If I had a gun it would serve as my point of meditation.
[Excerpt, Swimming Upstream, Eve Ensler editor]
And I would look at it and re-remember Harriet Tubman’s steely whisper and Nanny’s ear-splitting yell, Ida B. Wells’ unrelenting voice and Fannie Lou Hamer’s unwavering glare. I’d remember Nat Turner’s plot and Tony Morrison’s advice.
And when I shot my gun, my target would be well planned, my aim precise. I would know exactly who to shoot, and when and where to shoot them, and how many of their friends needed to be shot too.
And when they were dead, when they were all dead, so would be oppression, globalism, neocolonialism, government, capitalism, enslavement, corporations, greed, hunger, hate, religion, war, poverty, cruelty.
No no, it can’t be too soon for me, the day I get my gun.
When’s the next flag-waving fest? Will it be the anniversary of 9/11? We missed July 4th, but maybe the next tea party will do. How about a concession booth where we sell modified little American flags, or upgrade theirs for free? A magic marker or black paint will do. The Stars and Stripes already say I’m an American asshole patriot, but maybe it takes a swastika to see how our invader-take-all, my-drone-can-kick-your-ass nationalism sells overseas.
Penny auction scammers know their audience. Stupid Americans aren’t going to recognize one phony news reporter over another, even if it’s French anchorwoman 

This week’s cover of Time has to rank at their most scurrilous, a baldfaced attempt to evoke the iconic National Geographic cover, this time figuratively defaced. It’s Mona Lisa given a Howl; The Green Revolution’s “Neda” shot in the head, instead of the evocative-deficient not-in-your-face mortal wound elsewhere. If the Taliban cut off this young woman’s nose as a warning to others not to abandon their families, Time Magazine wants to broaden the extortion. Here’s “What Happens If We Leave Afghanistan.” But instead of
The 65th anniversary of dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima marks the first time the US will send an emissary to Japan for the commemoration. Will it be to
“O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle — be Thou near them!
Another fire next door, following 1984, 1986, 2004, and 2008.