Category: Reclaiming Democracy
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Dealing with anxiety
Arthur Brooks—Harvard professor and behavioral scientist—defines anxiety as a chronic, low-grade fear response that protected our hunter-gatherer ancestors but now often misfires in modern life. He offers strategies to reframe one’s anxiety. Regard your anxiety as “unfocused fear.” Endeavor to clarify and name your anxiety so that it is not a vague fear lingering in…
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Take action now to support our democracy!
Given the recent murders of U.S. citizens by Trump’s Gestapo, it’s clear that we must take effective action to support our democracy and subdue the current move toward authoritarianism in our nation. Here are some ways you can take action right now. Call your representatives in Congress: Daily, consistent communication with your elected officials make…
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The Death Rattle of an Old America
In so many ways, Donald Trump represents the death rattle of an old America, and it’s loud and it’s violent. When Eddie Glaude Jr. shared these words in 2021 — quoted in I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker — the country was still reeling…
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We are the ones we’ve been waiting for
Fifty-seven years ago, I traveled from Tennessee to Washington, D.C. to join a protest against the war in Vietnam. My housing had been prearranged; the group I was traveling with would be staying with a family of Quakers. The weather that weekend in November tested our resolve: bone-chilling temperatures and a strong wind out of…
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The Oligarchs Have Decided: It’s Time for Trump to Go!
My latest conspiracy theory, with some wishful thinking thrown in. The fix is in, folks. A cabal of oligarchs, including Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch, and Peter Thiel, has decided that Trump, with his diminished physical and mental capacity (plus poll numbers in the toilet), has outlived his usefulness, and the team is organizing a coup…
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This is what courage looks like!
A little over a week ago, I got an intimate view of tenacity and courage from seven bold women, including my wife Shonnie Lavender and our friend Elizabeth Likis. On March 13, Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards was in Asheville for a town hall at A-B Tech. Since the college auditorium where the town hall took…
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Upholding Democracy in Our Challenging Times!
On the evening of November 5, I fell into a restless sleep before the results of the presidential election were final. When I roused from my light slumber around 3:00 a.m., turned on my phone, and saw the outcome, I immediately felt dismayed and disheartened. That morning on social media, I wearily read that friends…
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Resources for Resistance
Below is a list of resources to resist the encroaching authoritarianism. Most, but not all, are specific to Asheville and Western North Carolina. Jubilee! Social Justice Team https://jubileecommunity.org/social-justice/ Our democracy is facing a momentous challenge from the encroaching forces of authoritarianism, and Jubilee!’s Social Justice Team is joining together to confront this challenge. Please join…
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Did you ever wake up and just think WTF?
There’s something happening here But what it is ain’t exactly clear There’s a man with a gun over there Telling me I got to beware I think it’s time we stop Children, what’s that sound? Everybody look, what’s going down? ”For What It’s Worth” by Stephen Stills In recent weeks I’ve been wondering what the…
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Two Attempts to Change the Course of Our Nation’s History
One morning a few weeks ago, I was browsing the daily online headlines when I came across an article describing the lengthy prison sentences, ranging from 10 to 22 years, given four Proud Boys. Each had been convicted for playing a major role in the rampage at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021…
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Our 46th President!
Shonnie, Gracelyn, and I held hands and watched intently as President Biden repeated the final words of the oath of office: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United…
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What Happens in 2020 Stays in 2020!
2020 has undoubtedly been a year of tremendous challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic resulting in more than 340,000 deaths so far, a severe economic downturn, and disruption of our daily lives. The Black Lives Matter movement calling us to finally confront our personal and collective racism. Plus, a President who has proven himself unworthy of the…
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Get Out & Vote!
The 2020 general election is upon us and could prove to be the most important election in the history of the U.S., an opportunity to uphold our democratic values and stop the slide toward authoritarianism. Below is information about how you can cast your vote in North Carolina and help change the course of our…
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Seventy-eight years ago today . . .
Seventy-eight years ago today, Sunday, December 7, 1941, my dad, Mack Mulkey, a recent college drop-out working at the local Dr Pepper plant, drove a borrowed pickup truck the fifteen miles down Highway 356 from his home in Dallas to Irving, Texas . . .
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Bobby Kennedy was assassinated 50 years ago today.
“Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.”
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We shouted out, “Who killed democracy?” when after all, it was you and me.
I believe we, the citizens of this nation, have been asleep for the past several decades. We began to pay more attention to our TV shows, our favorite celebrities, our sports teams, our fancy cars, our iPhones, and making money to buy more stuff than we did to our communities and the fabric of our…
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We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
An essay I wrote during the Bush administration in 2003 that’s highly relevant today.
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Presidential inaugurations I’ll always remember
The first presidential inauguration I attended was Richard Nixon’s in 1969. Well, I guess I should say that I was actually there for the counter-inauguration . . .
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Talking the 2016 post-election blues
On a warm Texas morning on Wednesday, November 3, 1948, I remember my mom, Sue Mulkey, a life-long Democrat, gleefully asking our next-door neighbor, “Well, how do you like our new president?” Defying the predictions of almost every pundit and pollster, President Harry Truman, who had succeeded to the presidency when FDR died, had won…
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Donald Trump’s hyper-masculine facade
One might think that Donald Trump is brimming with high self-esteem. He is not. What Donald Trump demonstrates is pseudo-self-esteem. He unconsciously hides his fears, insecurities, and self-doubt behind a façade of hyper-masculinity, aggressiveness, belligerence, and hostility.
