Remembering a Subversive Pop Singer

It’s the birthday today of the late, great British pop/soul vocalist Dusty Springfield (1939-1999). If still with us in this life, she would turn 86 today.

Dusty’s career spanned over three decades, and included numerous hits, including “I Only Want to Be With You,” “I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself,” “Little By Little,” “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me,” “I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten,” “The Look of Love,” “Son of a Preacher Man,” “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” (with the Pet Shop Boys), and “In Private.” She is widely regarded as one of greatest female vocalists of the twentieth century, with a solo career that began in 1963 and continued to 1995, four years before her death from breast cancer in 1999.

My interest in and admiration for Dusty is well documented here at The Wild Reed, most notably in Soul Deep, one of my very first posts.

Other previous posts worth investigating, especially if you’re new to Dusty, are Dusty Springfield: Queer Icon, which features an excerpt from Laurence Cole’s book, Dusty Springfield: In the Middle of Nowhere; Celebrating Dusty (2017), which features an excerpt from Patricia Juliana Smith’s insightful article on Dusty’s “camp masquerades”; Celebrating Dusty (2013), which features excerpts from Annie J. Randall’s book, Dusty!: Queen of the Postmods; Remembering Dusty, my 2009 tribute to Dusty on the tenth anniversary of her death; and Remembering Dusty, 20 Years On, my 2019 tribute on the twentieth anniversary of her death.

And, of course, off-site there’s my website dedicated to Dusty, Woman of Repute (currently only accessible through the Internet archive service, The Way Back Machine).

My website’s name is derived from Dusty’s 1990 album Reputation, and as I explain in Soul Deep, it was this album that introduced me not only to Dusty’s music but also to her life and journey – much of which resonated deeply with me. Indeed, my identification with aspects of Dusty’s journey played an important role in my coming out as a gay man.

Above: Dusty, amidst the flowing streams, standing stones and picturesque Celtic ruins of County Clare and the Galway coast for the making of the music video for “Roll Away,” a track from her last album, 1995’s A Very Fine Love. The liner notes of the 2016 2-disc expanded collector’s edition of A Very Fine Love include my reflections on this beautiful song, reflections which are also shared in the previous Wild Reed post, Time and the River.

In remembering and celebrating Dusty on the 86th anniversary of her birth, I share Ben Forrest’s appreciation of Dusty, an appreciation published earlier today at the Far Out website.

Musical history is chock full of hopeful artists who have been lured into the industry only to be chewed up and spat out. However, a select few artists remained unfettered by the aggression of the industry, staying true to themselves and their unwavering artistic aims. Dusty Springfield was one such figure, consistently dancing to the beat of her own drum and refusing to bend to the wants and desires of record company executives, even if her defiance caused her music career to nosedive.

Springfield burst onto the scene in 1963 with the release of her debut single “I Only Want to Be With You.” Although she had previously gained notoriety with The Lana Sisters and, subsequently, The Springfields, the peroxide-blonde revolutionary was always destined for stardom in her own right. Her early releases were typified by catchy pop songs and chart successes, but the vocalist soon exemplified her innate individuality.

As her discography progressed, the singer affirmed her defiance and individuality with tracks like “You Don’t Own Me,” with which her powerful voice denounced the popular patriarchal attitudes of the time. She was also an ardent supporter of Motown Records and the Black soul artists coming from America, who initially failed to gain much traction in the UK. What’s more, she staunchly opposed apartheid in South Africa, refusing to perform for segregated audiences and being kicked out of the nation as a result.

In other words, Dusty Springfield was a true original, driven by her own desires and attitudes rather than the allure of commercial success and record executives. This attitude served Springfield well until she was torn down in a joint effort by the music industry and the tabloid press. In 1970, she told The Evening Standard, “I know I’m perfectly as capable of being swayed by a girl as by a boy,” during an interview.

This apparent admission of bisexuality was akin to career suicide within the oppressive society of 1970s Britain. Although her brave discussion of sexuality had provided a sense of hope and representation for the LGBTQ+ community during a time in which homosexuals were treated abhorrently – homosexuality was only legalised in the UK in 1967 – it gave record company executives ample motivation to shelve Springfield’s recording career.

She continued to record material throughout the 1970s, but aside from a minor hit with “Spooky” in 1970, these recordings failed to gain much attention. As the vocalist recalled to Mojo in 1995, “I just plodded on making rather unsuccessful pop records in the States. Then I didn’t do it any more because I hated it.”

Explaining the reason for this lack of success, Springfield explained, “Every time I made a record, the company got bought by another company, and there was a new budget that I wasn’t part of.” Adding, “I thought, ‘If you’re going to buy this place out, giving my entire promotional budget to Yoko Ono, then I’m sorry, I don’t see the point. I’ll go and prune the roses. I’m not going to care so much that I destroy myself.’”

Continuing, Springfield shared, “I went with management that saw me as a ‘shan-toozie’, as Variety would have it, and I did the nightclub circuit. I pulled it off sometimes, but I was uncomfortable with it because it was . . . Vikki Carr. I didn’t have the stamina to do one night in Long Island, then the next you’re in Des Moines. Hats off to Engelbert if he wants to do it, fine, and he will always be well off.”

Springfield concluded, “But I am a maverick and will probably never be terribly well off. I get bored too fast.” Although her career during the 1970s might have been a sore subject for the vocalist, her unwillingness to conform to the industry’s expectations of her perfectly summarises why she was so important both as an artist and activist.

She might never have made the big bucks of her contemporaries, but the fact that she was urged back into music during the 1980s by the likes of Pet Shop Boys is reflective of her pioneering influence over future generations of musicians.

– Ben Forrest
Far Out
April 16, 2026

I conclude this special post by sharing two very different recordings by Dusty, both of which are from 1967 – “What’s It Gonna Be?” and “The Look of Love.” Both songs are highlighted in the accompanying excerpt from Lucy O’Brien’s book, Dusty: A Biography of Dusty Springfield.

