David Mitchell . . . Power is crack cocaine for the ego, and battery acid for the soul. If anyone’s wondering why the political system has gone to hell, why Wall Street is a crime syndicate, why the legal system is a travesty and media is a pig circus, now

Edward R. Murrow . . . The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. Americans have never been very good at seeing the completely obvious. It’s a nationwide affliction and it’s getting worse. Untold millions do not realize that democracy is being eliminated, that human rights

Maya Angelou . . . There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. Chelsea Manning experienced that agony, John Kiriakou and Julian Assange and Edward Snowden experienced that agony. Every victim of racism has experienced that agony, it cannot be borne alone, no one is strong

Edith Wharton . . . Everything seemed strange, ominous and unreal, like the yellow glare that precedes a storm. There were moments when I felt as if I had died, and woken up in an unknown world. And so I had. The political culture in this country has gone beyond

Bob Dylan . . . It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there. (Image by Bo Insogna, Flickr Creative Commons) Sinclair Lewis . . . When fascism comes to America, it will be waving the flag and carrying the cross. What are we seeing in the twilight’s last gleaming? We’re

Kaci Hickox . . . I had spent a month watching children die, alone. I had witnessed human tragedy unfold before my eyes. I had tried to help when much of the world has looked on and done nothing. I recalled my last night at the Ebola management center in

Alice Walker, Gather . . . Who are these people that kill our children in the night? Murder our brothers in broad daylight? Refuse to see themselves in us as we have strained, over centuries, to see ourselves in them? In the last ten minutes of his life Vonderrit Myers

Jacob David George . . . “We just need to support the troops,” Is what they tell me. Well, this is from a troop, So listen carefully. What we need are teachers who understand the history of this country, What we need is a decent living wage, so people ain’t

Harlan Ellison . . . I have no mouth, and I must scream. William Rivers Pitt . . . It has been thirteen years since the attacks of September 11, and this nation has spent every one of the 4,745 days between that morning and today in the grips of

Nationwide addictions. Nationwide delusions. Nationwide desecration and self-destruction. America hasn’t hit bottom yet, but we can damn well see it from here. Because of her special specialness, America is not going to understand she’s no longer great and glorious until final impact, until there’s nothing left of this country but