The Wild Reed

Thursday, October 22, 2026

“On to the General!”

I’ve mentioned previously (here and here) that in the current U.S. midterm election season I’m supporting and working with the Green Party of Minnesota, a people-powerd party dedicated to building a more affordable, sustainable, and democratic North Star state.

We have six Green Party candidates on the ballot in November that many Minnesotans are supporting and getting the word out about – Steve Young and Jane Kirby for Governor and Lieutenant Governor; Seth Kuhl-Stennes for Secretary of State; Ngone Niang for State Senate, District 39; Bruce Johnson for Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation District 4; and Rachel Braaten for Three Rivers Park Board, District 3.

Following are some images of my involvement with the Green Party, accompanied by writings by and videos of many of the Minnesota Green Party candidates.

I’ll start by sharing the following from the latest newsletter of the Green Party of Minnesota.

The Green Party of Minnesota is growing rapidly, with many new active members since the 2024 presidential campaign and increasingly younger and more diverse representation. This year we also have more candidates stepping forward, all committed to our foundational Green values* by refusing corporate and special-interest money.

With this growth comes the need for stronger party infrastructure. In recent months we have reinvigorated our social media presence, updated our website, and established a newly functional boardroom in our office. We are also continuing to cultivate leadership that can engage our growing membership, support our candidates, and continue bruilding the infrastructure needed for long-term growth.

The genocide in Gaza, funded by U.S. tax dollars and perpetrated by Israel, has awakened many people to the corruption and Islamophobia within both major parties. The Green Party has long suported Palestinian liberation and the right to return.

In early 2025 the Green Party of Minnesota chartered the Muslim Americvan Caucus, the first of its kind in Minnesota, creating a space for Muslim Americans to organize, build political power, and strengthen their voice within the party. A similar movement is also growing within the Green Party nationally. This year the Green Party of Minnesota is proud to field statewide candidates committed to putting our values into action, including support for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

Above: Steve Young (right), Green Party candidate for Minnesota Governor, greets attendees at Twin Cities Pride – June 28, 2026. For more images of our presence at Pride, click here.

Above: Stuffing and addressing envlopes for a mass mailing with Green Party friends Tim and Rachael at Pizza Luce on Franklin Ave., Minneapolis – September 2, 2026. Rachel is the Green Party MN-endorsed candidate for Three Rivers Park Board, District 3.

Says Rachel in a September 30 campaign video:

My name is Rachel Braaten and I’m running for Three Rivers Park Board in District 3. If you live in St. Louis Park, Golden Valley, Crystal, Robbinsdale, Brooklyn Center or St. Anthony, I’ll will be on your ballot on November 3rd. I’ve been leading volunteer habitat restoration groups for over 15 years. I was trained to do that by the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. In 2020 I began leading groups in Crystal, and now Crstal has an official program that I’ve been leading for the past five years. I’m running because I’d like the opportunity to be a greater voice for our natural resources and the habitat needs for all the wild creatures.

Above: My friend Jane Kirby, Green Party-endorsed candidate for Lieutenant Governor. She’s pictured phone-banking outside the building in south Minneapolis that houses the Green Party MN office – August 26, 2026.

Above: With Green Party friends at Pizza Luce on Franklin Ave., Minneapolis – August 12, 2026.

My friend Seth is the Green Party endorsed candidate for Minnesota Secretary of State. On August 19 he was interviewed by KTTC TV.

For two other videos featuring Seth, click here and here.

Above: Members of the Green Party of Minnesota and its Muslim American Caucus at the October 10, 2026 fundraising event for Women Against Military Madness (WAMM).

Noted the Green Party of Minnesota on its various social media platforms:

We say with a unified voice: FREE PALESTINE. Divest, boycott, and sanction Israel. Defund the military industrial complex, and let’s invest in universal health care, education, and basic human needs like housing and transit. The Green Party can’t be bought, and tonight we represented with the only political candidates of any party at this very well attended event. Let’s normalize integrity!

Above: At left (wearing my Franz Fanon t-shirt) with fellow members of the Green Party of MN’s Lavender Caucus – Thursday, May 28, 2026. Where at The 19 Bar, the oldest gay bar in Minneapolis and among the oldest in the United States.

Above: Green Party candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, Steve Young and Jane Kirby, speak at an event in St. Paul – Wednesday, October 14, 2026.

For a June 2026 interview with Steve and Jane, click here.

Above: With Steve Young and Jane Kirby – October 14, 2026.

Above: Green Party MN candidates Ngone Niang, Jane Kirby, and Seth Kuhl-Stennes at a meet-and-greet in St. Paul earlier this evening – Thursday, October 22, 2026.

Above: Prior to this evening’s meet-and-greet was a community forum co-sponsored by the Green Party of MN and entitled “Surveillance Versus Security.” This forum focused on flock cameras, Skydio drones, and the Waterfall company, and explored the question: “Do local government contracts with these companies make us less safe?”

