This annual journal was waiting at my house when we got home from Savannah. It contains a poem I wrote at the request of the editor, Gert Coleman. (I wouldn’t have centered the poem, but that was their choice.)
Author: hankkalet
Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.
Grassroots: We Are All Vulnerable
My latest column from The Progressive Populist:
The poor health of American capitalism is being exposed by a virus that no one expected and no one seems prepared to address. As the COVID-19 virus, also known as the Coronavirus, spreads in the United States, it’s growing increasingly clear that the economic and health-care deficiencies we have in this country will limit our ability to combat it.
As the economics writer Anand Giridharadas tweeted out in March, the “Coronavirus makes clear what has been true all along. Your health is as safe as that of the worst-insured, worst-cared-for person in your society. It will be decided by the height of the floor, not the ceiling.”
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New Poem at Molecule
The new journal Molecule – a tiny lit mag published my poem “Lyft Driver on the NJ Turnpike.” Read the journal here.
Medium: Donald Trump, Fiddler in Chief
The President, in a Surreal Speech, Says Nothing.
President Donald Trump calls COVID-19 a “foreign virus,” which is consistent with his xenophobia and racism, and this description is characterizing his approach to its spread.
Take Wednesday night’s speech (see my attached annotation), during which he proposed several efforts consistent with the policies he’s pursued since taking office, but that amounted to Trump playing the role of Nero (as a meme making its way around social media —inexplicably retweeted by Trump himself— points out).
He has expanded a travel ban, adding much of Europe to China and the Middle East, a move the World Health Organization says is counterproductive. He called for tax cuts, hoping to calm volatile stock markets, but says nothing about actual workers, a full quarter of whom lack access to paid sick leave. He talks of partnering with health insurance companies and medical facilities, who have agreed to temporarily cover testing and to not issue “surprise bills,” but says nothing about the 30 million uninsured or the millions who are essentially underinsured, about a healthcare system quickly being pushed to its capacity, or a pharmaceutical industry whose only focus is profits.
Medium: Biden is the Nominee, But Sanders Must Continue Fighting
Sanders can make Biden a stronger November candidate, and keep left ideas alive going forward.
Joe Biden won Michigan yesterday and, make no mistake, that was the only state primary that mattered. Yes, Bernie Sanders won Washington and North Dakota. Yes, Sanders is less than 200 delegates behind Biden, which would seem to be within striking distance. But Michigan sealed it for Biden.
I don’t say this easily. I remain a Sanders supporter who had Elizabeth Warren as a close second and no one else (maybe Julian Castro) very high on my list. I also remain concerned that Biden brings a long list of vulnerabilities to the general election — vulnerabilities the Republicans can be counted on to exploit. (Sanders has his list, as well, so please don’t turn this into a Biden-Bernie dust up. That’s not what this is about.)
Hank Kalet 