Scott Nappalos is a health care worker in California. We asked him for an interview because we thought that he would be able to provide some insights into the realities and challenges of health and health care work in the present moment that went beyond the superficial. We’d like to start by asking you to […]
Fighting Books for a New Fighting Generation
We recently sat down with four of the people involved in the revitalization of the Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company to talk about the re-emergence of the company, the new books that have either just been published or will be published in the near future, their plans for the future and the vision they have […]
Social Forces and Me
When my beat up 2009 Jetta with 70, 000 miles was stolen on the street in front of the apartment building where I live, I felt isolated, alone and a victim. It was the big impersonal badass city of San Francisco against me, the little guy. In a noir mystery, say by Dashiell Hammett, I […]
Eric Garner, the Informal Economy, and the System’s War on Those Who Depend On It
When Eric Garner was murdered by New York City police in July 2014, the cops had targeted him on suspicion of selling “loosies” – single cigarettes taken from illegally untaxed cigarette packs. Witnesses claimed that Garner hadn’t been selling loosies that day and had in fact just helped break up a fight – the incident […]
And the Wrecking Ball Best of All!
My temp assignment as the inmate law librarian of a county jail promised to be an encounter with the unknown. Up until that point I’d worked in many different kinds of libraries, but this was the first job in a jail. This jail, 14 stories tall and able to hold about 1300 people, was in […]
On the Anniversary of Elvis Presley’s Death
I was born in 1955, right around the time that Elvis Presley broke out in Memphis, Tennessee. Throughout my childhood, Elvis was an essential feature, a guiding light. I grew up with The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and The Beatles. John Lennon once said, “Without the music of Elvis, there would have been no Beatles.” […]