The Future is Another Country
Officer John Brullman’s conviction for violating Francis Galatis’s civil rights was the high water mark of years of activism against police brutality. But it wasn’t really a victory, it was a right hand turn.
We are too used to worshiping rich people in our country.
One year ago, the three of us had not yet met. We were in various states of anger, frustration, and fear. Today, we co-host a podcast, are board members of a progressive organization, and friends. Here is how we each got here.
Roediger asks us as readers to consider what privilege means in an era where everyone is struggling.
As we occupy a world of increasing plenty, we must concede that the way we distribute resources is a choice. We choose to let our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico starve. That is our collective failure, not theirs.
The commemoration of war has often, as in the case of Charlottesville, been used to bind together the sinews of power. The three articles in this series seek to explore avenues in the other direction, commemorating war as a means of bending the arc of history toward justice. As their authors suggest, changing the way we remember war has the potential to fundamentally rework our understandings of both the past and present. In the process, we may find new opportunities to foster more equitable approaches to our shared history and society.
There are self-sacrificing military figures in the past who have upheld ideals that even someone left of the Democratic Party might find palatable.
Amidst controversies surrounding increasing veteran suicide rates, presidential conduct towards war widows, and the seemingly never-ending conflicts in the Middle East, it seems like the opportune moment to push aside the politics and to take time to reflect on the sacrifices members of the armed services and their families have made to protect the democratic practices and ideas we hold as key to our American identity.
Reenacting can do what no other form of education can do: it can engage both the body and mind.
The two articles in this series offer a glimpse into the efforts some of us have made to resist the worst excesses of his presidency, and the role history has played in shaping our responses. As historians, we have an obligation to speak truth. As citizens, we have an obligation to speak truth to power. This series documents both.
The Activist History Review