During the recent election campaign I got tired of hearing about what white American males believed, what African-Americans believed, and Latinos and suburban women and old people and young people.

To consider how Donald Trump is singlehandedly changing the media landscape, let’s take a step back to the 1990s when the Internet was becoming a powerful medium – a time when the delivery of news content changed radically, not only in form, but in time.

Not many realized how inauspicious the timing of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor had been. It was a classic example of military leaders still fighting old wars. The harbor was full of battleships securely moored. But this war would rely heavily on aircraft carriers, and on December 7th our carrier fleet was at sea. The attack did less to wound than make us really angry. Admiral Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese fleet, said, “I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a

I’ve learned something new about human kindness, since my husband has been confined to a wheelchair for the last year. I carefully maneuver him from wheel chair to dining room chair. He prefers to sit in a regular chair at the table - and at a concert or in a movie theatre. It makes him feel like he always did.

Pearl Harbor was one of those events history sets its watch by - a moment so unnerving that everyone old enough to understand what’s happening knows that reality has just been permanently - and violently - rearranged. John Kennedy’s assassination was such an event; as was 9/11. But history always tells what happened; rarely how it felt.

When I was 15, I bought my cigarettes from a vending machine. Five quarters and out jumped a pack of Marlboro Reds. Smoking gave me a powerful feeling. I felt cool and tough - bucking the authority of my parents.

The world has pivoted. For some, hope has faded, while others are assessing the potential of this current change of political regime. Everything feels disrupted. And yet, I have to admit, I’m a little excited.

It wasn’t that long ago that folks put their gardens to rest in late fall by raking and burning leaves and cutting down dead plant material and hauling it off. This resulted in yards being made clean and devoid of life.

In the United States we're used to only one version of Fidel Castro. The media here has portrayed him mostly as a despot whose only goal was to maintain power in Cuba. And while I don’t begrudge anyone their views, the truth is that Fidel Castro also had a positive impact on millions of the world’s most impoverished people.

I had joined a group of Vermonters who traveled by bus to the Standing Rock Reservation to join in solidarity with indigenous water protectors. Just hours after we arrived, heavily militarized police clashed with unarmed activists on the nearby front lines. Pickup trucks transported the wounded to medic tents; anyone entering had to be decontaminated from tear gas. More than 300 people were injured.