Allen Young :
BOOKS | ‘Red Scare in the Green Mountains’

Posted on April 12, 2020 by Thorne Dreyer

Political paradox in Vermont is narrated with insight in Rick Winston’s book.

Image from Red Scare in the Green Mountains.

By Allen Young | The Rag Blog | April 12, 2020

ROYALSTON, Mass. — There are paradoxes in the politics of Vermont.

When a liberal majority in the state’s legislature in 2000 approved a history-making law authorizing same-sex “civil unions,” conservative Vermonters expressed their outrage by placing “Take Back Vermont” anywhere they could.

Then, in 2009, Vermont became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage, the first to do so by legislation rather than a court ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling on this topic didn’t occur until 2015. Now, few people in Vermont, if any, are fretting over this matter.

In the 2016 and 2020 Democratic primaries, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who identifies as a “democratic socialist,” became wildly popular, inspirational to many. He began serving in the U.S. Senate in 2006, and was reelected in 2012 with 71 percent of the vote, and in 2018 with 67 percent.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

James Retherford :
POLITICAL CARTOON | The more things change, Dept.

Posted on April 8, 2020 by Thorne Dreyer
Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Charlie Loving :
POLITICAL CARTOON | Keep ’em moving…

Posted on April 4, 2020 by Thorne Dreyer
Huge public response to officials’ call for Americans to die to
save the economy.
Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Joshua Brown :
POLITICAL CARTOON | Life During Wartime: Covid-19 Edition: Complainers

Posted on April 3, 2020 by Thorne Dreyer
Previous installments are archived at
http://www.joshbrownnyc.com/ldw.htm

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Allen Young :
A remembrance of Gene Bishop and
Herman Goldfarb

Posted on March 30, 2020 by Thorne Dreyer

Two doctors who were activists for peace.

Herman Goldfarb, left, and Gene Bishop. Photos courtesy Allen Young.

By Allen Young | The Rag Blog | March 30, 2020

ROYALSTON, Mass. — Every time I read about a monument being erected to honor soldiers, I remember conversations I’ve had with friends about the need we feel for a monument of some sort to acknowledge those of us who were soldiers of a different sort — marching against war, specifically the Vietnam War.

Most followers of The Rag Blog are aware of this anti-war movement, a central pillar of the legendary “Sixties,” and this article is a memorial tribute to two activists, both of whom were also medical doctors. Both died recently, and linking them in this article is part of my own process of mourning for them.

They are Gene Bishop, M.D. (1947-2020), and Herman Goldfarb, M.D. (1927-2019).
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Alice Embree :
‘Virtual Cough-In’ called for

Posted on March 29, 2020 by Alice Embree

Seniors confront Dan Patrick’s ‘Coffin Campaign.’

Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, coughing. Photo graphic by James Retherford / The Rag Blog.

By Alice Embree | The Rag Blog | March 29, 2020

AUSTIN — On March 23, as the coronavirus pandemic sent shock waves across the nation, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that lots of grandparents would be willing to die from the coronavirus to save their grandchildren from another Great Depression. It had the makings of a “Coffin Campaign.”

Texas Monthly summed up Patrick’s position with this headline, “Dan Patrick to Dan Patrick: Drop Dead,” writing: “Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick has only one regret: that he has but one life to give for his country. He also feels compelled to offer up yours, and grandma’s too.”

Some Texas retirees and grandparents have a response to the lieutenant governor and hope it will go viral, so to speak. The Texas Alliance of Retired Americans (TARA) is launching a Virtual Cough-In Campaign for the week leading up to the lieutenant governor’s 70th birthday on April 4.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Alice Embree :
Spotlight on women’s activism at UT’s Briscoe Center

Posted on March 28, 2020 by Thorne Dreyer

Oral history project is online while major exhibit shelters in place.

Unlike many underground newspapers, The Rag at UT-Austin embraced women’s liberation. Here, women of The Rag, with Linda Smith in foreground, work on layout, February 1974. Photo by Alan Pogue.

By Alice Embree | The Rag Blog | March 28, 2020

AUSTIN — To honor women’s history, the University of Texas Briscoe Center for American History opened a major exhibit, “On with the Fight!” highlighting 150 years of women’s activism. I was honored to speak at the exhibit’s opening on March 5, 2020.

That gathering now seems to have taken place in a different era. By March 16, the Briscoe Center closed due to Coronavirus concerns. The post I had written about the exhibit will be published at a later date when the Center’s exhibit hall reopens to the public.

Most of the nation is now sheltering in place hoping to “flatten the curve” of contagion. The Covid-19 death toll rises daily. What a difference a few weeks can make.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

James Retherford :
POLITICAL CARTOON | Survival Tip #1

Posted on March 25, 2020 by Thorne Dreyer
Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Thorne Dreyer :
‘Under the Ground: The Story of Liberation News Service’

Posted on March 24, 2020 by Thorne Dreyer

Dorothy Dickie has documented a significant and nearly-forgotten chapter of our history.

Screenshot from Under the Ground, a documentary by Dorothy Dickie
about Liberation News Service.

 

By Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | March 24, 2020

AUSTIN — Award-winning Canadian filmmaker Dorothy Dickie is completing production on an exciting 80-minute documentary film called Under the Ground: The Story of Liberation News Service. LNS was an alternative news operation that flourished between 1967 and 1981 in the United States, playing a major – and underrecognized — role in those tumultuous times.

Austin’s New Journalism Project, a 501(c)3 nonprofit group, is joining Dickie in co-sponsoring Under the Ground. NJP also publishes The Rag Blog, sponsors Rag Radio, and has a book-publishing arm that produced Celebrating The Rag: Austin’s Iconic Underground Newspaper.

Liberation News Service served underground newspapers, college publications, radio stations — a range of alternative media. They sent out regular packets of news and graphics that provided content otherwise not available to these feisty but often-shoestring alternative publications that sprung up around the anti-war and student power movement and the ‘60s counterculture.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

James Retherford :
POLITICAL CARTOON | No worries!!!

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Thorne Dreyer
Posted in RagBlog | Leave a comment

Joshua Brown :
POLITICAL CARTOON | Life During Wartime: Covid-19 Edition

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Thorne Dreyer
Previous installments are archived at
http://www.joshbrownnyc.com/ldw.htm
Posted in RagBlog | Leave a comment

Alice Embree :
Preserve Houston’s historic underground newspaper

Posted on March 9, 2020 by Thorne Dreyer

Read the latest on the Space City! project.

Cover of Space City!, Vol. III, No. 1, June 8, 1971, which
features the paper’s staff.

By Alice Embree | The Rag Blog | March 9, 2020

HOUSTON — Did you work on Space City!, Houston’s historic underground newspaper? Did you sell it? Did you read it? Do you want it to be preserved online? Do you want it to be commemorated in a book?

The Space City! project is moving forward and you can contribute at this site.

Space City! — originally called Space City News — was one of the most important of the “second wave” of the underground newspapers of the ’60s-70s. It was praised for its strong reporting, its power structure research, its groundbreaking art, and its incisive cultural criticism. Space City! helped to pull together an activist and countercultural community in spread-out Houston.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments