America calls itself “exceptional” among nations, and a shining beacon of freedom and democracy. But when America’s reality belies its mythic conceptions, many fearful citizens regress into heroic narratives like a frightened child into a fairy tale.

Thomas Cangelosi
Blue skies — another climate casualty
Every morning I look out my bedroom window, like some daily spiritual ablution, hoping to see blue skies. As the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.” Composer Irving Berlin expressed this natural affinity in his lyric, “Blue skies, smiling at me.” Perhaps that’s why I’ve find it […]
A CT snowbird retreats from the ‘Gunshine State’
Unsuspecting Americans may buy the marketing of the “free state of Florida” only to find themselves living in a state of repression.
Eden redux
It’s clear that Mother Earth is sick, infected by her children whose entitled behavior spikes her fever; whips up whirlwinds that slash her coasts and flood her plains
Trump poses like Churchill, but acts like Mussolini
During former President Trump’s political career, he’s tried to give his best impression of Winston Churchill. Ironically, it looks more like infamous fascist Benito Mussolini.
A nation losing its soul
As long as the economy is robust, many Americans no longer care whether the government pursues equality and justice for all of its citizens; or whether industries pollute the air, water and earth; or whether the nation welcomes “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”
The anti-democratic reality of MAGA
The MAGA political movement has wrapped itself in the American flag only to violate America’s original principles. And the Supreme Court conservative majority has become its handmaiden.
Rejecting the evidence of your eyes and ears
George Orwell’s 1984 may as well have been referring to today’s Republican Party, which denies facts to support positions riddled with contradictions and hypocrisy.
The political indoctrination of parents
Recent restrictive legislation embraces censorship, the same failed strategy that caused the social mess foisted on public schools in the first place.
A book for Putin and Trump: ‘Crime and Punishment’
Both Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump have a lot in common with Raskolnikov, Dostoevsky’s character in “Crime and Punishment.”
A return to normal is an upside down idea
By overturning the “normal” values of an upside-down world, we may actually turn the world right-side-up.
A case of national depression
According to a recent NBC news poll, when Americans were asked about the country’s present direction, the top answers were “downhill,” “divisive,” “negative,” “struggling,” “lost,” and “bad.” The poll also indicated that the public’s interest in the upcoming midterm election is down. In other words, many Americans feel pessimistic, conflicted, and powerless to change our […]