The forum panelists were (from left) Cedar Larson of Women Against Military Madness (WAMM); Ngone S Niang, Green Party-endorsed candidate for Senate District 39; and Mike Madden of Veterans for Peace.

Above: Ngone Niang, Green Party-endorsed candidate for State Senate, District 39 – Thursday, October 22, 2026.

Above: Seth Kuhl-Stennes, Green Party MN-endorsed candidate for Sectretary of State – Thursday, October 22, 2026.

Says Seth:

I am an independent candidate (outside the two major parties in Minnesota) endorsed by the Green Party and am running on a set of issues that ties into their values and the work of the Secretary of State's Office. I do not accept donations from for-profit or nonprofit corporations, Political Action Committees (PACs) or lobbyists. I only accept donations from individuals. So, I am not beholden to any sort of corporate or special interest. I will be responsive to Minnesota voters and businesses and will work to take measures to strengthen our state's democratic institutions and economy.

My top three priorities (in no particular order) are:

• Institute an electoral system that honors the will of MN voters through adopting proportional representation for the MN House and ranked choice voting for MN executive branch offices, allowing cities and counties to use these methods for electing multi-member and single-seat local officials, and moving to direct election of the U.S. President by ranked choice voting.

• Advocate for state and global well-being by divesting from weapons manufacturers, genocidal nations, nuclear power and fossil fuel extraction, animal harm, and any such companies that profit from those actions and shifting those state investments into entities that uphold peace, human rights, ecological health, and animal welfare.

• Foster a healthy MN business and worker environment by facilitating the growth of cooperatives, credit unions, and community land trusts and honoring employers that provide living wages, practice just-cause employment, and support the right to unionize.

Above: Jane Kirby, Green Party MN-endorsed candidate for Lieutenant Governor – Thursday, October 22, 2026.

Left: Bruce Johnson, Green Party MN-endorsed candidate for Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation District 4 – Thursday, October 22, 2026.

Finally, here’s and a piece from my Facebook friend Joshua in Michigan on why he’s voting for Green Party candidate Douglas Campbell for Governor. Although Joshua is in Michigan, not Minnesota, his reasoning for voting Green actually applies everywhere.

___________

Why I’m Voting Green

Joshua Combs on why he's voting for
Douglas Campbell for Michigan Governor

Both parties are rotten to the core and I’m done pretending otherwise.

The Democrats are not a resistance. They are the ones who paved the way for Trump in the first place.

In 2015 they had a “Pied Piper” strategy where they deliberately elevated Trump, Cruz, and Carson and told the press to take them seriously because they thought Trump would be easy to beat. In 2022 they spent over $53 million boosting MAGA extremists in Republican primaries for the same cynical game.

They fund genocide. They take corporate money. They lecture you about lesser-evil voting while they push war, fracking, and police militarization, then blame Green voters when they lose elections they rigged against their own base.

The Republicans are worse. [Republican candidate for Michigan Governor] John James is Trump in a suit. Pure culture war, tax cuts for billionaires, book bans, attacks on libraries, attacks on trans kids, attacks on abortion, and selling Michigan’s water and land to corporations.

I’m not voting for either corporate party.

I’m voting for Douglas Campbell, Green Party for Governor, November 3, 2026. Bobbie Clay for Lt. Governor.

Greens don’t take corporate PAC money. We stand for:

• NO VOTE FOR GENOCIDE
• Fully fund libraries and public schools, not charters
• Medicare for All and housing as a human right
• 100% renewable Michigan
• Get money out of politics

Democrats and Republicans built this mess together. Greens are trying to clean it up.

My vote is not wasted. Your two-party system is wasted.

* Following are the 10 Key Values of the Green Party, originally ratified at the Green Party Convention in Denver, Colorado, June 2000. It should be noted that there is no authoritative version of these values. Instead, they are best seen as guiding principles that are adapted and defined to fit each state and local chapter.

1. GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY Every human being deserves a say in the decisions that affect their lives and not be subject to the will of another. Therefore, we will work to increase public participation at every level of government and to ensure that our public representatives are fully accountable to the people who elect them. We will also work to create new types of political organizations which expand the process of participatory democracy by directly including citizens in the decision-making process.

2. SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY All persons should have the rights and opportunity to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment. We must consciously confront in ourselves, our organizations, and society at large, barriers such as racism and class oppression, sexism and homophobia, ageism and disability, which act to deny fair treatment and equal justice under the law.

3. ECOLOGICAL WISDOM Human societies must operate with the understanding that we are part of nature, not separate from nature. We must maintain an ecological balance and live within the ecological and resource limits of our communities and our planet. We support a sustainable society which utilizes resources in such a way that future generations will benefit and not suffer from the practices of our generation. To this end we must practice agriculture which replenishes the soil; move to an energy efficient economy; and live in ways that respect the integrity of natural systems.