Success often comes in unlikely quarters. Although “What’s It Gonna Be,” an uptempo orchestral soul number that foreshadowed The Three Degrees, flopped, it was picked up collectors on the Northern soul scene and disguised as an imported soul cut by “Patti Austin.” It became a northern cult hit, featured regularly on the playlist at Britain’s top all-nighter, The Torch in Stoke-on-Trent. Due to its unavailability, “What’s It Gonna Be?” was heavily bootlegged until [Dusty’s record company] Philips reissued it in 1974 when the Northern soul scene was briefly the toast of the London media.

Dusty was adept at moving from one end of the pop spectrum to the other. As well as making cult soul hits, she was also heard on mainstream movie soundtracks. In America, for instance, she released the evocative, laid-back Bacharach composition “The Look of Love” for the soundtrack to spoof James Bond movie Casino Royale. When it was released, “The Look of Love” was a U.S. hit and has since become one of her most popular and oft-played songs.

– Lucy O’Brien
Excerpted from Dusty: A Biography of Dusty Springfield
(Revised and Updated Edition)
Michael O’Mara Books Ltd., 2019
p. 117-118

For more of Dusty at The Wild Reed, see:
• Soul Deep
• Dusty Springfield: Queer Icon
• Remembering Dusty Springfield’s “Daring” 1979 Gay-Affirming Song
• Remembering Dusty, 25 Years On
• Remembering Dusty, 20 Years On
• Remembering and Celebrating Dusty – 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019
• Remembering Dusty (2018)
• Celebrating Dusty (2017)
• Celebrating Dusty (2013)
• Remembering Dusty (2009)
• Remembering Dusty – 14 Years On
• Remembering Dusty – 11 Years On
• The Other “Born This Way”
• Time and the River
• Remembering a Great Soul Singer
• A Song and Challenge for 2012
• The Sound of Two Decades Colliding
• Home to Myself

“This Is How Democracy Unravels”

The Trump administration’s handling (or, rather, mishandling) of the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia was very much in the news today.

A citizen of El Salvador, Abrego Garcia [right] was illegally deported from the United States on March 15, 2025, in what the Trump administration called “an administrative error.” He was then imprisoned without trial in the maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), despite never having been charged with or convicted of a crime in either country. His lawyers argue that his imprisonment is part of the agreement to jail U.S. deportees there in exchange for payment. The administration has defended the deportation in the press by accusing Abrego Garcia of membership in the MS-13 gang, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, though without presenting any evidence.

Abrego Garcia illegally immigrated to the U.S. in 2011 at the age of 16. He had lived and worked in the country legally since 2019, when an immigration judge granted him “withholding of removal” status, a rare alternative to asylum, over the threat to his life from gang violence in El Salvador if deported. At the time of his deportation in 2025, he was living in Maryland with his wife and child, both American citizens, and reporting to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) annually.

On April 10, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court found Abrego Garcia’s removal to El Salvador to be illegal. The court rejected the administration’s defense that they had no jurisdiction over El Salvador to bring him back, with Justice Sotomayor noting that the argument implied the government “could deport and incarcerate any person, including U.S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene.”

The Supreme Court required the U.S. to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release, but stopped short of a lower court’s order to both “facilitate and effectuate” his return. The administration took this to mean that it has no obligation to arrange for Abrego Garcia’s return and can fulfill its obligation to “facilitate” his release by admitting him into the U.S. and providing a plane if El Salvador chooses to release him, which President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele said today he refuses to do.

Following are five commentaries – the first four are specfic to the Abrego Garcia case while the fifth places this case within the broader context of the Trump administration’s “wrecking ball” approach “not just to federal agencies, but to the Bill of Rights.”

______________________

April 14, 2025, will be recognized as a monumental day in U.S. history because this is the day that President Donald Trump sent a clear message to the nation: There is no rule of law in the United States.

The U.S. government has conceded that Abrego Garcia was rounded up and shipped off with other immigrants to El Salvador by mistake. Yet Trump said he would do nothing to comply with the Order of the Supreme Court and the District Court, to return this man for a hearing here.

Attorney General Pam Bondi chimed in with a lie, that Garcia was a criminal, which the federal court here found was not true. Secretary Marco Rubio said the Court had no right to interpret the law, which it does. Then, Trump added that he wanted to send American citizens to the death prison in El Salvador.

Conservative jurist, Michael Luttig, says we now live in a dictatorship. Trump says he does not have to obey the law. And the worse part is that his entire administration, unlike the first time, are co-conspirators.

But the very worst part is that there are college-educated people who will read this and see what is happening, and will still defend this Nazi bullshit.

– Gerald Weaver
via social media
April 14, 2025

Monday’s scene was almost too grotesque to satirize. Pam Bondi – now Attorney General – perched on a couch beside Marco Rubio, Kristi Noem, and Stephen Miller, who seemed to be playing a racist ventriloquist dummy of himself. In the center sat Trump, gold chair, legs spread, double finger guns locked and loaded.

And next to him – tieless, smug, and freshly deodorized with American legitimacy – was Nayib Bukele, the Salvadoran autocrat who once called himself the “world’s coolest dictator.” He seemed to think this was all hilarious.

When asked whether he’d return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., Bukele responded: “How can I return him to the United States? Like if I smuggle him into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it.”

Let’s be clear: Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a legal U.S. resident. A federal judge ruled he should not be deported. The Supreme Court said he must be returned. And yet, Bukele publicly mocked the idea of complying – from inside the goddamn White House.

And Trump just smiled.

. . . Pam Bondi, channeling the legal brilliance of a bathmat, declared: “If El Salvador . . . wanted to return him, we would facilitate it. That’s up to El Salvador.”

