From where do the American people get their news? From the main media, print and TV. Practically all these news organizations are owned and controlled by six giant corporations. What kind of news do you really get, how well does it bode for the future of democracy in this country? Deck Deckert visits this issue with clarity of thought. Milo Clark, for his part, carries on with his philosophical musing, bringing practical steps any one can choose to take. The events in the Balkans (arrest of Slobodan Milosevich and the continued unrest in Macedonia and Presevo) are too fluid for us to cover at this time. But Iraq keeps being bombed, the violence in Israel and Palestine does not abate. Gregory Elich's and Michael Stowell's pieces on these issues remain quite topical.
As usual, please read this rendition and then form your own opinion.
In the poetry corner a smidgen of nostalgia from Sandy Lulay.
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Deck Deckert: The Media
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be," Thomas Jefferson said more than 200 years ago.
Today the U.S. appears determined to prove that Jefferson knew what he was talking about. Americans are ignorant at the same time they embrace the illusion that they are the best informed nation on earth, shackled while they assume they are the world's freest people. More...
A former copy, wire and news editor, Deck Deckert is a freelance writer. He is the author, with Alma Hromic of Letters from the Fire.
Milo Clark: Croatan
Daniel Quinn's latest novel, After Dachau,* ends with scenes from The Croatan Gallery, thereby introducing the word "Croatan." Why Croatan?
In 1590, Governor John White returned from England to the Roanoke Colony; More...
Milo Clark is a Swans' founding member, advisor and columnist.
Gregory Elich: Personal Journey: A Flight Against The Iraqi Blockade
The boy paced rapidly back and forth, driven by desperation. His mouth, twisted in anguish, produced an expression of such intensity that I could not avert my eyes as I gazed at him through the window of our bus. Only moments before, as we approached the bus that would take us to the airport, we were surrounded, as if from nowhere, by several street peddlers. They were all pre-adolescent boys carrying trays filled with goods, their hopes soaring at the sight of more than 90 Westerners. This was Baghdad, and we were about to return home. More...
Gregory Elich is a long-time peace activist.
Michael W. Stowell: Palestine and Israel
When I contemplate the state of affairs in Palestine and Israel I am faced with the whole of human conflict at its primal level; the human family fighting over a pile of rocks. I'm also faced with a deplorable question; will we destroy our humanity in our quest for ownership of the Earth? More...
Michael W. Stowell is chairperson of the City of Arcata Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Commission, Humboldt County, CA.
Aleksandra Priestfield: America's Agenda for a New World Order
In January 2001, Congressman Ron Paul went on record as referring to the International Criminal Court (ICC) as "the latest UN outrage". The Congressman slams former president Clinton as having signed the ICC treaty in no more than another snatch at an elusive "legacy", thus, as the Congressman puts it, taking "another step towards imposing global government on US citizens". More...
Aleksandra Priestfield, a writer and an editor, contributes her regular columns to Swans.
Sandy Lulay: THAT SUNDAY FEELING
Midnight
Chilled, I stroll down the dirt road to pastures
Past the barn, the broken tractor, the farm
That belonged to him so long ago, sure
Nothing would ever change it's timeless charm.
More...
An "Original Woodstock Girl," Sandy Lulay is also a "Swans kind of girl" who's been writing poetry since age 10.