Australian Sojourn – April-May 2026

Part 9: Last Days in Australia

It’s been well over a month since my return to the U.S. from my Australian sojourn of April-May. High time, then, to conclude my series documenting my time in the Great South Land. (NOTE: To start at the beginning of this series, click here.)

After spending two-and-a-half days visiting Mum and my brother and his family in Guruk (Port Macquarie), I returned to my friends Mike and Bernie’s place in Gulmarrad. I’m very fortunate to now be possession of Mum’s car (as she’s no longer driving), and extra fortunate to have Mike and Bernie be willing to take care of it while I’m in the U.S. Of course, how much longer I’ll be in the States is a question I continue to ponder.

Above: The McFarlane Bridge in nearby Maclean. This historic bridge opened in 1906 over the South Arm of the Clarence River, providing access between Maclean and Woodford Island. It last opened to allow boats through in 1962.

Above: A view of Maclean with St Mary’s Catholic Church at right.

Above: Gulmarrad sunset – Thursday, May 7, 2026.

Above and left: Early on Sunday, May 10, Bernie drove me to the Grafton railway station where I caught the southbound XPT to Sydney.

Above: My reading material on my 10-hour train trip from Grafton to Sydney.

Last June when I was in Australia, my nephew Brendan, who was visiting from the U.K., shared with me that his favorite novel is The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. He even gifted me with a beautiful hardcover illustrated edition of the book (right) toward the end of my 2025 visit.

Here’s what I texted Brendan on the last night of this year’s visit.

Hey! I just read The Bell Jar in one sitting – on the train from Grafton to Sydney! 👍🏼😁

I didn’t bring with me to Australia the beautiful edition of the book that you gave me as I didn’t want to risk damaging it in my travels. Instead, I brought a paperback edition that I picked up for $5 in a bookstore in Minneapolis just before my visit home.

It’s an engrossing and powerful novel for sure. And such great writing. Sylvia had a real way with words and with creating vivid scenes and moods.

Thanks for recommending it to me. I’m glad I (finally) read it.

Above: Sydney Airport – Monday, May 11, 2026.


NEXT: May Vignettes

For the previous posts in the Australian Sojourn – April-May 2026 series, see:
• Sydney and Newcastle
• Gulmarrad
• Guruk
• Gunnedah
• Armidale
• Gulmarrad, Maclean, and Brooms Head
• Brisbane, Montville, and the Sunshine Coast
• Return to Guruk

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

The Wild Man

The following recently appeared in my Facebook feed. Given my interest in the mythological figures of both Pan and Cernunnos, it feels natural to share here at The Wild Reed this piece on the folklore figure of the Wild Man.

_____________

Long before modern stories of monsters in the woods, there was the Wild Man.

He appears across European folklore again and again. Covered in hair, carrying branches or a club, living far beyond villages and roads.

He was called by different names in different places, yet the image remained strangely familiar.

Not animal.

Not human.

Something in between.

The Wild Man lived where rules ended.

He slept beneath trees, drank from rivers, and answered to no king, no church, and no society. To settled people, this made him dangerous.

But the old stories rarely describe him as evil.

He was unpredictable.

Sometimes he kidnapped travellers.

Sometimes he offered wisdom.

Sometimes he tested those who entered his forest and punished arrogance.

Other times he guided people toward hidden truths.

Over time, the Wild Man became more than a creature.

He became a symbol.

He represented the untamed parts of human nature, instinct, emotion, freedom, anger, sexuality, survival, and the side of ourselves that exists beneath manners and expectations.

Civilization depends on control.

The Wild Man asks what happens when control disappears.

This is why old stories placed him at the edge of the forest.

The forests represented the unknown.

And the deeper you walked into them the closer you came to parts of yourself that ordinary life kept hidden.

The Wild Man reminds us of something ancient.

Not everything wild is dangerous.

Some things are wild because they were never meant to be owned.

And sometimes what we fear in the forest is the part of ourselves still waiting to come home.

~ Source

Related Off-site Links:
The Winsted Wildman ~ Ray Bendici (Damned Connecticut, August 2014).
“Wild Man” ~ A song by Kate Bush (2011).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Cernunnos and Pan: “Witch-Fathers of the Wild”
• Beloved and Antlered
• Cernunnos
• Integrating Cernunnos, “Archetype of Sensuality and the Instinctual World”
• Cernunnos in Autumn Light
• The Devil We (Think) We Know
• Biophilia, the God Pan, and a Baboon Named Scott
• The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
• Pan’s Labyrinth: Critiquing the Cult of Unquestioning Obedience


Image 1: Wild Man sculpture over the porch of St Mary's Church in Burwell, Cambridgeshire, England. (Photographer unknown)
Image 2: The Winsted Wildman. (Artist unknown)

The Fatherly Heart

On this Fathers Day, some words of wisdom from Matthew Fox . . .

The fatherly heart is so important that we must all learn to embody it, whether male or female, young or old, parents or grandparents.

