Last month a correspondent, Philip Greenspan, forwarded an E-mail he had sent to Amnesty International questioning its appeal to members to support the transfer of Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague. I requested his permission to publish it and asked whether he could put in writing the reasons that had impelled him to contact AI. The result: a common sense set of explanations written in simple language that pretty much details the Yugoslav tragedy.
Michael Stowell demonstrates the inanity of the present US thinking regarding the National Missile Defense Initiative as well as its atronomical financial cost.
While Milo Clark pursues his musing wondering whether there is hope for a life without self-created compartments, Alma Hromic visits the notion of patriotism with the help of a letter from her father.
Big Brother is watching you and you even pay his bills, says David Deckert in his hillarious, albeit chilling satire; and in the end, Sandy Lulay's poem will smooth your soul. Enjoy this rendition and as always please form your own opinion.
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Philip Greenspan: Amnesty International and Yugoslavia: Duped or Accomplice?
While browsing my mail, Monday, May 21, my attention was drawn to an item on page 1 of Amnesty International's periodical amnesty now. A highlighting red circle enclosed an appeal for members to support the transfer of Slobodan Milosevic to the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. Only five days before, convinced of the unjust treatment he had been subjected to, I had added my name to a petition -- endorsed by many people from countries all over the world -- to free him. I was shocked and disheartened to discover the position taken by Amnesty International (AI). More...
Philip Greenspan is a retired attorney and a World War II veteran.
Michael W. Stowell: This Round's On You, Again
Uncle Sam's taxpayers shelled out $70.7 billion for the first 'Star Wars' plan and all they have to show for it are a few faked tests, an inflated national debt, and a power-drunk corporate/military complex. Bush's current scheme makes Reagan's shenanigans look like a handful of discarded peanut hulls scattered across the barroom floor...and guess who's buying. More...
Michael W. Stowell is chairperson of the City of Arcata Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Commission, Humboldt County, CA.
Milo Clark: Break Out
If, as one may suppose, and discover upon reflection, these are transitional times, as always since change as well as paradox are natural in actuality, a question, then, may be how to characterize, discuss, name, describe transitions. Much less invite anyone to play? More...
Milo Clark is a Swans' founding member, advisor and columnist.
Alma A. Hromic: Letter From My Father
Last year, round about his birthday, my father wrote me a letter. He has never written a letter that made for boring reading, or that was ONLY an account of some event which he happened to witness or participate in — he was always one for observing, commenting, writing what were essentially little personal essays. If he were a great writer or a philosopher or a head of state his collected correspondence would probably be snapped up and published by some enterprising editor, and he would become as quotable and well known as Churchill once was.
But he is not famous, and his letters will remain mostly private treasures. Except when, as now, they move me to thinking and pondering on something. More...
Alma Hromic is an acclaimed novelist and a poet who was born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. She is the co-author with R. A. Deckert of Letters from the Fire
David Deckert: Total Control Corp.
Dear Mr. Collins,
The intent of this letter is to notify you that you have broken the terms of your auto insurance and your auto policy fees will therefore be raised accordingly. More...
David Deckert is a software engineer for a dot.com company
Sandy Lulay: SWEET CHERRY WINE
She hangs a plastic rose
In the empty space;
Lineations of light caress
Her trembling hand and slow her thought.
A thought so close to revealing
Some mystery
Tightly pressed into the delicate cracks
Of old window glass.
More...
An "Original Woodstock Girl," Sandy Lulay is also a "Swans kind of girl" who's been writing poetry since age 10.