That’s not what the Supreme Court said. That’s not what the law says. That’s not how facilitate works. But this administration treats the Constitution like a set of buffet suggestions – take what you want, throw out the rest, then complain that the Supreme Court is being “confusing.”

Marco Rubio whined: “No court in the United States has a right to conduct a foreign policy of the United States.”

That’s not foreign policy, senator. That’s compliance with a federal ruling. It’s the bare minimum expected in a democracy. But maybe Rubio got confused – maybe he thought the press conference was being held in Bukele’s Oval Office.

Meanwhile, Stephen Miller barked to reporters: “People like CNN want foreign terrorists in the country who kidnap women and children.”

Garcia has never been charged with terrorism. A federal judge ruled that there is no credible evidence tying him to MS-13. But Stephen Miller doesn’t care. Because fear is the product. Cruelty is the policy. And reality is whatever they say it is.

. . . In the same meeting, Trump floated something even darker: deporting U.S. citizens. That’s not a typo. According to NBC News, Trump “mulls imprisoning U.S. citizens abroad: ‘Homegrowns are next’” – a statement so breathtakingly illegal that one law professor responded: “Pretty obviously illegal and unconstitutional.”

But that’s what Trump does. He throws Molotov cocktails into the rule of law and watches the cameras flicker. And while we’re all busy reacting, Kilmar Abrego Garcia remains in a cell, trapped in the concrete belly of a prison we are literally paying to operate.

This is beyond contempt of court.

It’s contempt of the Constitution. Contempt of Congress. Contempt of truth, justice, and the very idea of America.

– Excerpted from "State-Sponsored Kidnapping
and the Gold-Trimmed Shrug
Closer to the Edge
April 15, 2025

This is not a prison. This is a concentration camp and the government of the United States is paying El Salvador’s President millions of dollars to run it and house deportees from the US who have been afforded no due process in their journey there. The administration and Congress are gleeful and boastful about their power to circumvent all processes of American and international law to send prisoners there and lose them. The Lower Courts and the legal establishment are tentative and afraid to challenge this, and the Supreme Court makes only tentative, performative and ineffectual gestures to absolve themselves of responsibility without doing anything effective to arrest the Executive’s crimes against the Constitution.

Today, the President of the U.S. urged El Salvador to build more concentration camps, and clearly stated his intentions – to send United States citizens there.

There is no loyalty to the Constitution left. The oaths to the Constitution they all swore have as much worth as goat dung in their mouths. The Bill of Rights has been shredded, and we are not on a slippery slope – we are arriving at its base.

– David Muir
via social media
April 14, 2025

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was a Maryland resident. A husband. A father. A man the courts explicitly ordered could not be deported. But Donald Trump did it anyway.

Now he’s gone.

The Supreme Court ruled that Abrego Garcia must be returned to the United States. That’s not optional. It’s the law. And now, at a staged Oval Office event, President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador sat beside Trump and smirked: “How can I return him to the United States? Am I going to smuggle him?” No. He’s not going to return him at all. Because – elephant in the room – the simplest explanation for El Salvador’s refusal to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court is the most horrifying one: Abrego Garcia is already dead.

That’s why they’re dodging. That’s why Trump is deferring. That’s why his team – Pam Bondi, Marco Rubio, Stephen Miller – is pretending this is a diplomatic inconvenience instead of a direct violation of a legal order. Because the United States government may have handed a man over to his killers.

And we paid for it.

Let’s talk about that $6 million. That money came from American taxpayers. Trump cut a backroom deal with Bukele to turn El Salvador into a human dumping ground – an offshore prison to house immigrants, gang suspects, asylum-seekers, and, now, wrongfully deported U.S. residents. That $6 million was blood money. It greased the wheels for mass deportation. It helped fill the cells. It helped silence the fallout.

Now one of those wrongfully deported men is missing. And the White House shrugs and says, “That’s up to El Salvador.”

No, it’s not.

That money bought influence. That deal bought leverage. And that ruling from the Supreme Court? It wasn’t a suggestion. It was a legal obligation. Trump doesn’t get to ignore the law just because he’d rather play dictator than president.

To be crystal clear – this is not about national security. It’s not about crime. Kilmar Abrego Garcia wasn’t a threat. He was a man living in Maryland with his wife and child. He was denied asylum, yes, but was protected by a standing court order that recognized the danger of sending him back. Trump’s team knew this. They did it anyway.

Now a government refuses to return him. And the president of the United States acts like his hands are tied. When they came up with the talking points together.

Trump is not just responsible. He is liable. This is abuse of power. This is obstruction of justice. This is cruel, intentional, and impeachable.

Congress: do your job. Draft the articles today.

– Beth McDonnell
“Trump Broke the Law. Now a Man Is Missing.
This Is Recipe for Impeachment”
BethMcDonnell.substack.com/
April 14, 2025

What happens when the Constitution becomes optional? When checks no longer check, and balances collapse – not all at once, but through a thousand acts of cowardice? When rights become conditional – granted to the loyal, denied to everyone else?

We’re not theorizing. We’re living it.

Trump’s second term isn’t governance – it’s performance. His campaign wasn’t a platform. It was a ritual. A mass spectacle of grievance, loyalty, and vengeance. A public vow to purge, punish, and consolidate. And while his base clings to the Second Amendment as a shield against tyranny, they ignore what every autocrat understands: the armed citizen isn’t a symbol of freedom – it’s a threat. Trump doesn’t want militias. He wants obedience. And if that falters, it won’t be Democrats at your door – it’ll be his enforcers, badges optional.

Now in power again, Trump is taking a wrecking ball not just to federal agencies, but to the Bill of Rights.

The First Amendment is being gutted. The press is “the enemy.” Journalists face threats and lawsuits. Public broadcasters are targeted. The goal isn’t just to silence dissent – it’s to shame and punish it. Speech is still “free,” but only if it flatters power.