. . . [A] fatherly heart brings hope, promise and possibility into one's life, while the lack of a fatherly heart often brings hopelessness and despair and the violence that follows.

A fatherly heart gives us wings, providing us with ambition, empowerment, and strength. The fatherly heart also provides boundaries and contains us, grounding us like the Green Man. A good father encourages personal and individual responsibility. A fatherly heart does not foster dependency or co-dependency but healthy individuality.

An authentic fatherly heart is in love with life, and is a nourisher and supporter of [this love of life]. . . . An authentic father is a caretaker for Mother Earth, working to make sure her creatures, soil, water, air and forests are healthy. A fatherly heart goes out of its way to foster mutual communication within a family and a community: a communication that flows both ways, listening and speaking, teaching and learning.

~ Matthew Fox
Excerpted from The Hidden Spirituality of Men:
Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine
New World Library, 2009

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• A Warrior’s Heart
• Cernunnos and Pan: “Witch-Fathers of the Wild”
• A Fresh Take on Masculinity
• Flexibility and Flow
• Quote of the Day ~ February 21, 2025
• Vulnerability Is Power
• Beloved and Antlered
• Remembering and Celebrating Dad

Image: Margarita Sikorskaia

A Solstice Eve Walk Through the Neighborhood

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Solstice Dawn
• On This Summer Solstice, A Call for Unity Through the Divine Fire Within
• A Summer Sunset Psalm
• Say Yes to the Light
• Summer Garden
• Beneath the Solstice Sun
• On This Summer Solstice, A Proclamation of the Power of Fire
• A Summer Solstice Reflection
• Celebrating the Summer Solstice
• O Breath of Summer
• Summer Blooms
• Thomas Moore on the Circling of Nature as the Best Way to Find Our Substance
• The Guidance of Higher Forces
• Balance: The Key to Serenity and Clarity
• The Dance of a Summer Day
• The Summer of My Wildebeest-of-a-Bike
• June Vignettes
• Eternal Summer

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

A Message in Dance That Challenges, Inspires and Liberates

This year’s Wild Reed “Queer Appreciation” series focuses on the grace, verve and message of British dancer Kadeem Hosein (known as Kadeem En Pointe).

It’s a message that is challenging, inspiring and liberating. Which makes it queer in the truest sense of the word (as I discuss in the first installment of this series).

It’s a queerness that continues in this second (and concluding) installment. Enjoy!

Related Off-site Links:
Kadeem’s Official Website
“Being a Ballet Dancer Is Years of Hard Work, But It’s All Worth It” Says Kadeem En Pointe – Stuart Norval (France 24, February 26, 2026).
Men en Pointe: Ballet Dancers Kick Against Gender Stereotypes – Matilda Martin (The Guardian, March 10, 2021).

See also the following dance-related Wild Reed posts:
• Kadeem
• The Soul of a Dancer
• The Premise of All Forms of Dance
• The Art of Dancing as the Supreme Symbol of the Spiritual Life
• The Power of Dance
• “Then I Shall Leap Into Love”
• Love’s the Only Dance
• We All Dance
• Not Whether We Dance, But How
• The Dance of Life
• And As We Dance . . .
• Our Dance
• “I Came Alive With Hope”
• Finding Balance in the Presence of the Beloved
• Our Bodies Are Part of the Cosmos
• Flexibility and Flow
• Move Us, Loving God
• A Prayer for Dancers
• Trusting the Flow
• Aristotle Papanikolaou on How Being Religious Is Like Being a Dancer

Jacob Crosse: “The Obama Presidential Center Is a Monument to Hypocrisy”

I appreciate the following artcle by Jacob Crosse, one which was first published yesterday at the World Socialist Web Site.

To my mind, Crosse’s piece, like Dorothy Lennon’s comments from yesterday, provides a much-needed reality check.

_________________

Obama Center Dedication Turns Presidency
of War and Wall Street Bailouts
Into Democratic Camelot

By Jacob Crosse

World Socialist Web Site
June 18, 2026

The opening of the Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side was an exercise in political myth-making. The Democratic Party, the Democratic-aligned media, business figures and an assortment of entertainment celebrities assembled Thursday to present the Obama presidency as an American Camelot. Barack and Michelle Obama were cast as the protagonists of a lost age of democratic grace, reason and moral purpose, interrupted by the aberration of Trump.

The $850 million complex, dominated by a massive stone tower that has been derided as an “Obamalisk,” was dedicated from a stage occupied by former presidents and first ladies, before an invited audience featuring a good number of multi-millionaires. For all the rhetoric about democracy and equality, the real social base of the Democratic Party was reflected in the highly privileged and wealthy audience seated before the main stage, while the rabble was relegated to Midway Plaisance Park to watch from the grass.

In attendance were former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Joe Biden, along with Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Jill Biden. The presence of Bush, the war criminal responsible for the invasion of Iraq, who came to power through the theft of the 2000 election, underscored the fundamental unity of the two parties of American imperialism.

