Opinion Forum

Eyes of Babylon in New York

June 17th, 2011

By Jan Barry Jeff Key took the long road—via Iraq, a ditch in Texas and many other way stations across America—to perform on a New York stage. Key is currently presenting a slice of his own life as a gay Marine in his one-man show, “The Eyes of Babylon,” at 59E59 Theaters. Reviewers have stretched [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, don't ask don't tell, gay, Iraq, Jeff Key, Marine, New York, play
Categories: Arts, Life, Military | Comments (0) | Home

Counting Up the Costs of War

March 28th, 2011

By Jan Barry How many ways need it be said? America is going broke—and has become imperious, callous and cruel—waging wars around the world. A group of concerned citizens in New Jersey and New York set out recently to visually convey the costs of war for our nation. The result is a mind-boggling array of [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, costs, dead, financial, Iraq, photos, Vietnam, war, wounded
Categories: Arts, Military, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

Camille Paglia on the Passing of Elizabeth Taylor

March 25th, 2011

By Tom Carter Elizabeth Taylor died on March 23. She was 79 years old. She was 10 in the first movie she was cast in, made before I was born. She became a major star at the age of 12 in National Velvet. In 1963 I saw her in Cleopatra not long after it was [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Camille Paglia, death, Elizabeth Taylor, eyes, feminism, Hollywood, movies
Categories: Arts, Life, News | Comments (2) | Home

Blither, Dither, Little Guy

March 19th, 2011

By Dan Miller Never previously having attempted to write poetry, here is my first effort. It should probably also be my last. Blither, dither, little guy, Up above the world so high Like a diamond in the sky. That you know best I can attest and Have no wish to be a pest. Play some [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: basketball, budget, dither, economy, golf, Japan, Libya, Obama, party, Rio
Categories: Arts, Humor, Politics | Comments (3) | Home

American-Made Mayhem

January 20th, 2011

By Jan Barry The good people of Tucson, Arizona are still reeling from the massacre in a shopping mall a few days ago that killed six public-spirited citizens and wounded 13 other folks including a popular congresswoman. Horrendous and heartbreaking as it was, it was just the latest outbreak of a peculiar American ritual. Given [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Arizona, Earth Songs, handguns, New Jersey, post office, shooting, violence
Categories: Arts, Life, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

Waging Poetry

January 5th, 2011

By Jan Barry When I get blue, beyond the soothing realms of jazz or mother Nature or love, I reach for a book of poetry. The rhythmic kick of well-placed words works better for me than pills or booze. So it was that I recently sat in a wintry funk and read W.D. Ehrhart’s latest [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: healing, poetry, The Bodies Beneath the Table, veterans, W.D. Ehrhart, war
Categories: Arts, Life | Comments (2) | Home

A White Christmas in Budapest

December 29th, 2010

By Tom Carter We spent the Christmas weekend in Budapest, one of the most beautiful of European cities. We stayed in a spa hotel on a large island in the Danube. The river goes through the middle of the city, dividing the old towns of Buda, in the hills on the right (west) bank, and [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Budapest, Cafe Gerbeaud, Christmas market, Danube, snow, Vorosmarty ter
Categories: Arts, Life | Comments (8) | Home

Living with Death’s Shadow

December 23rd, 2010

By Jan Barry Holiday blues. Survivor guilt. Withering blasts of grief. Like so many war veterans, I’ve been living with these and other chronic nightmares most of my adult life. It often gets worse during holiday seasons and certain anniversaries. For many of us, this is an intensely private story that’s seldom talked about in [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: grief, guilt, loss, poetry, PTSD, support groups, survivor, veterans, writing
Categories: Arts, Life, Military | Comments (4) | Home

The Nazi of Nanking

December 9th, 2010

By Brianna Aubin Last spring, I read a book called The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang. Iris was the descendant of Chinese immigrants; her parents were actually professors at my university, so she grew up here in Chambana. Her grandparents had managed to flee Nanking before it had been taken by the Japanese; it [...]

Articles written by Brianna Aubin
Tags: Iris Chang, Japan, Japanese Army, murder, Muslim, Nanking, Nazi, Rabe, rape
Categories: Arts, History, Life, Politics | Comments (7) | Home

Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

December 8th, 2010

By Tom Carter I just read Khaled Hosseini’s novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes good fiction. It has everything — strong plot, perfect narrative, great style, and rare insight into the human condition. The subject matter, however, is what makes it an urgently important book. It chronicles the [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Afghanistan, Khaled Hosseini, Soviet, Splendid Suns, Taliban, terrorism, war
Categories: Arts, History, Life | Comments (0) | Home

I Don’t Care about LeBron James or Lindsay Lohan or…

September 21st, 2010

By Dr. Jim Taylor Boy am I glad that the media feeding frenzy over the ill-advised LeBron James/ESPN cluster@#&%, “The Decision,” is long past. It just demonstrated what we should have assumed all along, namely, that behind that façade of loyal and humble Cleveland homeboy was the usual narcissistic superstar athlete that we have come [...]