4. NON-VIOLENCE It is essential that we develop effective alternatives to society’s current patterns of violence. We will work to demilitarize, and eliminate weapons of mass destruction, without being naive about the intentions of other governments. We recognize the need for self-defense and the defense of others who are in helpless situations. We promote non-violent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree, and will guide our actions toward lasting personal, community and global peace.

5. DECENTRALIZATION Centralization of wealth and power contributes to social and economic injustice, environmental destruction, and militarization. Therefore, we support a restructuring of social, political and economic institutions away from a system which is controlled by and mostly benefits the powerful few, to a democratic, less bureaucratic system. Decision-making should, as much as possible, remain at the individual and local level, while assuring that civil rights are protected for all citizens.

6. COMMUNITY-BASED ECONOMICS AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE We recognize it is essential to create a vibrant and sustainable economic system, one that can create jobs and provide a decent standard of living for all people while maintaining a healthy ecological balance. A successful economic system will offer meaningful work with dignity, while paying a “living wage” which reflects the real value of a person’s work. Local communities must look to economic development that assures protection of the environment and workers’ rights; broad citizen participation in planning; and enhancement of our “quality of life.” We support independently owned and operated companies which are socially responsible, as well as co-operatives and public enterprises that distribute resources and control to more people through democratic participation.

7. FEMINISM AND GENDER EQUITY We have inherited a social system based on male domination of politics and economics. We call for the replacement of the cultural ethics of domination and control with more cooperative ways of interacting that respect differences of opinion and gender. Human values such as equity between the sexes, interpersonal responsibility, and honesty must be developed with moral conscience. We should remember that the process that determines our decisions and actions is just as important as achieving the outcome we want.

8. RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY We believe it is important to value cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity, and to promote the development of respectful relationships across these lines. We believe that the many diverse elements of society should be reflected in our organizations and decision-making bodies, and we support the leadership of people who have been traditionally closed out of leadership roles. We acknowledge and encourage respect for other life forms than our own and the preservation of biodiversity.

9. PERSONAL AND GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY We encourage individuals to act to improve their personal well-being and, at the same time, to enhance ecological balance and social harmony. We seek to join with people and organizations around the world to foster peace, economic justice, and the health of the planet.

10. FUTURE FOCUS AND SUSTAINABILITY Our actions and policies should be motivated by long-term goals. We seek to protect valuable natural resources, safely disposing of or “unmaking” all waste we create, while developing a sustainable economics that does not depend on continual expansion for survival. We must counterbalance the drive for short-term profits by assuring that economic development, new technologies, and fiscal policies are responsible to future generations who will inherit the results of our actions.

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Vanessa and Franco

I recently re-watched the romantic comedy-drama Letters to Juliet. I did so for the same reason I watched it in the cinema when it first came out in 2010. And that reason is Vanessa Redgrave.

Redgrave has long been one of my all-time favorite actresses, and I’ve written about her and her artistry many times at The Wild Reed (see, for instance, here, here, here, and here).

In Letters to Juliet, Redgrave plays Claire Smith, an elderly English widow who gets the opportunity to reunite with her first love, an Italian man named Lorenzo Bartolini. In her youth, Claire had holidayed in Verona, Italy with her family. Here she met and fell in love with the young Lorenzo. They made plans to elope but at the last minute Claire got cold feet and stood him up.

Now, 53 years later, Claire is given a second chance.

A lovely aspect of the film is that the older Lorenzo is played by Franco Nero, Redgrave's real life partner. The two had first met on the set of the 1967 film Camelot. She played Guenevere to his Lancelot. In 1969, they had a son, Carlo; but by 1971 they had amicably gone their separate ways. In 2006, just four years before making Letters to Juliet, Vanessa and Franco reunited and were married.

In 2007, Carlo Nero gave the following response when asked in an interview how he felt about his parents finally getting married.

It’s actually a wonderful, wonderful feeling, because, you know, I’ve witnessed since childhood a sort of very slow, long process by which they really were reunited, which is, I think, a wonderful thing. I mean, they’ve always had a love for each other, and despite the distance and differences. But, I mean, I think theirs is one of those wonderful . . . symbolic stories, really, of how people can reconcile and allow their love to grow and nurture it all along the way.

Roger Ebert, having interviewed both Nero and Redgrave on the set of Camelot in 1966, noted how much of the love story between their characters in Letters to Juliet is nearly autobiographical.

Following is a short 2010 interview with Vanessa and Franco in which they talk about their roles in Letters to Juliet and their similarities and connection to the journey of their own relationship. (For another interview with Vanessa from the same time, click here.)

It's wonderful to see Vanessa and Franco together in Letters to Juliet and in roles that mirror the trajectory of their own relationship.

I also find myself drawn to Vanessa’s Claire; to the way she portrays her. Claire talks and moves in a very calm and deliberate way. There’s an elegant detachment about her, one that can be discerned in Vanessa’s life as well. It’s a way of being in the world that, as I grow older, I find myself seeking to embody.