Protest is no longer seen as participation – it’s treated as provocation. Demonstrators are surveilled, prosecuted, discredited. The state doesn’t need to silence everyone. It only needs to make people hesitate. When fear replaces speech, the work of repression is already done.

The Fourth Amendment? Gone in practice. Trump’s use of unidentified federal agents in unmarked vans to detain protestors wasn’t a misstep. It was a show of force. A message: we don’t need permission. We don’t need to explain.

Due process has been replaced by rituals of domination and cruelty. Family separation wasn’t a bureaucratic failure. It was a ritual display of power. Children were taken not to deter migrants, but to show what the state could do to those without voice. That same logic now drives mass deportations. It is made visible in the new detention centers being built on military bases. These are not just facilities. They are zones where a person’s legal rights are suspended – spaces of un-rights.

The Sixth Amendment is under siege. Trump mocks judges, threatens prosecutors, and undermines juries. Trials still take place, but justice is no longer the point. Verdicts have become performances, scripted to reward loyalty or punish enemies.

Cruelty is not a byproduct – it’s a strategy. Migrants held in freezing cells. Children on concrete floors, denied soap, medical care, even daylight. The system isn’t failing. It’s working exactly as intended. Pain is the message.

And the unpredictability? That too is the design. Like tyrants before him, Trump’s most chaotic decisions are not signs of instability – they’re tactics. Think of Caligula: a ruler whose violence was erratic, whose decrees were inconsistent, and whose punishments seemed arbitrary – yet all of it served a purpose. When law is unpredictable, fear becomes the only rule. In Trump’s America, legal chaos becomes political order, and cruelty becomes the choreography of control. The result is not confusion, but obedience.

Equal protection? Not for all. Trump casts the state as the protector of “real Americans” – and everyone else as a threat. Immigrants are “animals.” Protestors are “terrorists.” Opponents are “traitors.” Lines are drawn not by law, but by identity. Charlottesville wasn’t an accident. It was the blueprint.

Voting rights are being hollowed out. Trump spreads lies about fraud to justify real suppression. Campus polling stations are disappearing. Early voting is being cut. Laws target students, young people, and communities of color. The vote still exists. But it’s harder to reach. And easier to discard.

The Twenty-Fifth Amendment? Dead. After the January 6 attack, some Cabinet members considered removing him. He fired them. Now, no one dares.

And the insurrectionists? Pardoned. Not quietly, not regretfully, but proudly. Their violence wasn’t forgiven – it was validated. In Trump’s America, political violence isn’t punished. It’s rewarded.

Even the Twenty-Seventh Amendment is mocked. Trump turned public office into a private business. Foreign dignitaries booked rooms at his properties. The presidency became a loyalty program with luxury perks. Corruption isn’t hidden. It’s advertised.

This isn’t just a list of violations. It’s a transformation.

Trump has revived Schedule F to purge the civil service. He’s threatened to use the military against Americans. He governs by spectacle, fear, and revenge – not law.

This is how democracy unravels. Not in one blow, but through the repetition of small betrayals. A silencing here. A firing there. An agency shuttered. A right revoked. Until what once felt impossible becomes normal.

This isn’t just another presidency. It’s the construction of a regime.

And if we accept it – if we adjust, excuse, adapt – we won’t just lose an election.

We’ll lose the republic.

– James B. Greenberg
via social media
April 14, 2025

Related Off-site Links:
Do Not Be Silent at This Hour – Marianne Williamson (Transform, April 14, 2025).
The Trump Administration Says It Can’t Return Kilmar Abrego Garcia. That’s False – Ray Brescia (MSNBC, April 14, 2025).
The Two Tipping Points for When We Officially Become a Dictatorship Could Occur This Week – Robert Reich (RobertEeich.substack.com/, April 14, 2025).
“Full-Blown Constitutional Crisis” Deepens as Bukele Refuses to Release Maryland Resident – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, April 14, 2025).
The Dangerous Silence of Retired U.S. Presidents – Ralph Nader (CounterPunch, April 14, 2025).
Supreme Court Orders U.S. to “Facilitate” Return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador – Democracy Now! (April 11, 2025).
Vice President Vance Was Wrong: Maryland Father Accidentally Deported to El Salvador Isn’t “Convicted MS-13 Gang Member” – Grace Deng (Snopes, April 4, 2025).


UPDATES: Trump Weighs Expelling U.S. Citizens as Salvadoran President Says He Won’t Return Wrongfully Removed Man – Democracy Now! (April 15, 2025).
Yes, Trump Said El Salvador’s President Should Build More Prisons for “Homegrown” U.S. Criminals – Laerke Christensen (Snopes, April 15, 2025).
Senator Bernie Sanders Says World Just Witnessed New “Step Forward in Trump’s Move Toward Authoritarianism” – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, April 15, 2025).
There Will Be More Kilmar Abrego Garcias – Adrian Carrasquillo (The Bulwark, April 15, 2025).
The Next Person in a Cell With No Charges Could Be You – Thom Hartmann (Common Dreams, April 15, 2025).
Democrats Follow Van Hollen’s Lead, Planning El Salvador Trip to Bring Abrego Garcia Home – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, April 15, 2025).
As White House Doubles Down, Judge Launches Inquiry of Refusal to Return Kilmar Abrego Garcia – Jesica Corbett (Common Dreams, April 15, 2025).
Trump’s Playbook Is Viktor Orbán’s – Robert Reich (RobertReich.substack.com, April 15, 2025).
“Disappear Without Recourse”: Trump’s Defiance of a Court Order Means “Any American” Could Be Next – Russell Payne (Salon, April 16, 2025).
Judge Overseeing Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s Case Considers Contempt Charges for U.S. Officials – Democracy Now! (April 16, 2025).
“Enemy of the Constitution”: JD Vance Ripped for Defending End of Due Process – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, April 16, 2025).
“Take Him Anyway”: ICE Reportedly Knew They Had Wrong Man – and Now 19-Year-Old Is in El Salvador’s Mega-Prison – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, April 16, 2025).
Challenge to Trump Deportations Morphs Into a Battle Over Executive and Judicial Power – Amna Nawaz and Ian Couzens (PBS Newshour, April 16, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

