safely, but in 1811 it was too dangerous. So they lived together, making money enough to buy land,…
Extreme Virtue 6: And Then Again, I Could Be Wrong by Randall Auxier I used to play in a musical duo with a wonderful singer/songwriter named Robert Hoyt (here’s a link to some stuff). He was an Earth First! activist who later lived in his truck with a cat going from town to town and…
A good friend of mine some years back sent me a most interesting comment made by the Swedish film-maker Ingmar Bergman. It keeps coming back to me as one of the most profound insights into modernity’s spiritual malaise. Bergman is speaking about art, but we must remember that art creates culture; where the artist goes…
Like a Horse and Carriage By Randall Auxier I was shuffling through the available radio stations on a long trip when the seek function paused on a preacher. I usually pass over such offerings, but he was launching into a sermon, promising to reveal the secret of successful marriage. “Well,” I thought, “this might be…
With Malice toward Some Randall E. Auxier Leon Czolgosz is not a name people recognize. Yet, his act sketched above was a great turning point in American history (all of the Americas). The Republican Party had installed Theodore Roosevelt in the Vice-President’s office, an isolated deck of the ship of state, where a loose canon…
“Ever Thus to Tyrants”? Randall Auxier This handbill is interesting. I’m reading along in Emma Goldman’s essays, the first time I have done so, and in “Anarchism: What It Stands For,” she says that government and ignorance are linked to each other. It never crossed my mind that every government has at least some…
We lump taxes together with death as the two things we dread and can be certain of. But I would like to suggest that we think of taxes as a way of helping our neighbors who may be in need and improving our schools which are failing to get the job done. We pay less…
The Courage of Our Convictions Randall E. Auxier “Commitment” probably isn’t the first word that would come to your mind looking at this image. Or if it does, perhaps only in the way we think of older married people. Things are not always as they seem. These two are lovers alright, but it’s not what…
The Watergate Syndrome Randall Auxier Some of you will recognize this picture. It’s famous in some circles. But for those who don’t, please think along with me for a few hundred words. I am reading through a book on virtue by Crispin Sartwell. He wanted to talk about five virtues that are not often…