Watching Vanessa in Letters to Juliet reminded me of what Jane Fonda wrote in her 2005 autobiography about her friend and colleague:

There is a quality about Vanessa that makes me feel as if she resides in a netherworld of mystery that eludes the rest of us mortals. Her voice seems to come from some deep place that knows all suffering and all secrets. Watching her work is like seeing through layers of glass, each layer painted in mythic watercolor images, layer after layer, until it becomes dark – but even then you know you haven't come to the bottom of it . . . The only other time I had experienced this with an actor was with Marlon Brando . . . Like Vanessa, he always seemed to be in another reality, working off some secret, magnetic, inner rhythm.

This “inner rhythm” informs and guides Vanessa’s portrayal of Claire, and the end result was not lost on film critic Amy Biancolli of the San Francisco Chronicle. In her review of Letters to Juliet, Biancolli describes Vanessa’s performance as “elegant, clear-eyed and nurturing,” noting that she “commands the corniest dialogue to stand up and sound like poetry.” Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News also praised Vanessa, saying she brings “a lovely gravity to the lightweight proceedings.”

Well, sixteen years after Letters to Juliet, Vanessa and Franco are starring in another film together, The Estate, which is anything but lightweight.

The film, directed by Franco and Vanessa’s son Carlo Gabriel Nero, tells the story of the once-prominent Wellsley family, led by declining matriarch Lady Sarah (Redgrave), falling on increasingly hard financial times and being forced to grapple with the prospect of selling their stately manor and its surrounding woodlands to real estate developers. An added layer to the story is the historical and socio-economic injustices of land ownership, specifically the enclosement movement, a multi-century process that converted shared, communal agricultural lands into exclusive private property. This is expressed through scenes of the family being haunted by apparitions of workers and laborers of yesteryear.

Writing for the November 2025 Torino Film Festival, Carlo Gabriel Nero shared the following:

My aim with this film was to create a multi-layered, complex family drama, with thriller elements, that would resonate far beyond its setting. The crux of the story has universal implications whatever our background or status and is more than just a tale of a family of English aristocrats trying to save their ancestral home. It goes further by confronting the deeply rooted socio-economic injustices our whole world faces – and it offers a solution; one that does not conform to current conventional models. This is a subject I’ve been researching and exploring for many years, inspired by both the great nineteenth-century American social-scientist, Henry George, and renowned contemporary economist Fred Harrison, our film’s Associate Producer, to whom I owe a debt of gratitude.

Here’s what Andreas Wiseman of Deadline says about The Estate.

Synkronized has acquired worldwide distribution rights from IUVIT Media Sales to suspense drama The Estate, starring acting legend Vanessa Redgrave and husband Franco Nero (Django).

Directed and written by Carlo Nero (The Fever), the film charts the story of the Wellsleys, an aristocratic family confronting harsh contemporary realities. In the film, the family is desperate to save their ancestral property due to insurmountable debts. As they struggle to find a solution, a series of disturbing events occur, forcing the Wellsleys to confront deep injustices they and other landowners, past and present, have wrought.

“The audience loves a good whodunnit. Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero have an amazing chemistry,” stated Alex Cohen, CEO of Synkronized.

“The Estate is more than just a drama about a family of English aristocrats trying to save their home. It goes further by confronting the deeply rooted socio-economic injustices our whole world faces – and it offers a solution; one that does not conform to current conventional models,” added Carlo Nero, son of Oscar, Emmy and Tony winner Vanessa and Italian icon Franco.

In researching and writing this post last night, I came across a review by Mark Tinta that noted that instead of a theatrical release, The Estate was “dumped on Prime Video [in June] with zero fanfare.”

Hmm, that’s never a good sign. And sure enough, Tinta’s review is scathing (and also rather humorous), as the following excerpts attest.

For 112 of its 113 tortuous minutes, The Estate is an unbearable acting exercise for all involved. Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero (as Filippo, the loyal, long-serving head of the Wellsley servant staff) mainly hang back and watch the rest of the cast embarrass themselves with their hammy, playing-to-the-rafters histrionics. . . . Characters pontificate and soliloquize about real estate, property values, class struggles, and whatever else. The servants hang around outside, one smugly insufferable asshole strumming an acoustic guitar and randomly breaking into song. Everyone is terrible – yes, even Redgrave and Nero.

Redgrave’s Lady Sarah sees apparitions of field hands and settlers of generations past, a clunky bit of foreshadowing for when Carlo Nero turns The Estate into a Jordan Peele-esque horror movie for bankrupt aristocrats in the last minute.

Astonishingly pointless and insufferably self-indulgent, The Estate can barely qualify as a movie. It’s arguably the worst film Franco Nero’s been in and it’s definitely Redgrave’s worst. It seems Carlo has cast his mom and dad in several of his movies, and there’s a telling moment early on when Redgrave and Franco longingly look in each other’s eyes and you see a decades-long love still in bloom. Either that or they’re thinking “Jesus Christ, the things we do for our kid.”