2025
• Protesting Trump’s “Dystopian” Immigration Policies
• Ralph Nader: “We’re Heading Into the Most Serious Crisis in American History”
• “This Isn’t Politics Anymore. This Is Treason”
• “To Be a Rib in This Body of Our Country”
• “An Extremely Clever Ruse” by and for the Rich: Owen Jones on Elon Musk’s Coup
• “This Is Essentially Viktor Orbán’s Playbook”
• Timothy Snyder on Resisting the Oligarchs’ “Logic of Destruction”
• Marisa Kabas: “We’re Witnessing a Coup By an Unelected Billionaire Propped Up By a Felonious President”
• Signs of the Times: The 2025 People’s March
• Bishop Budde Confronts President Trump on His Anti-Trans and Anti-Immigrant Policies

2024
• International Migrants Day

2021
• “The Absolute Gall”

2019
• Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – January 8, 2019
• Honoring Óscar and Valeria
• Demanding Justice and Embodying Compassion for Separated Families
• Holden Shearer: Quote of the Day – July 12, 2019
• Marianne Williamson: “Today Is a Day of Shame”
• Let Us Be the Wise Ones They’re Waiting For

2018
• “What We’re Seeing Here Is a Tipping Point”
• Jeremy Scahill on the Historical Context of Trump’s “Pathologically Sick” Anti-Immigrant Agenda
• Something to Think About – November 27, 2018
• Christmas in America, 2018

2017
• “It Is All Connected”
• Stephen Mattson: Quote of the Day – January 25, 2017
• Historian: Trump's Immigration Ban is a “Shock Event” Orchestrated by Steve Bannon to Destabilize and Distract
• Something to Think About – January 29, 2017
• 2000+ Take to the Streets of Minneapolis to Express Solidarity with Immigrants and Refugees
• On Holocaust Remembrance Day, James Martin Labels as “Appalling” President Trump’s Plan to Demonize Immigrants
• A Prayer for Refugees

2016
• Progressive Perspectives on the Rise of Donald Trump
• Trump’s Playbook
• Progressive Perspectives on the Election of Donald Trump
• On International Human Rights Day, Saying "No" to Donald Trump and His Fascist Agenda

2015
• Rallying in Solidarity with the Refugees of Syria and the World
• Sanctuary for Gay Syrians Danny and Aamer

2012
• Something to Think About – June 25, 2012

2007
• Fasting, Praying, and Walking for Immigration Reform
• May Day 2007

Palm Sunday: A Sacred Paradox

Palm Sunday begins Holy Week as Christians commemorate Jesus entering Jerusalem in a sacred paradox – celebrated as a prophet, only to be slain days later as a victim of state execution.

As the U.S. confronts imperial domination schemes, we would do well to recall that Christ did not merely ride the donkey as a harmless, apolitical sage of peace. In Luke’s gospel account, Jesus overturns the tables of the moneychangers in the Temple immediately following the triumphal entry – forcefully condemning those who would conflate profit with holiness.

Later in Luke, Jesus boldly declares, “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 49:49).

Christ’s charge to set the world on fire with liberartory love applies equally today as we oppose contemporary systems of domination – colonization, white supremacy, queer erasure, genocide in Palestine, or mounting fascism in our own nation.

Our times demand courage, even amidst profound uncertainty. Only by drinking the cup Christ accepted, of joy mingled with pain, sorrow, and the prospect of death, can we hope to transform the world in his stead.

– Phillip Clark
via Facebook
April 13, 2025

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Holy Week (2020)
• Palm Sunday: “A Planned Political Demonstration”
• Adan Eriksen on the “Subversive Politics of Palm Sunday”
• Palm Sunday at the Chancery
• The Most Dangerous Kind of Rebel
• The Passion of Christ: Jesus Enters the City
• The Passion of Christ: Jesus Drives Out the Money Changers
• The “Incident” in the Temple
• Pasolini’s “Wrathful Christ”
• Jesus and Social Revolution – Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
• Jesus: The Upside-down Messiah
• Why Jesus is My Man
• Prayer of the Week – April 17, 2011
• Palm Sunday Around the World (2007)

Image: The Lumo Project.

The Theft of One’s Soul: Omar El Akkad on the “Lesser of Two Evils” Argument

The video below is one of the most powerful interviews I’ve ever seen. It’s nine minutes in duration and features author Omar El Akkad sharing with Chris Hedges his thoughts on the oft-heard argument for voting for the “lesser of two evils.”

It’s actually an excerpt from a lengthier interview focused on Omar’s latest book, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This . . . with the “this” being the Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza.

Here is how the book’s publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, describes Omar’s latest work:

On October 25, 2023, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.” This tweet has been viewed more than 10 million times.

As an immigrant who came to the West, El Akkad believed that it promised freedom. A place of justice for all. But in the past twenty years, reporting on the War on Terror, Ferguson, climate change, Black Lives Matter protests, and more, and watching the unmitigated slaughter in Gaza, El Akkad has come to the conclusion that much of what the West promises is a lie. That there will always be entire groups of human beings it has never intended to treat as fully human – not just Arabs or Muslims or immigrants, but whoever falls outside the boundaries of privilege. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is a chronicle of that painful realization, a moral grappling with what it means, as a citizen of the U.S., as a father, to carve out some sense of possibility in a time of carnage.

This is El Akkad’s nonfiction debut, his most raw and vulnerable work to date, a heartsick breakup letter with the West. It is a brilliant articulation of the same breakup we are watching all over the United States, in family rooms, on college campuses, on city streets; the consequences of this rupture are just beginning. This book is for all the people who want something better than what the West has served up. This is the book for our time.

