Category Archives: Uncategorized

THROUGHOUT THE EARLY YEARS of the Depression, with private charity overwhelmed and the government continuing to follow a laissez faire course, the millions of unemployed were forced to rely on their own resources and selfactivity. Little government welfare existed before … Continue reading →

THREE YEARS AGO I DECIDED to stop yelling at my radio and do something about it. Every day I’d hear NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered tell me that the US was bringing democracy to Iraq, that Hugo Chavez … Continue reading →

The surgeon hoisted Heart from the dead donor’s chest; Heart thought it was being born, fresh from a C-section. Still warm and slick with blood, it flexed its firm ventricles with a vigorous pump, slipped from the surgeon’s grip, plopped … Continue reading →

ON MARCH 19, 2009, the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on the increasing number of suicides in the armed forces. The high ranking officers attempted to provide a strategy for preventing this crisis among the military services … Continue reading →

IN MID-FEBRUARY, HOCK E AYE VI, Edgar Heap of Birds, a Cheyenne-Arapaho artist, visited the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. Just days after his “Beyond the Chief” exhibit debuted on Nevada Street, Heap of Birds gave a talk about … Continue reading →

COUNTY RESIDENTS MAY WANT TO PAY close attention to the outcome of the local election next month. A proposed school sales tax increase to fund school-based projects for Urbana schools will be on the April 7 Champaign County ballot. Should … Continue reading →

THERE ARE MANY REASONS to be disappointed in Alex ‘ARod’ Rodriguez. While many sportswriters and pundits at ESPN have spilled gallons of ink and use hours of airtime flagellating Rodriguez for his alleged lies and steroid use, they have missed … Continue reading →

IN HIS JANUARY 22 CEREMONY to announce the appointment of George Mitchell as the special envoy to the Middle East, President Obama spoke to the urgency of a lasting ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and made a commitment “to seek … Continue reading →

The older I get, the more it seems our world’s been a failure How could a world filled with unhappy people Ruled by the most soulless of us be anything but? Our money is a joke, and now the joke’s … Continue reading →

On February 26, 2009, Erma Bridgewater was the recipient of the Distinguished Community Services Award given to her at a Black History Month event held by the Muslim American Society. Born in 1913, Erma graduated from the University of Illinois … Continue reading →

A regular user of The Urbana Free Library died last week. We weren’t surprised when the first notice appeared in the paper – we knew she had been ill and we had not heard from her recently, whereas once she … Continue reading →

“Children here find refuge in their hopes to die. The fact that death is equated to life is horrifying me. How are we going to deal with this generation in the future, how can we talk about life?” —Message from … Continue reading →

OVER THE PAST MONTH, graduate students at the University of Illinois have engaged in a concerted struggle to halt proposed changes to the campus tuition waiver policy. Under the current system, graduate employees working between 10 and 26 hours per … Continue reading →

FOR THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS, I’ve run what I’ve termed, tongue-in-cheek, a one-man campaign against the ‘Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day’ event. In reality, no campaign can be a one-person affair; if it is, you’re already losing. I’ve received financial support … Continue reading →

“I TRUST YOU, KIM, and there’s a lot that goes with that.” That was the response I received from Karen*, the mother of the kids I take with me on adventures. These are the same kids who sleep over at … Continue reading →

THERE WAS AN IMPORTANT VICTORY Thursday night, February 19, 2008, for those fighting for reform of the criminal justice system in Champaign County. By a unanimous vote, the Champaign County Board appointed the Citizens Advisory Committee on Jury Selection. The … Continue reading →

THAT THE EARNING POWER OF A WOMAN on the job is less than a man’s is pretty general knowledge. Right now, women earn about 78 cents for every dollar a man earns. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research calculates that … Continue reading →

On January 29, 2009, the Iraqi government barred Blackwater Worldwide, Inc. (BW) from providing security for U.S. diplomats in Iraq because its alleged involvement in the 2007 deaths of at least seventeen civilians in Nisour Square in Baghdad. This, however, … Continue reading →

On January 12, 2009, Paul Craig Roberts reported in “Counterpunch” that if the unemployment rate were calculated as it used to be prior to 1980, it would stand at 17.5% today, as opposed to the official figure, which is less … Continue reading →

”Wage slavery got you down? Feeling like you’re not 100% in command of your own destiny? For a worm’s eye view of the smoke-and-mirrors economy, the world, and life under Oz, check out Ricky Baldwin’s new blog theclayeater.blogspot.com. The name … Continue reading →