See what I mean about scathing and humorous? Still, I’m going to give The Estate a shot by watching it sometime this weekend. . . . For Vanessa and Franco!

Plus, not all the reviews are bad. I'll close with this positive “user review” over at IMDb.

The cinematic work done on this film is beautiful. Cast is brilliant as children, grandchildren and staff of a 250-acre U.K. estate whose worlds are upended. Faced with loosing their legacy, the Wellsely family continued to expect their way of life to survive without taking any necessary steps to secure it.

Observations and commentary on “The System” (i.e. economy and housing sector) are spot on. Some characters are tedious but overall The Estate is good both as a film and as social commentary.

Quote of the Day

Use YOUR vote the way that YOU want.

I understand the concept behind “harm reduction” – a term that comes from substance abuse treatment and refers to helping people who have no intention of quitting but don’t want to die. As such, it’s a term that’s very fitting for the neoliberals who are trying to maintain power. But it just prolongs the situation.

Look in your heart and do what you genuinely believe is best. Listen to candidates. Are they flawed but generally good? Or are they just trying to keep their ideological foot in the door?

I do think everyone should vote, even if they just write themselves in, to maintain the right. It’s harder to take it away if people use it, even among authoritarian fascists who generally do what they want anyway.

But follow your heart. If it says harm reduction is useful, go for it. If it says it’s not, don’t feel shame. Don’t ask for something you don’t want.

– Mickie Kato
via social media
October 21, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
The Fallacy of Electoral Harm Reduction – Roderick Douglass (Medium, January 11, 2026).
The Problem with Harm Reduction – Second Thought (March 11, 2022).
Voting Is Not Harm Reduction – Indigenous Action.
Why Voting for the Lesser of Two Evils Is a Waste of Your Vote – Jeffrey A. Singer (Cato Institute, May 18, 2018).
7 Arguments Against Voting for the Lesser Evil – George Martin Fell Brown (International Socialist, October 29, 2024).
The “Lesser of Two Evils” Is Voter Bullying – Erik Blair (Medium, June 30, 2022).
The Problem with “The Lesser of Two Evils” – Zachary Ludwick (The Uproar, November 2, 2020).
Principal Dissent vs. the Lesser Evil – John B. Londregan (The Public Discourse, August 23, 2026).
Matthew McConaughney Urges Voters to Ditch the Two-party System – Amaris Encinas (USA Today, October 20, 2026).
Matthew McConaughey Bashes Two-party System and Advocates for Independent Candidates – Rising (October 20, 2026).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• An Epic Takedown of the Liberal Tactic of Blaming and Shaming Leftists
• Jeffrey C. Isaac: Quote of the Day – October 28, 2024
• Democrat Talk on the Eve of Trump’s Return
• Adam Bates: Quote of the Day – June 9, 2026
• Butch Ware: “You Can Actually Vote Your Conscience”
• Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
• Nick Cruse: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is the Privileged Position”
• Demolishing the False Narrative About Jill Stein and the 2016 Election
• Politics 101

Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Omar El Akkad on How Gaza Has Exposed the Hypocrisy of the West

Egyptian-American-Canadian novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad is somewhat of a hero of mine, primarily because he is, in the words of Benn Crader, a “man of great, palpable integrity, honesty and vulnerability.” El Akkad makes me want to be a better man; a more thoughtful, deliberate, and grounded man.

Novara Media introduces its October 18 conversation with El Akkad with the following:

Three years ago, just weeks after the Gaza genocide began, writer Omar El Akkad posted a tweet, attached to some footage showing the extent of the ruin that Israel had already visited on Gaza. The compelling thought, crystallised in that viral tweet, would go on to become the name of his bestselling book: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This.

Steven Methven recently sat down with El Akkad to try to make sense of three years of horror.

Why did Omar write his book focusing on the West’s role in the violence, rather than centring Palestine? What would meaningful accountability and justice for Palestinians look like? How does he think Hamas will be remembered? And has he found any source of hope amid the events he describes?

Following is Novara Media’s full 1-hour and 45-minute conversation with Omar El Akkad.

Following are two quotes by Omar El Akkad that I find particularly meaningful.

I doubt most things. I don’t doubt that Palestine will be free; because I think the natural state of colonization is to get up every morning and tell yourself a lie. And however brutal the treatment of the colonized, there are few things more brutal than having to get up every day and tell yourself a lie. It’s unsustainable in the long run, as it’s been in the case of every colonizer, ever.

– Omar El Akkad
October 18, 2026

It is particularly infuriating to see [with Democrats] the gap between the performance and the reality, in a way that [the Republicans’] open monstrousness can’t recreate. . . . The Trump administration is monumentally, historically corrupt. It’s in the middle of bombing, I think, 10 different countries right now, at last count. . . . But because I live in this binary country, there’s this notion of Oh, you don’t support this, therefore you must be in this camp.

