Duck & Cover: America’s First Lockdown Drills

Duck & Cover: America’s First Lockdown Drills

ec. 1, 1950: Third-graders at Clifford Street School kneel at desks and cover their faces and eyeswith their arms during a civil defense drill. Photo credit: Paul Calvert, Los Angeles Times When danger threatened him, he never got hurt. He knew just what to do.—Bert...
Deterrence Policies of the US Border Patrol

Deterrence Policies of the US Border Patrol

November, 1995 | 288th graduation Few Americans understand the policies that make up the immigration deterrence operations of the US Border Patrol. These mandates are often confusing and can change drastically from one administration to the next, or even within a...
That Stinking Agreement

That Stinking Agreement

The United Nation’s aid convoy to Sare in East Timor Last August, Pope Francis appointed a new Cardinal, Virgilio do Carmo da Silva, from the tiny country of East Timor. East Timor had been a colony of Portugal until it was brutally occupied by Indonesia. I am not...
Flash Nonfiction Project

Flash Nonfiction Project

We’ve often been told that the truth is in the details. After all, details are what give shape to an individual life and clarify it amidst a crowd of people, places, and events. When it comes to things we experience in times of war or geopolitical conflict, some...
Loanwords on the Front Lines

Loanwords on the Front Lines

abaca, n.1) from the Tagalog abaka via the Spanish abacá (see also Treaty of Paris, 1898)  2) a strong fiber derived from Musa textilis, a plant of the banana family; also “Manila hemp”  3) now mainly used in paper products and traditional Filipino clothing, such as...
Three Men, Two Wars, and a Hobo Kid

Three Men, Two Wars, and a Hobo Kid

Tuscarawas County Courthouse, New Philadelphia, Ohio My small, beat-up suitcase in hand, I stood on a sun-drenched sidewalk in downtown New Philadelphia, Ohio, wondering what to do next. Surly buildings loomed over blocks of deserted streets, a reminder that it was...
Along the Tech Front

Along the Tech Front

Author’s Note: Technology has always enabled war. Throughout history, the nation-states that created new weapons through innovation greatly expanded their geopolitical influence. From gunpowder, to the airplane, to the atomic bomb—advances in technology have been the...
War Seeds

War Seeds

Take these seeds and put them in your pockets so at least sunflowerswill grow when you all lie down here.— A Ukrainian citizen My grandfather worked as a seed breeder and farmer at Fordhook Farm in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Sometime in the late 1930s, he crossed the...
How We Drink Coffee When It Rains War

How We Drink Coffee When It Rains War

How We Drink Coffee When It Rains War by Sarah Sassoon https://consequenceforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/How_We_Drink_Coffee_When_it_Rains_War_Audio_-_Sarah_Sassoon.m4a We weren’t expecting it to rain, not when you can still see blue sky. It comes in one...

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Learn about our publications, classes, events, and volunteer opportunities as soon as they are announced.

Thank you for subscribing!