I conclude this post with part of what Omar El Akkad said in a March 28 interview with David Murr of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Late Night Live show.

The mode [we’re told we] have to be operating in has to be pragmatic and to think in terms of "real politics" or however else you want to describe it. Yet when I’ve just seen a kid shot in the head, I can’t operate in that mode. It’s not so much that I disagree that being pragmatic can be at times effective, I just don’t know what remains effective after watching a kid get killed. That’s what it’s up against.

I know how the world works. I get it. But this isn’t that moment; it just isn’t. Because no matter what political or rhetorical device you throw at me, it is not going to compare to the weight and to the impact of watching a child get killed and knowing that . . . my tax dollars did that.

Related Off-site Links:
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).
“This Is Not a War – It’s a Genocide”: The Brutal Truth No One Wants to Admit – Ahmed Shihab-Eldin (Ahmed’s Perspective, March 22, 2025).
“Every Atrocity Imaginable”: Litany of Israeli War Crimes Continues – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, March 31, 2025).
Taxpayers Submit U.N. Report Charging U.S. Officials With Genocide in Gaza – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, April 7, 2025).
Israeli Troops Blow Whistle on War Crimes in Gaza “Kill Zone” – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, April 7, 2025).
The Dead Children We Must See – Jay Caspian Kang (The New Yorker, April 7, 2023).


UPDATES: Trump Hosts Netanyahu at White House, Reiterates Plan to Expel Palestinians from Gaza – Democracy Now (April 8, 2025).
“Not in Our Name”: Protesters Decry U.S.-Backed Assault on Gaza – Democracy Now (April 8, 2025).
Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill 58 Palestinians in a Day, Including Journalist Ahmed Mansour – Democracy Now (April 8, 2025).


See also the following chronologically-ordered Wild Reed posts:
• October 7, 2023: “Nothing About Today is ‘Unprovoked’”
• Phyllis Bennis: “If We Are Serious About Ending This Spiraling Violence, We Need to Look at Root Causes”
• In the Midst of the “Great Unraveling,” a Visit to the Prayer Tree
• Eric Levitz: Quote of the Day – October 11, 2023
• Something to Think About – October 12, 2023
• Prayer of the Week – October 16, 2023
• Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
• More Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
• Ta-Nehisi Coates: Quote of the Day – November 2, 2023
• Jehad Abusalim: Quote of the Day – December 8, 2023
• Christmas 2023 – Reflections, Activism, Art, and Celebrations
• Sabrina Salvati: Quote of the Day – January 2, 2024
• Michael Fakhri: Quote of the Day – February 27, 2024
• Phyllis Bennis: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2024
• Josh Paul: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2024
• “A Genocide Has Been Normalized”
• “This Is a Genocidal Project”
• Outrage and Despair
• Naomi Klein’s Powerful Words on Israel’s and the West’s Ongoing Gaza Genocide
• Judith Butler on the Ongoing Student Protests Against the Gaza Genocide
• Kyle Kulinski: Quote of the Day – May 23, 2024
• Something to Think About – June 28, 2024
• Nina Turner: Quote of the Day – July 24, 2024
• Phyllis Bennis: “We Can Never Give Up Hope”
• John Cusack: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2024
• Progressive Perspectives on the Presidential Nomination of Kamala Harris
• Breaking Down Kamala Harris’s DNC Speech on Gaza
• Yousef Munayyer: Quote of the Day – August 30, 2024
• “It’s a Systematic Slaughter That We’re Funding”
• Protesting Weapons Manufacturer and Genocide Enabler General Dynamics
• Something to Think About – September 26, 2024
• “A Year of War Against Children”
• Anti-Genocide Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Reflects on the First Anniversary of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
• Liam Cosgrove Confronts U.S. State Department Spin Doctor Matthew Miller: “People Are Sick of the Bullshit”
• “This Is a Tragic, Heartbreaking Moment in the History of Humanity”
• Progressive Perspectives on Kamala Harris’ Faltering Presidential Campaign
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in the 2024 Presidential Election
• Hope and Courage – Christmas 2024
• Chris Hedges: “Israel Has No Intention of Halting Its Merry-Go-Round of Death”
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden Administration
• Caitlin Johnstone: Quote of the Day – January 22, 2025
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – January 30, 2025
• The Only Difference
• Progressive Perspectives on Cory Booker’s Marathon Speech
• Silence on Gaza Genocide Is “More Than a Mere Moral Abdication; It Is Lethal”

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “The Mistreatment and Discrimination Against Palestinians Is Not Unprecedented. It’s Baked Into the Foundation of the Political System in Israel”
• Progressive Perspectives on the Ongoing Israeli-Palestinian “Nightmare” (2021)
• Something to Think About – July 29, 2018
• Noura Erakat: Quote of the Day – May 15, 2018
• For Some Jews, Israel’s Treatment of Palestinians is Yet Another Jewish Tragedy
• Remembering the Six-Day War and Its Ongoing Aftermath
• David Norris: Quote of the Day – August 12, 2014

Last Days in Guruk

Australian Sojourn – February-April 2025 • Part 11

After the trip that Mum and I made to our hometown of Gunnedah, I spent the last week of my Australian sojourn with Mum in Guruk (aka Port Macquarie), her home since 2002. During this time I was sure to swim in the sea as often as I could as I love that experience so much.

Mum and I also had a lovely little visit to the nearby town of Wauchope this past Friday; and at different times we lunched with her friends and attended with them the Wednesday Trivia Night at the Port Macquarie Golf Club.

At night, Mum and I watched TV shows like Inspector George Gently and Vera, along with segments of Democracy Now! and interviews on YouTube featuring entertainment figures of the past who we still admire (Lauren Becall, Audrey Hepburn, Karen Carpenter, Rachel Roberts, Yootha Joyce, and Kenneth Williams).