This entire infrastructure needs to come down. This entire notion of some people get what they want but the vast majority of us have to pick whoever’s going to hurt us less is fundamentally unsustainable. Gaza is a crystallizing moment, I think, for that. But this has been going on for a very long time,

If you’re a person who fears for their lives under a Republican administration, who the hell am I to tell you, Hey, don’t vote Democrat. You vote for who the hell you want. I’m trying to explain that I am personally done with this idea that I am obligated in some way to support – be it with my vote or rhetorically or whatever the case may be – a politician, a political party, any sort of system that in any other context if I judged them purely by what they were doing, would be reprehensible to me.

Even if we set aside the argument that a moral red line has been crossed, if I am forever rewarding the lesser of two evils, and the greater of two evils is becoming more evil, what am I actually rewarding? What is the trajectory of the entire system of lesser and greater evil? We’re all moving in the same direction.

But this has been the argument that’s gone back and forth, over and over and over again. . . . And we end up in this ridiculous cycle where the worst possible outcome happens and we have a quasi- or openly fascist party in power. They behave so terribly that people, while they still can, assuming the entire infrastructure doesn’t just dissolve, vote them out. They vote in the lesser of the two evils and we get such a chasm between what these people say they believe in and what they actually do that a portion of that same electorate becomes disillusioned and either actively work against this party or just decide to stay home. The quasi-fascist or fully fascist party takes over again, and we end up in this spiral while all the while the things we are doing as a society are rendering the planet more and more uninhabitable. We have a limited amount of time to get out of this spiral.

I submit to you that one of the ways to get out of this spiral is to stop rewarding the people from whom we should expect better until they do better. But I might be completely wrong. Maybe we just hold our noses and vote for the least worst option and put up no resistance at all. I don’t know that you’re going to convince me of that, which is a strange thing to say because I was that person for most of my life. You know, Who’s got the “R” next to their name? Who’s got the “D” next to their name? Fill in the circle that has the “D” . . . I just don’t feel that is a way out of this mess. I think it’s a slower way into this mess.

– Omar El Akkad
October 18, 2026

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The Theft of One’s Soul: Omar El Akkad on the “Lesser of Two Evils” Argument
• Something to Think About – September 26, 2024

Related Off-site Links:
“What You’re Being Asked to Do Is Look Away. Just Look Away”: Omar El Akkad on Watching the Horror in Gaza from the West – The Nerve (September 25, 2026).
Omar el Akkad Lays Bare the West’s Betrayal of Gaza – Chris Power (The Observer, September 17, 2026).
Omar El Akkad on Genocide, Complicit Liberals, and the Terrible Wrath of the West – Dan Sheehan (Literary Hub, February 25, 2025).
In His New Book, Omar El Akkad Examines the Dangers of Passivity During Israel’s War on Gaza – Andrew Jankowski (Willamette Week, March 18, 2025).
Omar El Akkad's Powerful Confrontation of the West’s Gaza Hypocrisy in One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This – Sarah Shaffi (The New Arab, March 19, 2025).
Reckoning With the West – David Marr (Late Night Live at ABC Radio National, March 27, 2025).
Omar El Akkad: Gaza War Made Me “Deeply Cynical” About the West – Channel 4 News (February 14, 2025).
“One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This”: Omar El Akkad on Gaza and Western Complicity – Democracy Now (April 17, 2025).

Opening image: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images.

Monday, October 19, 2026

“Would I Compare Institutional and Economic Violence to a Burned-out Town Hall? . . . Never”

I am an architect of heritage. I love heritage, I have made it my profession. Preserving every stone, every window, every piece of wood possible is my life, my passion, my profession.

I deplore any degradation of Historical Monuments. Buildings that have stood the test of time and arrived to us, sometimes by chance, sometimes thanks to people who have chosen, like me, to preserve as a profession.

However, I have one thing clear. No building, no work, is worth a human life. No one is worth a hand torn off, a jaw broken.

I would go further. No monument is worth a child who is hungry, who goes to school with an empty stomach. I would risk my life to save a work of art? Maybe. Would I compare institutional and economic violence to a burned-out town hall? Never.

Unfortunately, anger is the only emotion when one sees a promised world disappearing. When one sees that Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, more than the objectives of the Republic, have become appliques on fronts, and that no one considers them. . . . Sincerely? As much as burning these words displayed. As much as making them disappear from fronts, if they are not respected.

Anger is the only emotion that remains when one denounces for years the excesses of this government and this system (cistern) and it doesn’t care.

Between the meaning of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity and its simple representation on a front, I choose the first.

Courage to all those who fight against fires and degradations, and courage to all those who, like me, from tomorrow will work to rebuild everything.

I’m talking about buildings, obviously.

And I’m talking about the Republic and its values, of course.

