All this talk of “implosion” has delivered me on 6:30 Sunday morning, fresh out of the hospital, up two ladders and on top of a downtown roof. It is 23 degrees. The implosion of the universally hated Civic Center had better be good. I’m a big fan of controlled demolition and a devotee of legendary […]
peter eichenberger
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The second Battle of New Orleans
Call it the Second Battle of New Orleans. In the first one, fought 191 years ago this week, a ragtag conglomeration of pirates, militia, frontiersmen, Indians and free blacks under the command of Gen. Andrew Jackson beat a British army fresh off defeating Napoleon and determined to win America back for the crown. In this […]
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In memoriam: Meg Perry
In a cheapened world where the word “hero” is tossed around like a used paper cup, Meg Perry was the real thing. I met Meg while I was in the Gulf Coast disaster region. She was one of the many volunteers who made a personal decision to put her life in Portland, Maine, on hold, […]
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Bush–and all of us–on trial
“The American public needs to understand we’re talking about rape and murder here. We’re not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience.” –Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are […]
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More questions than answers in autopsy
One night, an acquaintance and I, out hunting something folks really shouldn’t fool with, happened to be pulled over by one of Raleigh’s finest–something about bad lights in a neighborhood that sooooo wasn’t the one we lived in. Second time the officer returned to get me out of the car, when he leaned in to […]
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When protesters show, cops lock the doors
You won’t find Rosalynn Place on most maps. The new out-of-the-box Habitat for Humanity neighborhood exists in a nether world off of an unpaved section of Rose Street in Southeast Raleigh, a tidy assemblage of modest, reasonably sized houses for working families trying out a small, sensibly scaled version of the American Dream. Rosalynn Place’s […]
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Anarchy in NOLA
Anarchy in NOLA Touchdown in New Orleans. After losing our whole load and camp to that damned Charlie Gray, we pieced together a diminished, ragged operation: a quarter ton of supplies, four semi-impoverished people, a couple of leaky tents and a raggedy-ass GMC van we had to put some serious N’awluns hoo-doo on to make […]
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Seeing the march (and Bush) through disgusted GOP eyes
Saturday, 4 or so, I’m burrowed into the Old Ebbitt Grill at the corner of K and 15th streets. I’d walked for hours and needed to get off my feet. So now I’m drinking a Guinness, courtesy of this big, friendly guy, John, curious about my mouse ears, Mardi Gras beads and medieval Nikkormat. John […]
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Trucker diverts relief supplies
Wealth brings many friends, but a poor man’s friend deserts him. A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who pours out lies will not go free. Many curry favor with a ruler, and everyone is the friend of a man who gives gifts. —Proverbs 19:4-6 “That is the most un-Christian language I have […]
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A sign is painted and a community created
This is a tale of strangers brought together through chance and an external event in ways no one could foresee. It comes from a simple reality: People have more in common than they do differences–even people who would never have any reason or means to know each other. The first story is why we came […]