Earlier today we had a lovely lunch at West Port with my younger brother and his family and with Mum's niece (my cousin) and her spouse who had driven up from their home in Raymond Terrance. It was a very special gathering.

I leave on the train tomorrow for Sydney and then fly out Tuesday back to Minneapolis via San Francisco.

Above and below: Mum with her wonderful circle of Port Macquarie friends.

Above, right and below: Mum and I in Wauchope (pronounced war-hope) – Friday, March 29, 2025.

Notes Wikipedia:

The town of Wauchope is inland on the Hastings River and the Oxley Highway 19 km (12 mi) west of Port Macquarie. The town is 383 km (238 mi) north of the state capital Sydney.

Wauchope is the location of Timbertown, a popular heritage theme park inspired by the logging industry that formed the basis for Wauchope's early economy and prosperity. The town has a population of approximately 7,500 (as of 2006 – including King Creek and Redbank). It has also played an important role in the Hastings Valley dairy industry.

The Birpai (also known as Birrbay) people have lived in this area for more than 40,000 years.

By 1828 a number of land grants had been made along the Hastings River. It was not until 1836 that the village of Wauchope first came into existence. . . . The township is set out along the southern bank of the Hastings River with the back drop of Bago Mountain further south.
The main street is High Street (a small section of the Oxley Highway), running generally westward through the town after coming east from Port Macquarie and across the North Coast railway line. The main street includes the Co-op general store (previously Parkers) and a number of smaller businesses and local bank branches. At the corner of Hastings Street is the local post office. Further up the main street is the town clock, a legacy of the days the town was the centre of the Hastings Shire local government area.

. . . Further west is Timbertown, on the edge of large tracts of forestry land leading into the Bago Mountain area. East of the main shopping area is the railway line from Sydney.

Above and below: Lots of cool murals in Wauchope.

Above and below: Shelly Beach in Port Macquarie, where I swam in the mornings (and sometimes in the afternoons) as often as I could.

Above and below: Guruk vignettes.

Above and below: Family time in Guruk.

Above: A Guruk self portrait – Thursday, March 27, 2025.


NEXT: Sydney

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Last Days in Australia (2024)
• Family Time in Melbourne, Guruk, and Gunnedah (2024)
• Last Days in Australia (2023)
• Return to Guruk (2019)
• Family Time in Guruk . . . and Glimpses of Somaliland (2019)
• Guruk Sunrise (2017)
• Guruk Seascapes, from Dawn to Dusk (2017)
• Return to Guruk (2017)
• Last Days in Australia (2017)
• Port Macquarie (2016)
• Port Macquarie, Wingham, and Ellenborough Falls (2015)
• Port Macquarie Days (2014)
• Christmas in Australia (2010)
• Town Beach (2010)
• Swallows Ledge (2009)
• Port Macquarie (2008)
• Everglades Exhibition (2007)
• On Sacred Ground

Australia Sojourn 2025:
• Return to the Great South Land
• Heavy Seas and Grey Skies
• In Birpai Country
• Journeying South
• Goulburn
• Fairy Bower Falls
• Melbourne
• Where We Belong
• Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast
• Gunnedah

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Silence on Gaza Genocide Is “More Than a Mere Moral Abdication; It Is Lethal”

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad is Associate Editor at New Lines magazine and a Senior Lecturer and Director of Journalism at the University of Essex in the U.K.

As a progressive, I share Ahmad’s critique of the “moral cowardice and political myopia” of many American liberals when it comes to the Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. He voiced this critque in the following piece posted yesterday on social media.

___________________

Have you noticed how many American liberals see Gaza as a distraction from the “real” issues? Beyond a handful, no one talks about it. For 17 months their country has provided moral and material support to fascists perpetrating a genocide. Over $20 billion in arms, including 2000 lbs bombs, and more vetoes since 1982 than those cast by all other members of the security council combined. And yet there is no sense of responsibility, and expressions of sympathy and regret are rare.

This is a combination of both moral cowardice and political myopia. Since Gazan lives matter little to most Americans, let’s take stock of the ways this is impacting the things Americans do care about.

1. Freedom of expression in the US is at serious risk because of an organised effort to suppress speech critical of Israel. It started with hysteria about campus protests, attempts by a billionaires’ cartel led by Bill Ackman to threaten universities, pressure on institutions to use police to suppress campus protests, to arresting students based on tip-offs from the extremist Betar. As long as this was about Gaza, most people didn’t care. But with the change of government, and with a new position on Ukraine, we have already seen Columbia advising students not to speak up on Ukraine, and at least one pro-Ukraine, anti-Putin Russian academic has been arrested by ICE and faces deportation.

2. In the last election, U.S. democracy was at stake. The Democratic Party needed every vote. It’s base, especially the younger demographic, overwhelmingly opposes Israel’s actions in Gaza. They are also firmly opposed to supplying more arms for genocide. In at least one battleground state, Gaza was the leading issue. Yet, the Democratic Party leadership went out of its way to alienate its own base. Among traditional Democratic voters who sat out this election, Gaza was the leading concern. And yet, Democrats seem to have learned nothing from the experience. Chuck Schumer gave a statement supporting Trump’s actions to deport residents who “broke the law” (he was speaking in reference to Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who hadn’t broken any laws). Cory Booker meanwhile defied international law to host the wanted war criminal Yoav Gallant. Booker was hailed for a long filibuster during which he did not mention Gaza once.

3. Rule of law is being undermined both nationally and internationally on one hand to punish critics of Israel at home and on the other to protect Israeli war criminals abroad. But what started with Israel’s critics has already been expanded to people who might have any kind of criticism of the current regime. And the U.S. has lost all standing internationally on question of democracy, human rights, free expression, arbitrary detention.