The Democratic Party establishment was represented by figures from every wing of the party: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Vice President and 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Also present was Michigan U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, who joined in honoring Obama, the president who continued Bush’s “War on Terror” and institutionalized drone assassinations of so-called “enemy combatants,” including U.S. citizens.

The list of foreign dignitaries included former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, former Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and former Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj. Also in attendance were Tom Hanks, David Letterman, Stephen Colbert, Bono and the Edge of U2, Christina Aguilera, Marc Anthony, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Tems and Eddie Vedder.

The ceremony lasted more than three hours and combined militarism, celebrity worship and nationalist pageantry, overlain with identity and racial politics. Following a benediction, the Illinois National Guard presented the colors, and Jennifer Hudson sang the national anthem. This was followed by a promotional film narrated by Obama, filled with the hollow slogans of his 2008 campaign, including “Yes, we can” and calls to “imagine your impact.”

That Valerie Jarrett, chief executive officer of the Obama Foundation, delivered the first speech was politically significant. Jarrett, a longtime Obama associate, is representative of the reactionary social layer elevated through the Democratic Party and identity politics: wealthy, corporate-connected, deeply embedded in Chicago’s political machine and hostile to the working class.

Before serving as Obama’s senior adviser from 2009 to 2017, Jarrett was CEO of the Habitat Company, a major Chicago real estate firm that managed public housing developments, including Grove Parc Plaza, where poor residents lived in conditions marked by decay, vermin and neglect. Her career has included leading positions on corporate, financial, university and transit boards. Less than three weeks after the murder of George Floyd, amid mass protests against police violence, Jarrett rejected calls to defund the police and suggested that more money was needed for law enforcement.

The central political purpose of the ceremony was expressed in the speeches of Michelle and Barack Obama. Michelle Obama’s remarks are already being hailed by the media as “historic.” But like the rest of the event, they were aimed at rewriting the Obama years as a kind of Garden of Eden, ignoring the social devastation, war, police violence and corporate plunder that defined the period.

Michelle Obama praised her husband’s “dazzling brilliance” and “unshakable moral fiber,” declaring that he had made the country proud by “rescuing our economy, expanding healthcare, ending a war, ordering the Bin Laden raid, saving the auto industry, winning a peace prize, keeping us safe from Ebola, regulating the banks, standing up for marriage equality, listening to science, and comforting an entire nation in the face of unspeakable tragedies.”

Every phrase in this litany is false. “Rescuing our economy” refers to the bailout of Wall Street following the financial crash of 2008, which was initiated under Bush and expanded under Obama. Trillions of dollars in loans, guarantees and cash handouts were funneled to the banks, while millions of workers lost their homes. Not a single major Wall Street executive was prosecuted. When measures were proposed to limit executive pay at bailed-out firms, Obama intervened on behalf of the financial aristocracy. During the Obama presidency, the number of American billionaires rose from 359 to 565, a 57 percent increase.

“Expanding healthcare” refers to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, a program modeled on Romneycare that strengthened the domination of the insurance companies and funneled billions in public subsidies to the private healthcare industry.

“Ending a war” is perhaps the most grotesque claim of all. Obama expanded the war in Afghanistan, continued the occupation of Iraq, oversaw drone assassinations across the Middle East and Africa, initiated the CIA’s Operation Timber Sycamore in Syria and backed the U.S.-NATO war in Libya, which destroyed the country and helped reintroduce open slave markets in North Africa.

The “saving” of the auto industry meant the use of federal bailout funds to impose a historic attack on autoworkers. In the 2009 managed bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler, tens of thousands of jobs were destroyed, plants were closed, new-hires’ wages were cut in half, strikes were banned for six years and the United Auto Workers bureaucracy was handed a direct financial stake in the “restructuring” through its control of the VEBA retiree healthcare trust.

Barack Obama’s own speech was no less reactionary. He preached “bipartisanship” and the “shared values” of the two parties of big business and war, declaring that a “sense of duty and honor” was not Republican or Democratic but “American,” and that every president on stage had tried to uphold these values. He explicitly included John McCain and Mitt Romney in this pantheon.

This was the political essence of the ceremony. Obama presents Trump as an interloper, a temporary departure from the “arc” of American democracy. In reality, the fascist Trump embodies the financial oligarchy that rules the U.S. He is the product of the very social order Obama rescued after the 2008 financial crash.

Obama’s reference to the United States as an “undeniable force for good in the world” was the greatest lie of all. In fact, U.S. imperialism is the undeniable center of global reaction, responsible for countless wars, occupations, sanctions, coups, assassinations and, more recently, outright genocide by its Israeli attack dog in Gaza.

The Obama Presidential Center is a monument to hypocrisy. Its purpose is to provide the Democratic Party with a usable myth as it seeks to contain popular hatred of Trump while blocking any independent movement of the working class.