Articles written by Dr. Jim Taylor
Tags: culture, entertainment, Lebron James, Lindsay Lohan, narcissism, values
Categories: Arts, Life, Media | Comments (5) | Home

Another Kind of Hero

September 5th, 2010

By Jan Barry Former Arizona Cardinals football star Pat Tillman was posthumously awarded the Silver Star by the U.S. Army — for being killed by fellow Rangers on a mission in Afghanistan. The wrenching impact on his family of his death and promotion to poster boy for the War on Terrorism is the focus of [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, documentary, friendly fire, Iraq, review, Silver Star, Tillman
Categories: Arts, Military, News, Politics | Comments (9) | Home

Post Traumatic Poetry

July 9th, 2010

By Jan Barry Imagine if the US government promoted poetry by war veterans as ardently as it churns out lavishly designed, taxpayer-funded military recruitment campaigns. Imagine the Pentagon switching from selling patriotic hoopla to conveying the real deal of war’s horrific legacies. Here’s what such an astounding change in perspective might look like: “FM 22-51 [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: literature, poetry, Post Traumatic Press, post traumatic stress, Vietnam, war
Categories: Arts, Life, Military | Comments (1) | Home

America’s Self-esteem Problem

June 7th, 2010

By Dr. Jim Taylor Yes, we have a self-esteem problem in our country, but we don’t recognize it because, well, we have a self-esteem problem. We need look no further than the bewildering popularity of the reality-TV show Jersey Shore and the instant celebrity garnered from its inhabitants despite their complete absence of qualifications. Though, [...]

Articles written by Dr. Jim Taylor
Tags: children, grades, Jersey Shore, JWoww, self-esteem, Snooki, The Situation
Categories: Arts, Education, Life, Media | Comments (18) | Home

Al Underwater

June 6th, 2010

By Larry Ennis The great BP oil spill that is destroying the Gulf Coast brought back some old memories. When I was a young man one of my heroes was a gentleman named Al Hanson. Al, his wife Norma, and their daughter Jeanie were our neighbors. We lived in a small suburb of Avalon, California. Avalon [...]

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: BP, Catalina Island, deep-sea diving, disaster, oil
Categories: Arts, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

Blue Moon Saturday Nights

May 22nd, 2010

By Larry Ennis Ben Waters was a close friend of my Grandpa Henry. They had worked together for many years in the Brook Side Coal Mines. The fact that Ben was black and Henry was white never mattered one iota. The two men fished, hunted, made moonshine, and even raised gardens together. Ben had been [...]

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: Alabama, blues, blues man, guitar, moonshine, music, roadhouse
Categories: Arts, Life | Comments (2) | Home

South Park and J.C.

May 16th, 2010

By Larry Ennis South Park the cartoon series has become a national treasure of sorts. Like The Simpsons and King Of The Hill series, South Park mimics and pokes fun at everyday life in America. I watch all three shows whenever possible. To me, they are strictly humor derived from the black mood that has [...]

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: Christianity, Islam, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, religion, South Park
Categories: Arts, Life, News | Comments (4) | Home

Will the Prophet Mohammed Please Stand Up

April 25th, 2010

By Brianna Aubin Last week, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker drew a cartoon which attempted to depict the Prophet Mohammed. In response, a group called Revolution Muslim posted a picture of Theo Van Gogh, a Danish cartoonist who was murdered for making a film critical of Islam, as he was lying dead [...]

Articles written by Brianna Aubin
Tags: censorship, Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, Mohammed, prophet, South Park
Categories: Arts, News, Politics | Comments (8) | Home

TwiCrimes

January 27th, 2010

By Amber So, I’m guessing you’re wondering what the title of this article means. I’m a big Twilight fan, and Twilight fans are called TwiFans. Since Twilight, people have gone a little crazy and become obsessed with it (including me). But some TwiFans are a lot crazier than others, and they commit “TwiCrimes.” On June [...]

Articles written by Amber
Tags: Rob Pattinson, twicrimes, TwiFans, Twilight
Categories: Arts, Life, News | Comments (12) | Home

Tis the Season

December 22nd, 2009

By Jan Barry Swan cygnet, Monksville Reservoir, Long Pond Iron Works State Park, West Milford, NJ (Photo from Wild Life by Jan Barry) A snowstorm has turned this area of New Jersey into a sparkling winter landscape. The rumble of highway traffic and freight and commuter trains that surround the village of South Bound Brook [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: canal, conservation, kayak, landscape, preservation, wildlife, winter
Categories: Arts, Life | Comments (1) | Home