4. Across the Middle East and even countries like India, the U.S. has never been more unpopular. Last year I took a group of Indian students for coffee at our campus cafe, and most of them refused to drink because the cafe is now a Starbucks franchise. They said it was an act of solidarity with Gaza. Even among Syrians, who were unusual in having a mostly positive view of the U.S., there is now deep revulsion. All illusions about the U.S. in particular and the west in general have evaporated. And to the extent there is still some positive feeling left, it is because of the very people American media has demonised: the students, the few dissident artists and writers, and rare politicians like Bernie Sanders.

5. Every 2000 lbs bomb dropped in a place with civilians is a massacre, let alone a place as densely populated as Gaza. The U.S. taxpayer has been supplying them for 17 months, with one or more major massacres EACH DAY. Israel dropped 600 of them within the first 40 days of its assault in Gaza alone. Your silence is more than a mere moral abdication; it is lethal.

– Muhammad Idrees Ahmad
via social media
April 5, 2025

– Source

Related Off-site Links:
“Every Atrocity Imaginable”: Litany of Israeli War Crimes Continues – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, March 31, 2025).
“This Is Not a War – It’s a Genocide”: The Brutal Truth No One Wants to Admit – Ahmed Shihab-Eldin (Ahmed’s Perspective, March 22, 2025).


UPDATES: Journalist Burned Alive in Tent Strike Among Scores of Gazans Killed by Israeli Forces – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, April 7, 2025).
CAIR Calls on U.S. Media to Air Video of Journalists Burning Alive After Israeli Tent Bombing – Council on American-Islamic Relations (April 7, 2025).
Taxpayers Submit U.N. Report Charging U.S. Officials With Genocide in Gaza – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, April 7, 2025).
Israeli Troops Blow Whistle on War Crimes in Gaza “Kill Zone” – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, April 7, 2025).
Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill 58 Palestinians in a Day, Including Journalist Ahmed Mansour – Democracy Now (April 8, 2025).
Trump Hosts Netanyahu at White House, Reiterates Plan to Expel Palestinians from Gaza – Democracy Now (April 8, 2025).
“Not in Our Name”: Protesters Decry U.S.-Backed Assault on Gaza – Democracy Now (April 8, 2025).
Israel Preparing to Seize Ethnically Cleansed City of Rafah as Part of Permanent Buffer Zone – Bret Wilkins (Common Dreams, April 9, 2025).
Deepening Hunger in Gaza as Israel’s Illegal Blockade Stretches Through Sixth Week – Democracy Now (April 10, 2025).
Israel Kills at Least 35 People in Shuja’iyya Attack as Israeli Forces Prepare to Seize Rafah – Democracy Now (April 10, 2025).
How Far Can Israel Go? An Interview with Max Blumenthal – Sabrina Salvati (Sabby Sabs, April 10, 2025).


See also the following chronologically-ordered Wild Reed posts:
• October 7, 2023: “Nothing About Today is ‘Unprovoked’”
• Phyllis Bennis: “If We Are Serious About Ending This Spiraling Violence, We Need to Look at Root Causes”
• In the Midst of the “Great Unraveling,” a Visit to the Prayer Tree
• Eric Levitz: Quote of the Day – October 11, 2023
• Something to Think About – October 12, 2023
• Prayer of the Week – October 16, 2023
• Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
• More Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
• Ta-Nehisi Coates: Quote of the Day – November 2, 2023
• Jehad Abusalim: Quote of the Day – December 8, 2023
• Christmas 2023 – Reflections, Activism, Art, and Celebrations
• Sabrina Salvati: Quote of the Day – January 2, 2024
• Michael Fakhri: Quote of the Day – February 27, 2024
• Phyllis Bennis: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2024
• Josh Paul: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2024
• “A Genocide Has Been Normalized”
• “This Is a Genocidal Project”
• Outrage and Despair
• Naomi Klein’s Powerful Words on Israel’s and the West’s Ongoing Gaza Genocide
• Judith Butler on the Ongoing Student Protests Against the Gaza Genocide
• Kyle Kulinski: Quote of the Day – May 23, 2024
• Something to Think About – June 28, 2024
• Nina Turner: Quote of the Day – July 24, 2024
• Phyllis Bennis: “We Can Never Give Up Hope”
• John Cusack: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2024
• Progressive Perspectives on the Presidential Nomination of Kamala Harris
• Breaking Down Kamala Harris’s DNC Speech on Gaza
• Yousef Munayyer: Quote of the Day – August 30, 2024
• “It’s a Systematic Slaughter That We’re Funding”
• Protesting Weapons Manufacturer and Genocide Enabler General Dynamics
• Something to Think About – September 26, 2024
• “A Year of War Against Children”
• Anti-Genocide Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Reflects on the First Anniversary of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
• Liam Cosgrove Confronts U.S. State Department Spin Doctor Matthew Miller: “People Are Sick of the Bullshit”
• “This Is a Tragic, Heartbreaking Moment in the History of Humanity”
• Progressive Perspectives on Kamala Harris’ Faltering Presidential Campaign
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in the 2024 Presidential Election
• Hope and Courage – Christmas 2024
• Chris Hedges: “Israel Has No Intention of Halting Its Merry-Go-Round of Death”
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden Administration
• Caitlin Johnstone: Quote of the Day – January 22, 2025
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – January 30, 2025
• The Only Difference
• Progressive Perspectives on Cory Booker’s Marathon Speech


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “The Mistreatment and Discrimination Against Palestinians Is Not Unprecedented. It’s Baked Into the Foundation of the Political System in Israel”
• Progressive Perspectives on the Ongoing Israeli-Palestinian “Nightmare” (2021)
• Something to Think About – July 29, 2018
• Noura Erakat: Quote of the Day – May 15, 2018
• For Some Jews, Israel’s Treatment of Palestinians is Yet Another Jewish Tragedy
• Remembering the Six-Day War and Its Ongoing Aftermath
• David Norris: Quote of the Day – August 12, 2014