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 sabbath Sunday, on a glorious summer weekend that warranted
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 precursor to dominance. These two essays focus on cyberwarfare: the actions taken by a
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 the Turtle In 1950,
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 Tangerine tomato with the
We weren’t expecting it to rain, not when you can still see blue sky. It comes in one moment—an eye blink—a sip of coffee. Like war. It will be over in a minute, says the old, Moroccan man whose grandfather had once owned a pickle and cheese deli in this
Stretchy ice cream, now this is a first. My mother-in-law, a powerful but warm matriarch, who has somehow managed to raise eight kids (nine if you count me) to meet any traditional measure of success, asks what I think of the booza. I love it, I offer in response—this or
Ukrainian soldier rescuing a tiny baby from the devastation caused by Russian shelling near Irpin in Kyiv oblast | Photo: Timothy Fadek, CNN Author’s Note: I’m thankful to Askold Melnyczuk whose words made me want to write in the midst of this war in Ukraine. I’m also grateful to
I can’t write anything long because we’re still on the run, with my kids who are right here next to me. So, in brief: Ukraine was not “dragged into” war; it was attacked. Without even a pretext like Hitler’s attack on Poland. I know other countries have faced their share
Ursula Zadik’s German passport, issued by the Nazis on December 9, 1936.This is the second page, which shows the Nazi insignia stamp. My parents, Ursula and Erwin, didn’t leave Nazi Germany until 1939. By then my father had been in a concentration camp and my mother in prison. Growing up,
Russian demonstrators outside the US Embassy in Moscow, Russia, March 27, 1999.Photographer unknown. Author’s collection. Editor’s Note: This essay appeared in Volume 13 MARYLAND: JANUARY 6, 2021 My neighbor Paula, a calm and sensible woman married to a retired Coast Guard officer, texted me a little after noon.
Yury Lvovich during the war (1941-46) “ . . . But there is another victim: my son, a Komsomol member, who fought in the war as an artillery officer and was among the first to take Berlin. His war decorations and awards, earned with courage and blood, defending the
Editor’s Note: When we posted this interview, we asked readers to send us any questions they might have, so we could forward them to Sharon for a response. We’ve included several of those questions and her subsequent responses after Natylie’s interview. ✢ After four years of intense anti-Russia sentiment in