– Jacob Crosse
World Socialist Web Site
June 18, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
Obama Presidential Center Opens with Star-studded Celebration – Justin Kaufmann (Axios, June 18, 2026).
“More Like a White Man Than a Brother”: As Obama Opens His Monument, Kenya Reckons with His Legacy – Jon Jeter (The Kansas City Defender, June 19, 2026).
Obama’s New Presidential Center and His Tricky Relationship with the South Side – Gene Demby (NPR News, June 16, 2026).
People Can’t Read the Lettering on the Obama Presidential Center Tower – Hunter Schwarz (Fast Company, February 25, 2026).
Meditations On the Notion That Obama “Never Had Any Scandals” – Caitlin Johnstone (Caitlin’s Newsletter, February 19, 2025). Of Towers and Toilets: A Tale of Two Developments – Yasmin Nair (Current Affairs, January 18, 2022).
Barack Obama Is A War Criminal – Prince Williams (Harvard Political Review, September 29, 2021).
From Torture to Drone Strikes: The Disturbing Legal Legacy Obama is Leaving for Trump – Jennifer Williams (Vox, January 10, 2017).
How President Obama Solidified the Transition to Perpetual War – The Takeaway (January 18, 2016).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Jeff Cohen on How Obama’s “Corporate Liberalism” Led to the Rise of Trump
• Genny Harrison on Brian Tyler Cohen’s Interview with Obama: “A Careful Meditation That Comforts More Than It Challenges”
• Progressives and Obama (Part 1)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 2)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 3)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 4)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 5)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 6)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 7)
• Historic (and Wild)!
• Reality Check
• One of Those Moments
• Obama, Ayers, the “S” Word, and the “Most Politically Backward Layers in America”
• Obama a Socialist? Hardly
• Thoughts on Tomorrow’s Presidential Election (2008)
• “Change Has Come to America”
• A Night of Celebration
• The Challenge for Progressives with an Obama Presidency
• Exposing the Dark Money Network Secretly Funding Establishment Democratic Influencers

Opening Image: From left: Former President Joe Biden and former first lady Jill Biden, former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush, and former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pose ahead of the dedication ceremony for the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center. (Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais-Pool/Getty Images)

Remembering How the Freedom of Juneteenth “Did Not Arrive as a Friendly Announcement”

The mainstream narrative of Juneteenth is built on a benevolent myth: that General Gordon Granger stood on a balcony in Galveston, read General Order No. 3, and Texas enslavers immediately followed the law, peacefully freeing 250,000 enslaved people. This completely erases the high stakes and the military reality.

Texas was the last stronghold of the illegal slave empire. Enslavers had been hiding tens of thousands of Black people from the Emancipation Proclamation for two years, believing they were untouched by the war.

Freedom did not arrive as a friendly announcement. It was enforced through a ruthless military occupation. When Granger landed, a massive percentage of his occupying force was made up of thousands of heavily armed men from the United States Colored Troops (USCT). Texas enslavers did not surrender because they heard a speech. They surrendered because thousands of Black Union soldiers seized control of the city, aimed heavy weapons at their homes, and forced the system to collapse on June 19th 1865.

– One Mic Black History
June 19, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
Juneteenth Beyond the Celebration: Freedom Delayed, Freedom Denied, Freedom Still Demanded – Joshua Scheer (ScheerPost, June 19, 2026).
Juneteenth and the Distance Between Freedom and Meaning – Anneshia Hardy (Common Dreams, June 19, 2026).
Juneteenth: The Day America Solved Racism by Taking a Day Off From Work – Lawrence Ware (CounterPunch, June 19, 2026).
This Juneteenth, Remember That Organizing Is Key to Democracy – Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain (Common Dreams, June 19, 2026).
The Hidden Hisory of Juneteenth – Gregory P. Downs (Black Agenda Report via ScheerPost, June 19, 2026).
Juneteenth Special: Historian Clint Smith on Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America – Democracy Now! (June 19, 2026).
What is Juneteenth and Why Does it Matter: A Short History – Heather Cox Richardson (Journey to American Democracy, June 18, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed post:
• Zaylore Stout on the Meaning of Emancipation Today

“The Fascist Fist Is Tightening Because It Knows That It Is Losing Its Grasp on Us”

Steve Young (right) is the 2026 Green Party of Minnesota candidate for Governor.

Earlier today, Young issued a statement in response to the June 16 arrest of fifteen Twin Cities residents in connection with anti-ICE protests, specifically for “conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers” and for efforts to allegedly “violently oppose immigration law enforcement” during the surge of federal immigration officers in Minnesota from December 2025 to February 2026. Two U.S. citizens were murdered by federal agents on the streets of Minneapolis during this surge. No arrests have been made in relation to these killings.

Meanwhile, Daniel Rosen, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota, told reporters that the 15 anti-ICE protesters were “charged not for what they said but what they did.” However, Rosen, refused to answer specific questions connected to the alleged conspiracy, saying that evidence would be presented at a later date.