– Darío Martos
via social media
October 17, 2026

Related Off-site Link:
Flames Engulf 19th-century City Hall in Limoges, Central France, Amid Nationwide Protests – AP News (October 18, 2026).
The Colonizer’s House Is on Fire: Europe’s Uprisings and the American Right’s Propaganda Lies – Stacey Patton (Dr Stacey Patton, October 19, 2026).
The Specter of Lepenism Looms Over France’s Social Crisis – Harrison Stetler and June Loper (The Nation, October 19, 2026).
The Global Rebellion of Youth and Workers and the War Frenzy of the Ruling Class – World Socialist Web Site (October 23, 2026).
Thousands March Across Europe Against Inequality and “For Young People’s Future” – Olivia Rosane (Common Dreams, October 24, 2026).

See also the previous Wild Reed post:
• Understanding What’s Going On in France

Sunday, October 18, 2026

Understanding What’s Going On in France

Following are two commentaries that I find helpful in understanding what’s currently happening in France and other countries in Europe. The first of these is written by photojournalist Guy Smallman who is on the ground in Paris.

Saturday, October 17th saw the biggest student uprising in France since the defeat of Sarkozy’s CPE legislation in the mid 2000s. An estimated 800,000 protested across the country. Saturday was billed as the mother of all protests as the movement of secondary school students was to be joined by the famous “Yellow Vests” . . . a loose knit movement of largely working-class protestors who brought France to a standstill eight years ago when demos against fuel hikes became a decentralised direct-action movement against inequality. They caused massive economic damage to the French state and regularly fought the cops off the streets. They were largely unconnected to the organized French left and trade unions. Their unruly campaign achieved a lot of its objectives causing Macron to scrap a raft of neoliberal proposals.

Yesterday they had little or no presence on the protest in Paris but there were plenty of the trademark high-vis garments on display. Being worn by their children. The state has thrown everything at the secondary school students who have imposed militant blockades of their schools over the appalling state of education. The repression has achieved little other than making the protests more militant. Students have been blinded and mutilated by the cops rubber bullets and stun grenades. Over 6,000 (majority of whom are under 18) have been arrested, yet still they march and disrupt.

It is also very clear that these mobilisations are about much more than just the state of secondary education.

These protests are militantly antifascist. There is a very genuine fear that after 8 years of neoliberal misery, inflicted on the French people by Macron’s technocratic failures, the door is now open for fascist Le Pen at next year’s Presidential elections. For the youth of France this thought is utterly abhorrent.

They fully understand the real causes of their pain and their anti-racist instincts have been cemented by the behavior of the cops towards students of colour. Particularly in the poorer suburbs of the cities, like the banlieues of Paris. Many of them chant the chorus of antifascist anthem “Porcherie” by ’90s punk band Beruier Noir. A song written over a decade before most of them were born.

The other issue that dominates is Palestine. Generation Z care little for the billionaire owned outlets of the mainstream media. Their news comes from sources like Instagram where the ongoing livestreamed genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing of the West Bank has become a focus for the injustice they see everywhere coming from the “Epstein class.” Racism against French Muslims, particularly Algerians, has also played its part.

[. . .] It was clear that the incredible numbers seen in Paris and across France had brought the youth to a place where they had lost their fear and decided it was payback time for weeks of police brutality and a rotten system that is robbing them of their future. They fully understand how the broken economic model they endure is hurtling them towards a fascist dystopia full of social, economic and environmental ruin. Why the fuck should anyone be expected to behave themselves in such circumstances?

– Guy Smallman
via social media
October 17, 2026

The following photographs were taken on the streets of Paris yesterday (October 17, 2026) by Guy Smallman.

Here’s the second piece I’m sharing today. It’s written by Carmen Eckard who posted it earlier today on Facebook.

Something enormous is happening in France right now, and I don’t think Americans are paying nearly enough attention.

Yesterday, somewhere between 550,000 and 800,000 people took to the streets across France. Not for a concert. Not for a celebration. They’re furious about the cost of living, the condition of their schools, and a government they believe has stopped listening to ordinary people.

And here’s the part I find especially interesting. This whole movement started with high school students.

For weeks, French teenagers have been protesting overcrowded classrooms, crumbling school buildings, teacher shortages, and education cuts. They’ve blockaded schools and demanded better conditions. And instead of quietly going back to class, they’ve managed to ignite something much bigger.

Workers joined them. Labor unions joined them. And then members of France’s famous Yellow Vest movement, the people who brought the country to a standstill over fuel prices and economic inequality back in 2018, started showing up too.

Now you’ve got teenagers standing alongside people who are worried about putting food on the table, paying their electric bills, and surviving on their wages or pensions. Different generations, different problems, but a whole lot of shared frustration.

And yesterday it exploded.

There were demonstrations in roughly 110 locations across the country. In Paris, police used tear gas and water cannons as clashes broke out. Shops were looted. Cars burned. In Limoges, a historic city hall was set on fire. There was serious destruction in several other cities, too.

I want to be clear about something. Hundreds of thousands of people marched peacefully. The people setting buildings on fire and looting businesses were not representative of everyone who came out to protest. You can support the right to protest and still recognize that destroying public buildings and terrorizing people isn’t helping anybody.

