On the River with Huck & Jim, the King & the Duke, Elon & Donald

“It was a dreadful thing to see. Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.” — Huck Finn

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and AWTT

Right below the surface, like the rotting body of a drowned Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon, is the stinking, smug racism of Donald Trump as he attempts to remove institutionalized efforts toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) from governmental, educational, and corporate practice. He wants white people to feel victimized by DEI – as though five-hundred […]

The Exaltation of Ego and a Coup, January 20, 2025

“Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. . . . Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for the law: it invites every man to become a law unto himself, it invites anarchy.” – Louis Brandeis Friends, I just watched the second inauguration of Donald Trump. I suspect  many […]

Let’s Be Clear

Friends, Donald Trump has promised that his first official act as president will be as a dictator. My first act – waking up on November 6th to the news of his election – was to apologize to all living plants and creatures on this planet. Trump will not be their executioner, that process has been […]

News Flash!  U.S. Loses World War II!

Here we are, nearly 80 years after the seeming end of WWII,  the war Americans like to call the Good War, the war that left much of Europe in ruins, a war that killed over 50 million people – most of them civilians, a war that featured a horror show of atrocities – the Holocaust, the dropping […]

How a small town becomes toxic

Chaos Comes Calling: The Battle Against the Far-Right takeover of Small Town Americaby Sasha Abramsky, Bold Type Books 2024 I was talking recently with a leading educator from Washington County, the poorest county in Maine and home of some of its most conservative politics. He told me two disturbing  things. One is that difficult emotional […]

Arrested Again

Yesterday, July 27, 2024, on a beautiful, hot summer day, I was arrested along with eight other peace activists while blocking the entrance to the parking lot at Bath Iron Works (BIW) in Bath, Maine. The shipyard at BIW builds an ever growing flotilla of enormous and enormously expensive warships which patrol all the world’s […]

On Presidential Immunity

Artist Robert Shetterly confronts his fears about the recent Supreme Court decisions on presidential immunity and the powers of administrative agencies.

Bernard Lown Unveiling

On Friday evening, June 7th, 2024, in the atrium of the Bates Mill in Lewiston, Maine, we honored  Dr. Bernard Lown by unveiling his new AWTT portrait on what would have been his 103rd birthday.

Who’s the Teacher Now?

I’m thinking about the students on college campuses today protesting the Israeli violence in Gaza. I’m thinking about what it means to be a teacher and a student.