According to Minnesota Public Radio News: “Prosecutors say the 15 are members and associates of the protest group Direct Action Minnesota, which they describe as an antifa – or anti-fascist – affinity group. Antifa is an umbrella term describing any far-left-leaning militant groups and is not a singular entity. They consist of groups that resist fascists and neo-Nazis, especially at demonstrations.”

Following is Steve Young’s response to these developments.

We all wanted to believe that the worst of the Trump regime’s targeting of our community was behind us. Deep down, we felt it wasn’t true. Now we know that this battle is far from over.

On Tuesday, Federal agents arrested some of our neighbors, our friends, our comrades merely because they allegedly stepped up in the face of fascist aggression.

Do not let this bend you into submission. The fascist fist is tightening because it knows that it is losing its grasp on us. Continue to stand alongside your neighbors. Keep up your mutual aid efforts. Prepare your community for an uncertain future.

The eyes of the world are watching Minnesotans. We are in the belly of the beast. It is our duty to give this beast a terrible bellyache.

We outnumber them. Our neighborhoods are better organized than them. Stand strong, and stand proud. Do not give in. Do not give up. Check your OPSEC. Check in with your loved ones. Keep your whistles and your cameras with you wherever you go.

The road forward is rough, but we will walk it together. Together we will keep us all safe.

Fidelis Semper ad Populum,

– Steve

___________________

Notes the website of the Green Party of Minnesota:

Steve Young is an attorney with nine years of experience in corporate law who has previously served as a member of the Minneapolis Food Council. Before law school, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 12 years as an infantry unit leader. He coached high school lacrosse for seven years and has volunteered with the Boy Scouts of America, church congregations, and Veterans For Peace. He owned and operated a small business, the Bryn Mawr Market, and has been very active in the community response to Operation Metro Surge. In addition to strong protections for the natural environment, support for single-payer healthcare, and a guaranteed basic income, he supports boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel, and an end to federal immigration operations in the state.

Related Off-site Links:
“An Act of Political Repression”: Minnesota Attorneys and Activists React to Protester Charges – Ellie Roth and Matt Sepic (MPR News, June 16, 2026).
Minnesotans Protesting ICE and Local Law Enforcement Regularly Faced Criminal Charges in the Past Decade. Many Cases Get Dismissed – Andrew Hazzard (Sahan Journel, June 18, 2026).
Protests Follow After 15 Minnesotans Charged with Anti-ICE Conspiracy – Matt Sepic (MPR News, June 17, 2026).
Minneapolis Woman Charged with Anti-ICE Conspiracy Speaks Out – Feven Gerezgiher (MPR News, June 17, 2026).
Report Authors Say Feds Violated Minnesotans' Human Rights During ICE Surge – Jon Collins (MPR News, June 18, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

RESISTANCE TO THE TRUMP REGIME’S FASCIST OCCUPATION OF MINNESOTA
• The “Power, Peril and Importance” of What’s Happening in Minnesota
• Only the Beginning
• The North Remembers
• “It’s All Lies and Propaganda”
• What This Moment Feels Like in Minnesota
• Quote of the Day – February 23, 2026
• Greg Ketter: A Valiant Minnesotan
• Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• More Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• Honoring Renée Good and the “Astonishing Surge of Courage” of Minneapolis
• Renée Good and Alex Pretty: “They Were Alive. Then They Were Not”
• Bruce Springsteen and the Streets of Minneapolis in the Winter of ’26

GREEN PARTY
• Campaigning With the Green Party
• Butch Ware on Why Third Parties Are Crucial
• Meet Some of the “People-Powered” Green Party Candidates for 2026
• “It Is Our Responsibility to Make a Third Party Viable”
• “People Really Want New Options in Politics”
• Third Parties and the Historical Record

Opening image: Protesters rally outside the Warren E. Burger federal courthouse in downtown St. Paul on June 16, 2026, in support of activists who were arrested by the FBI. (Photo: Aaron Nesheim | Sahan Journal)

Dorothy Lennon on What We Won’t Hear Today at the Opening of the Obama Presidential Library

Today is the unveiling of Barack Obama’s presidential library. These moments, like funerals for American dignitaries, are always an example to whitewash their crimes and paint a revisionist history to indoctrinate the masses.

If the truth was allowed to be spoken at this ridiculous event, the public would’ve heard the following about the 44th president . . .

• Obama authorized over 540 drone strikes in countries including Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria. Killing thousands of innocent civilians in the process.

• Obama was the first president who claimed the authority to assassinate American citizens. He exercised that power by ordering the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old son.

• Obama invoked the Espionage Act more than all his predecessors combined. Who did he target? Heroic whistleblowers like Thomas Drake, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. He used it as a pretext to target reporters such as James Rosen, Wikileaks and the Associated Press.

• Obama had his administration selected by Citigroup. A 2016 WikiLeaks release of hacked e-mails revealed that in October 2008, Citigroup executive Michael Froman sent an e-mail to Obama's presidential transition team. The e-mail contained a list of recommended candidates, and a significant portion of those individuals were ultimately selected for Obama's first-term Cabinet.