But I also think it would be a mistake to let the images of burning cars become the entire story.

Because the story is that hundreds of thousands of people have reached a point where they believe their government isn’t responding to their needs. And it began with kids asking for decent schools.

Think about that for a minute.

Teenagers complained about the conditions in their classrooms, and their frustration connected with something that was already simmering throughout the country. Parents were frustrated. Workers were frustrated. Retirees were frustrated. And suddenly all those separate complaints became one enormous national movement. France’s government says approximately 550,000 people participated. Organizers say 800,000. Either way, that’s an extraordinary number of people.

President Emmanuel Macron has condemned the violence, and the government has promised to prosecute those responsible for the destruction. That’s understandable. But the bigger political problem isn’t going to disappear when the streets are cleaned up.

People still have to buy groceries. They still have to pay their bills. And those students still have to go back into the same classrooms that started all of this. I’ve always found it fascinating how often young people are the ones who finally force a society to confront problems adults have spent years tolerating.

And there’s something worth thinking about here in America, too. Not because our circumstances are identical to France’s, but because frustration over education, wages, inequality, and the cost of simply existing certainly isn’t unique to the French.

It’s remarkable how many enormous political movements begin with ordinary people asking for things that really shouldn’t be extraordinary.

A decent education. A livable wage. Affordable necessities. A government that listens.

France is showing us what can happen when enough people decide they’ve had enough. Whether its leaders respond to the underlying problems, or simply to the unrest, is going to matter a great deal.

– Carmen Eckard
via social media
October 17, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
French High School Students Lead Mass Protests Over School Funding, Inequality; Thousands Arrested – Democracy Now! (October 6, 2026).
“Savagery”: Horrific Injuries as French Police Crack Down on Nationwide Student Protests – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams (October 6, 2026).
“This Is Going Global”: Anti-Austerity Protests Spread From Spain and France to Chile, Belgium, and Beyond – Julia Conley (Common Dreams (October 8, 2026).
Tens of Thousands March in Solidarity with Students in France – Democracy Now! (October 14, 2026).
“The Government is Trembling”: Protests Erupt in France, Spreading to 140 Cities – Brad Reed (Common Dreams (October 17, 2026).
Mass Mobilisation of Youth and “Yellow Vests” Shakes the French Government – World Socialist Web Site (October 18, 2026).
Forcible Eviction of 87-Year-Old Madrid Woman Sparks Protest Encampment Over Spain’s Housing Crisis – Democracy Now! (September 28, 2026).

UPDATES: French Government Cracks Down on Mass Protests over Cost of Living and Education Cuts; 2,400+ Arrested – Democracy Now! (October 19, 2026).
France Imposes Partial Curfews in Several Cities, Including Parts of Paris – Jon Henley (The Guardian, October 19, 2026).
Student Protests in Albania Rattle Government – Markus Salzmann (World Socialist Web Site, October 19, 2026).
The Colonizer’s House Is on Fire: Europe’s Uprisings and the American Right’s Propaganda Lies – Stacey Patton (Dr Stacey Patton, October 19, 2026).
The Specter of Lepenism Looms Over France’s Social Crisis – Harrison Stetler and June Loper (The Nation, October 19, 2026).
Flamingo Revolution: Albania Protests Escalate over Corruption and Kushner/Trump Luxury Resort – Democracy Now! (October 21, 2026).
The Global Rebellion of Youth and Workers and the War Frenzy of the Ruling Class – World Socialist Web Site (October 23, 2026).
French Protests Against Neoliberal Austerity, Colonialism, and White Supremacy: An Interview with Bouna Mbaye – Black Agenda Report (October 23, 2026).
Thousands March Across Europe Against Inequality and “For Young People’s Future” – Olivia Rosane (Common Dreams, October 24, 2026).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The Catalan Firefighters: Listeners of the “Discerning Voice” Within
• Balancing the Fire
• Hope in the Midst of Collapse
• Marianne Williamson on the Tenth Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street
• Christopher Hedges: Quote of the Day – October 1, 2011
• Rocking the Cradle of Power
• Jason Easley: Quote of the Day – October 2, 2011
• Something to Think About – November 30, 2011
• A Song and Challenge for 2012
• The End of the World As We Know It . . . and the Beginning As We Live It
• See the World!
• Discerning and Embodying Sacred Presence in Times of Violence and Strife
• Thoughts on Prayer in a “Summer of Strife”
• Resilience and Hope
• As the Last Walls Dissolve . . . Everything is Possible
• Threshold Musings

The Wild Reed

Thursday, October 22, 2026

“On to the General!”

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Vanessa and Franco

Quote of the Day

Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Omar El Akkad on How Gaza Has Exposed the Hypocrisy of the West

Monday, October 19, 2026

“Would I Compare Institutional and Economic Violence to a Burned-out Town Hall? . . . Never”

Sunday, October 18, 2026

Understanding What’s Going On in France

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