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In the wake of 9/11 how will we choose to be?
I wrote this op-ed for the September 15, 2001 edition of the Asheville Citizen-Times. As you read this my wife, Shonnie, will finally be home. That will never be said again for thousands of our fellow citizens. I sit here by myself early Thursday morning. Over the past two days, I have moved from shock…
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Can The United States Transcend White Supremacy? by Robert Jensen
Facing what seems like an endless stream of news about racialized conflicts and violence, many people call for us to get beyond our history and find solutions for today, concrete actions we can take immediately, ways of expressing love right now to help us cope with the pain. This yearning is understandable, but it’s just…
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Letting go of fear, ill will, and my trusty six-gun–reposted
Well, they didn’t pry it out of my cold, dead hands. But my only remaining firearm has just left the premises. Having grown up and lived in the South I’ve owned shotguns, .22 rifles, and an assortment of handguns. But over the years, my collection had dwindled to one old revolver that I kept in…
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My thoughts on the 2016 presidential election
Last evening Shonnie, Gracelyn and I were in the kitchen cooking dinner and listening to This Land is Your Land: Songs of Freedom. Buffy Sainte-Marie and her rendition of “The Universal Soldier,” Bob Dylan and Joan Baez crooning “With God on Our Side,” Cisco Houston singing “This Land is Your Land,” and more. And I…
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What Was Really Behind North Carolina’s Anti-LGBT Bill
It was, in the end, about a 21st century governor who joined a short, tragic list of 20th century governors. You know at least some of these names, probably: Wallace, Faubus, Barnett. They were men who fed our worst impulses, men who rallied citizens against citizens, instead of leading their states forward. —Charlotte Observer editorial…
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A few illogical arguments for the elimination of Saddam Hussein, 10/12/02
The relentless march to war by the Bush administration and camp followers proceeds. Congress has folded like a cheap suit, giving the President the authority to bully another second-rate power into submission.
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I support Jasmine Beach-Ferrara for Buncombe County Commission
Below is my recent letter to the Asheville Citizen-Times backing Jasmine Beach-Ferrara for Buncombe County Commission. BACKING BEACH-FERRARA FOR SEAT ON COMMISSION When Amendment One passed in North Carolina in 2012, many pundits and politicians said it would take decades to change the discriminatory law and give LGBT people marriage equality in our state. Jasmine…
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Christmas in the Trenches
Poignant song about the spontaneous 1914 Christmas Truce between the British and German troops, a song written and performed by John McCutcheon. What if we realized our so-called “enemies” have hopes, aspirations and dreams very similar to those we hold? What if we recognized that we have more in common with them than with our…
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The insanity of intervention in Iraq
In 2003, George W. Bush hornswoggled this nation into an “illegal, immoral, ill-conceived war against Iraq.” A few years into the occupation when public opinion was turning against the war, the Bush administration argued that a bloodbath would ensue if we pulled our troops out before the Iraqi government and its armed forces were prepared…
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We the people want our soldiers home, April 27, 2007
In light of current events in Iraq, I’m reposting a piece I wrote in 2007. George W. Bush’s ill-fated decision to frighten this nation into an illegal, immoral, ill-conceived war against Iraq, a country that posed no real threat to us, will haunt him throughout history. Now most Americans believe the U.S. should never have…
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The books that have had the greatest influence on me
Here is a list of the 20 books that have had the greatest influence on me.
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Old white men struggle to turn back clock
What we’ve been witnessing at the General Assembly in Raleigh the past few months is the futile attempt by fearful, old, white men to hang on to the power and control to which they assume they’re entitled. These extremists imagine that if they can push women, gays, blacks and Latinos back to the status these…
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“Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” published 50 years ago today
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested while leading coordinated marches and sit-ins against racism and racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama in April 1963. Dr. King wrote “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” in response to “A Call for Unity“: a statement made by eight white Alabama clergymen against King and his methods. King’s letter was…
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Bill Moyers Essay: The United States of Inequality
“A petty, narcissistic, pridefully ignorant politics has come to dominate and paralyze our government while millions of people keep falling through the gaping hole that has turned us into the United States of Inequality.” –Bill Moyers
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A 2002 piece I wrote opposing the invasion of Iraq
A few illogical arguments for the elimination of Saddam Hussein October 12, 2002, Asheville Citizen-Times By Bruce Mulkey “After all, this is a guy that tried to kill my dad.” –President George W. Bush about Saddam Hussein “I can appreciate his obsessive need to prove his masculinity and defend his family name. But should Americans…
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I’m back!
Yes, after a one-year hiatus with Patsy Keever’s campaign for Congress, I’m back to blogging. And though I thought seriously about retiring from politics entirely after that intense effort, I’ve agreed to be Cecil Bothwell’s campaign manager for his Asheville City Council reelection campaign. Today Cecil publicly announced his candidacy: Now, more than ever, North…
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My time as an organizer for Barack Obama in southern Ohio
‘Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.’ –Barack Obama
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Between Iraq and a hard place: The use of propaganda during wartime
Propaganda: Information, ideas, opinions or images, often only giving one part of an argument, which are broadcast, published or in some other way spread with the intention of influencing people’s opinions. Cambridge International Dictionary So when Al-Jazeera shows Iraqi children slaughtered and maimed as a result of the war in Iraq, it’s propaganda. But when…