• Obama authorized Shell to conduct limited exploratory oil drilling in the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska in 2015. He consistently bragged in interviews he made America the oil producing nation of the world.

• Obama expanded the role of the surveillance state under his administration. This was revealed thanks to the heroism of Snowden. When his Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was asked about the program during his congressional testimony, he committed perjury by denying such a program existed.

• Obama implemented a healthcare plan out of the Heritage Foundation. The Affordable Care Act was the same plan Republican Senator Bob Dole ran on as the nominee for president in 1996 and Mitt Romney implemented as governor of Massachusetts.

• Obama came into office after President George W. Bush authorized torture and Wall Street committed fraud. After the Bush administration ordered torture/detained innocent prisoners and Wall Street held America hostage, the Obama administration refused to prosecute any of the criminals.

• Obama signed into law Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act. Under this provision, the executive branch has the authority to detain Americans indefinitely. The Obama administration tried to assuage the fears of Americans by telling them they never intended to use this provision. I am sure it was a coincidence after the provision was signed into law, Obama violated his campaign promise to close Guantanamo Bay.

• Obama oversaw the loss of over 1000 seats of Democratic officeholders. Implementing a neoliberal agenda crippled the Democratic Party and paved the way for a demagogue like Donald Trump.

None of that will be mentioned at this event.

– Dorothy Lennon
via social media
June 18, 2026

NEXT: “The Obama Presidential Center
Is a Monument to Hypocrisy”

Related Off-site Links:
Obama Presidential Center Opens with Star-studded Celebration – Justin Kaufmann (Axios, June 18, 2026).
“More Like a White Man Than a Brother”: As Obama Opens His Monument, Kenya Reckons with His Legacy – Jon Jeter (The Kansas City Defender, June 19, 2026).
Obama’s New Presidential Center and His Tricky Relationship with the South Side – Gene Demby (NPR News, June 16, 2026).
People Can’t Read the Lettering on the Obama Presidential Center Tower – Hunter Schwarz (Fast Company, February 25, 2026).
Meditations On the Notion That Obama “Never Had Any Scandals” – Caitlin Johnstone (Caitlin’s Newsletter, February 19, 2025). Of Towers and Toilets: A Tale of Two Developments – Yasmin Nair (Current Affairs, January 18, 2022).
Barack Obama Is A War Criminal – Prince Williams (Harvard Political Review, September 29, 2021).
From Torture to Drone Strikes: The Disturbing Legal Legacy Obama is Leaving for Trump – Jennifer Williams (Vox, January 10, 2017).
How President Obama Solidified the Transition to Perpetual War – The Takeaway (January 18, 2016).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Jeff Cohen on How Obama’s “Corporate Liberalism” Led to the Rise of Trump
• Genny Harrison on Brian Tyler Cohen’s Interview with Obama: “A Careful Meditation That Comforts More Than It Challenges”
• Progressives and Obama (Part 1)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 2)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 3)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 4)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 5)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 6)
• Progressives and Obama (Part 7)
• Historic (and Wild)!
• Reality Check
• One of Those Moments
• Obama, Ayers, the “S” Word, and the “Most Politically Backward Layers in America”
• Obama a Socialist? Hardly
• Thoughts on Tomorrow’s Presidential Election (2008)
• “Change Has Come to America”
• A Night of Celebration
• The Challenge for Progressives with an Obama Presidency
• Exposing the Dark Money Network Secretly Funding Establishment Democratic Influencers

Eric Karl Anderson on the Secret Story Behind Mrs Dalloway

As I noted a few days ago, today, June 17, is Dalloway Day, an annual celebration of author Virginia Woolf’s 1925 modernist masterpiece, Mrs. Dalloway.

To mark this international day of celebration I share a wonderful video by Eric Karl Anderson, who on his YouTube channel describes himself as a “bearded book fan and blogger also known as LonesomeReader chatting about new fiction, book prizes, what I’m reading and what I want to read next.”

In the following 15-minute video, Eric not only talks about the published 1925 version of Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway but also the manuscript version published by SP Books in 2019. “[The manuscript version has] shown me how [Woolf’s] original version of the story was very different from the finished novel,” says Eric.





Related Off-site Links:
Mrs. Dalloway at 100 – Daphne Merkin (Air Mail, September 13, 2025).
Significance of Clarissa’s Parties in Mrs Dalloway – Riya Payal (TJBlogsBlog, August 10, 2018).
The Character of Septimus Warren Smith in Mrs Dalloway – Riya Payal (TJBlogsBlog, July 28, 2020).
The Relationship Between Clarissa and Septimus in Mrs Dalloway – Riya Payal (TJBlogsBlog, April 13, 2021).
Mrs Dalloway’s War Wounds – Lizzie Hibbert (Engelsberg Ideas, May 22, 2025).
Mrs. Dalloway: Secularism and Its Enchantments – Jared Marcel Pollen (Quillette, September 2, 2021).
Clarissa Dalloway’s and Septimus Smith’s Routes Through London – British Literature Wiki.

