Personal

2007-2009; United States of America The United States’ second Civil War finally broke out in 2007, after three years of boiling following the controversial 2004 Presidential election. Strangled by a two-party political system that over the years had, for all intents and purposes, merged into one, unable to convincingly differentiate themselves on the major issues like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, nuclear proliferation, health care or corporate control of the media, political campaigns had come to depend on so-called cultural and moral issues to rally their supporters. Gay marriage, abortion, reality television and pop singer Janet Jackson’s left breast…

Wednesday, October 30, 2013: Mt. Pleasant, NY, USA Eric Pearson took three lunging steps backwards, his stomach still clenched tight, threatening more dry heaves if he didn’t find some fresh air in the next 30 seconds. Clear of the puddle of blood, gore and half-digested sliders, he turned and stepped back out of the door he’d entered through, gasping for air to clear his nostrils and lungs. There was a foul stench in the air that reminded him of his time in Iraq, bringing back flashes of memories he’d spent years trying to bury. PFC David Johnson’s torso, separated from…

Thursday, October 31, 2013: Bronx, NY, USA Liberty Sou was what the kids in her neighborhood referred to as “the crazy cat lady.” And, oddly enough, they were actually right. An up and coming folk singer at the turn of the century, she’d become politically active during the pivotal Presidential election of 2004 and had quickly worked her way on to the Department of Homeland Security’s Domestic Terrorism watch list. She spoke out against the President, harshly, at each of her concerts, not an unusual thing in those days, but it was a random quote in a Rolling Stone interview…