Killing the Constitution - In the last days of East Germany, when government officials detected that their power was unraveling, they ratcheted up enforcement of the nation’s reporting laws. The reporting laws made it a felony to know of a crime and fail to report it. It was also a crime to tell the person of whose crime you […]
Longstreet and How Much Work Remains to be Done - When I recently visited Montgomery, Alabama, I went to see the rows of rusted plinths that together make up the city’s Peace and Justice Memorial. The memorial is designed to replicate the cycle of a lynching. Walking through the memorial, one will see plinths hanging from the ceiling, and others rising out of the ground like […]
Postcards from the Edge of Cannibalism - SCRANTON, Pennsylvania — Several years ago the Smithsonian magazine ran an elegant story about the use of postcards in American culture as a way both to communicate to loved ones far away and to illustrate what the traveler wants you to see about where they have been. The key phrase is “wants you to see.” […]
News From Around the South 4/15 to 4/22 - NORTH CAROLINA: Two ‘Human’Caused’ Fires Found at 16th Century Historic Site Two fires were discovered simultaneously at a North Carolina historic site dedicated to England’s first settlements on the continent — and investigators say they were “human caused.” It happened Sunday, April 14, at a section of Fort Raleigh National Historic Site dedicated to a “Freedmen’s Colony,” […]
The Right to Assembly - Last week, the Supreme Court effectively abolished the right to assembly in three Southern states. By refusing to hear an appeal of a speaker accused of being liable for what a protester did in an audience the speaker addressed, the court exposed all protest organizers and speakers to potentially ruinous financial penalties for what unknown […]