See also the previous Wild Reed post:
• Something We Dare Call Hope

Photo of the Day

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Dandelion: A Celebration
• May Vignettes (2023)
• Spring . . . Within and Beyond (2022)
• Spring Awakens! (2020)
• Photo of the Day – June 3, 2017
• Photo of the Day – May 23, 2017
• Of Dandelions . . . and Dandy Lions
• Prayer of the Week – July 28, 2013

Related Off-site Links:
Let Dandelions Grow. Bees, Beetles and Birds Need Them – Kate Bradbury (The Guardian, May 12, 2015).
Stop the Dandelion Madness! Making Peace with Dandelions and Bees – Laurie Neverman (Common Sense Homesteading, April 19, 2016).
16 Benefits You Didn’t Know About Using Dandelions – Debra Maslowski (DIY Natural, May 19, 2014).
3 Delicious Summer Recipes for This Powerful Flower – Nick Polizzi (The Sacred Science, July 5, 2017).

Chris Smalls: The Working-Class Revolution Is Coming

An American hero of mine, Chris Smalls, was recently a guest on The Real News Network. Here’s how his conversation with host Maximillian Alvarez is described on the podcast’s Facebook page:

We sit down with Chris Smalls, co-founder and former president of the Amazon Labor Union, to discuss Smalls’ new book, When the Revolution Comes: A Fight for the Future of the Working Class, the incredible story of the formation of the Amazon Labor Union and the unionization of the first Amazon warehouse in the U.S., and Smalls’ journey from warehouse worker and labor organizer to internationally recognized public figure and human rights activist who has sailed with humanitarian flotilla missions to Gaza and Cuba.

Following is The Real News Network’s full 45-minute interview with Chris Smalls.





Related Off-site Links:
Why Are White Leftists Silent About This? – Sabrina Salvati (Sabby Sabs, June 10, 2026).
Chris Smalls Is Still Fighting the Bosses – Alex Skopic (Current Affairs, June 2, 2026).
“Amazon Is the New Slavery”: Chris Smalls on the Labor Fight of a Lifetime – Sara Franklin (The Nation, June 2, 2026).
A Better World: An Interview with Chris Smalls – Annika Bratton (Publishers Weekly, April 3, 2026).
My Interview with Chris Smalls – Marianne Williamson (Transform, July 31, 2022).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Chris Smalls’ “Unforgivable Sin”: Connecting the Warehouse to the Empire
• Kshama Sawant on the Real Reason for Jacobin Magazine’s “Hatchet Job” on Chris Smalls
• Steven Donziger’s Shout-Out to Chris Smalls
• Chris Smalls: We Need to Escape the “Two-Party Plantation”
• Quote of the Day – August 5, 2025
• U.S. Labor Leader Chris Smalls Joins the Crew of the Handala

Christopher Schoenherr on Marianne Williamson’s Politics of Love

“Not an escape from reality
[but] an attempt to look
at reality more honestly.”

At his substack Earth Drama, Christopher Schoenherr writes “essays decoding power, illusion, culture, politics, and the drama of being human.” Earlier today he wrote the following.

For years, Marianne Williamson has been mocked, dismissed, caricatured, and reduced to a collection of labels: crystal lady, orb queen, spiritual guru, New Age candidate. Her critics often assume that because she speaks about love, she must be speaking about something unserious.

But after reading her books Healing the Soul of America and A Politics of Love, I came away with a different conclusion. The most misunderstood thing about Marianne Williamson is not her spirituality. It is her definition of love.

Because in Williamson’s work, love is not an emotion.

It is a way of seeing.

A way of organizing society.

A way of deciding what matters.

A way of deciding who matters.

And ultimately, a way of deciding what civilization is for.

When Williamson talks about love, she is not talking about being nice.

She is not talking about avoiding conflict.

She is not talking about positive thinking.

She is not talking about pretending evil does not exist.

In fact, one of the most striking things about her work is how directly she confronts suffering.

She writes about poverty.

War.

Racism.

Corruption.

Child neglect.

Environmental destruction.

Corporate greed.

Democratic decline.

The politics of love is not an escape from reality.

It is an attempt to look at reality more honestly.

What she is really asking is a deceptively simple question:

What would society look like if human flourishing were the goal?

Not profit.

Not power.

Not partisan victory.

Not endless economic growth for its own sake.

Human flourishing.

The question sounds almost embarrassingly obvious.

Yet once you start asking it, everything changes.

