The Big Picture

The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance: How Authoritarian Leaders Mutilate Reality, History and Culture

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“The first thing every totalitarian regime does along with confiscation and mutilation of reality is confiscation of history and confiscation of culture.” – Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – Introduction WASHINGTON, D.C. — When I first walked into the administration building of an Alabama community…

Art Ruins Sink Into the Marshes of Glynn

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — In my dreams it sometimes seems possible to solve all the world’s problems with only the abstract expression of a correct thought derived from empirical observation. But in the waking life of living, breathing human beings, this would only work if all were rational,…

The State of the News Media and What That Means for Democracy

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“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” — Thomas Jefferson,…

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

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“Deep in the heart of Summer, sweet is life to me still, But my heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill.” – Scottish poet William Sharp, who used the pseudonym Fiona MacLeod The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Southern writer Carson McCullers took that line from…

Fund Watchdog Journalism

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Well, just as I was considering retirement from the news business, Donald Trump is running for president again, even as he faces multiple lawsuits over his character and business — and multiple indictments and charges for his behavior before, during and after his time…

American Ambivalence About the State of Freedom on the Fourth of July

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — It is understandable why many Americans are having mixed feelings about celebrating Independence Day this year. So many things seem conflicted in our divergent feelings about what freedom, liberty and independence mean in these trying times when the vox populi seems so divided. Many…

The U.S. Justice System Faces Major Tests and Crises

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“You shoot an arrow into a far-distant future, when you appoint a justice” to the United States Supreme Court. — President Dwight D. Eisenhower The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The first of the summer heat and humidity arrived in the nation’s capital this week, and unfortunately, I’m not heading…

Why Do MAGA Republicans Claim Democrats ‘Hate America’ When the Evidence Supports the Opposite?

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — After Donald Trump faced arraignment on charges Tuesday for mishandling classified documents critical to national defense, conspiracy to obstruct justice by concealing the possession of said documents and making false statements to the FBI, there was only a small contingent of Trump supporters gathered…

There’s Only One Way to Stop the Violence Threatened by Donald Trump and his Followers: #LockThemAllUp

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — It’s been an extraordinary week of news, with the death of conservative televangelist Pat Robertson and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, the surprise ruling by this conservative Supreme Court that Alabama’s congressional map did indeed dilute the power of Black voters, and the biggest political-legal news…

Mental Health Series: A Summer of Brutal Honesty

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — So I just sent an email message to The New York Times deputy editor of Culture and Lifestyle, Melissa Kirsch, author of the book “The Girl’s Guide” — not exactly a literary powerhouse. Charged with providing something interesting to read on the soft news…

Still Fighting Fascism on Memorial Day 2023

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‘God save thee, ancient Mariner! From the fiends, that plague thee thus!— Why look’st thou so?’—With my cross-bow I shot the ALBATROSS. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Probably the most significant victory to celebrate on Memorial Day is the defeat of fascism and the Nazis…

#BoycottCNN: Do Not Give the Criminal Trump a Platform for Lies

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“Our government … teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.” – Justice Louis Brandeis “The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the…