Homeland Invasion: Update 09-24-2025 – Chuck Fager Recent scenes from the front: — A combat vet protesting Chicago ICE raids, emerging from a thick cloud of their tear gas, unmasked & unruffled, bearing a large American flag. — A fullsized, full-color roadside billboard near Fort Bragg, North Carolina, home of the famed 82nd Airborne Division, … Continue reading Homeland Invasion Update: 09-26-2025
NOTE: Jim Cavener, of Asheville NC and the world, has been a friend, reader & correspondent for — yikes! — almost 50 years. And he’s been an NPR instigator/fan for even longer. So when he saw my post about the network’s prospects after the fed money cuts, he soon weighed in with his usual panache. … Continue reading An NPR Post-Federal Money Conversation: Is There A Silver Lining??
Ms. Hazel’s Last July 4th — 2023: Her Flags & The Prayer Line I lived next door to Ms. Hazeline Umstead for twelve years. She was remarkable in many ways: she had grown up in this neighborhood; had returned to it after several years in New York City. She was meticulous about her lawn … Continue reading A Special July 4 Memorial: My Neighbor Hazeline Umstead
Well, rest in peace, Pope F, but the crazy merry-go-round of news moves so fast you could have slipped away a month or two ago. But after all, you were 88. For that matter, by mid-afternoon the stock market was down again — but only by another 900+ points; I, mean, Ho-hum, right? 401k panic … Continue reading Hegseth Headed For the Door?? I’ll Believe It When I See It
Late one spring morning in 1986, I was creeping along the edge of Ox Road, Virginia route 123, driving with one hand, and shoving mail into the boxes on posts with the other. I was a substitute rural mail carrier, working a route just south of the seemingly nonexistent town of Fairfax Station. Beyond the … Continue reading Henry Taylor: A Quaker Poet Departs — A Holiday Read