– Christopher Schoenherr
From “Marianne Williamson’s Politics of Love
Has Nothing to Do With Feelings”
Earth Drama
June 14, 2026

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Yes, Just Imagine
• Marianne Williamson’s Politics of Love: The Rich Roll Interview (2022)
• Marianne Williamson: We Need an “Expanded Version of What it Means to Be Political”
• “A Very Insightful and Constructive Discussion”
• Marianne Williamson on the Need for “Radical Love” in Responding to Trump’s Dismantling of Democracy
• Marianne Williamson: “We’re Moving Into Totalitarianism”
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2025
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – June 20, 2025
• Speaking Truth to Power
• Marianne Williamson on MSNBC’s The Weekend – 1/12/25
• Breaking the Mold: Why Progressives Should Push for Marianne Williamson to Lead the DNC
• Marianne Williamson Is Seeking to Restore Honesty and Integrity to the DNC
• Marianne Williamson Makes Her Case for Being the Next DNC Chair
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in the 2024 Presidential Election
• “A New Chapter of the Democratic Party Needs to Begin”
• Marianne Williamson: “We’re Living in Very Serious Times and We Need to Be Very Serious People”
• Marianne Williamson: “I Hope I Will Hear Things from Kamala That I Can Full-on Support”
• Marianne Williamson on ABC News Live – 8/20/24
• Voices on the Issues That Really Matter
• Marianne Williamson: “We Must Challenge the Entire System”
• “We Have an Emergency On Our Hands”: Marianne Williamson On the “Freefall” of American Democracy

For highlights of The Wild Reed’s coverage of Marianne Williamson’s 2024 presidential campaign, see the following chronologically-ordered posts:
• Marianne 2024
• Progressive Perspectives on Marianne Williamson’s Presidential Run
• More Progressive Perspectives on Marianne Williamson’s Presidential Run
• Ben Burgis: Quote of the Day – March 10, 2023
• Despite the Undemocratic Antics of the DNC, Marianne Williamson Plans on “Winning the Nomination”
• Marianne Williamson’s Economic Bill of Rights
• Voters, Not the DNC, Should Choose the Nominee
• Marianne Williamson: “Repairing Our Hearts Is Essential to Repairing Our Country”
• Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson Joins NYC’s March to End Fossil Fuels
• Marianne Williamson’s “Radical Idea” of Putting People First
• Marianne Williamson: “We Need to Disrupt the Corrupt”
• “We Are Surging”
• “Let the People Decide”: Marianne Williamson on the DNC’s Efforts to Deny and Suppress the Democratic Process
• The Democrats Challenging Biden
• Bannering for Marianne
• Campaigning for Marianne Williamson in New Hampshire – Day 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
• Marianne Williamson: “I Have Decided to Continue”
• Forever Grateful
• What Marianne Williamson Learned from Running for President
• Marianne Williamson: Playing It Big
• Minnesotans Launch Super Tuesday Push for “Suspended But Not Ended” Candidate Marianne Williamson
• A Welcome Return
• This Super Tuesday, Don’t Be “Uncommitted” . . .
• Super Tuesday in Minnesota
• Marianne Williamson, the Cassandra of U.S. Politics, on the “True State of the Union”
• “This Is the Moment”
• For Marianne Williamson, One Season Passes and Another Begins
• “What I Want to Remember Are the Moments of Love”
• A New Beginning
• Marianne Williamson on What Democrats Need to Do to Inspire Voters and Counter the “Hotbed of Grievances That Donald Trump is Offering”
• Progressive Perspectives on the Crisis in U.S. Electoral Politics
• Yes, Just Imagine
• On This Momentous Day in U.S. Politics, a Visit to the Prayer Tree
• Marianne Williamson: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is Not Enough to Win in November”
• Marianne Williamson: “My Gratitude Is as Deep as the Sea”

For highlights of The Wild Reed’s coverage of Marianne Williamson’s 2020 presidential campaign, see the following chronologically-ordered posts:
• Talkin’ ’Bout An Evolution: Marianne Williamson’s Presidential Bid
• Why Marianne Williamson Is a Serious and Credible Presidential Candidate
• Marianne Williamson: Reaching for Higher Ground
• “A Lefty With Soul”: Why Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson Deserves Some Serious Attention
• Marianne Williamson Plans on Sharing Some “Big Truths” on Tonight's Debate Stage
• Friar André Maria: Quote of the Day – June 28, 2019
• Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson: “We’re Living at a Critical Moment in Our Democracy”
• Caitlin Johnstone: “Status Quo Politicians Are Infinitely ‘Weirder’ Than Marianne Williamson”
• Marianne Williamson On What It Will Take to Defeat Donald Trump
• “This Woman Is Going to Win the Nomination”: Matt Taibbi on Marianne Williamson in Iowa
• The Relevance and Vitality of Marianne Williamson’s 2020 Presidential Campaign
• Quote of the Day – November 4, 2019
• Marianne Williamson: “Anything That Will Help People Thrive, I’m Interested In”
• Marianne Williamson and the Power of Politicized Love
• Quote of the Day – December 14, 2019
• Marianne Williamson: “I Am Not Suspending My Candidacy”
• Marianne Williamson on New Day with Christi Paul – 01/04/20
• “A Beautiful Message, So Full of Greatness”
• “I Learned So Much From the Experience”
• Deep Gratitude

Image: Marianne Williamson in 2019. (Photo: Rozette Rago/The New York Times/Redux)