Top Stories
Stories in The Swamp that you’ll love, handpicked by our team.
Las Vegas Attacks
I wasn’t going to post this, but with the Las Vegas attacks earlier this week, I want to add my thoughts, just as I did with Manchester. I was going to talk about gun control and the Second Amendment of the right to bare arms, but although I have my views on the matter I feel that they are ignorant at a time like this. Arguing about the right to own a gun is not helping the people who were injured or the families who have lost loved ones in this vicious and cowardly terrorist attack.
Reanne KingdonPublished 7 years ago in The SwampDear Donald, Why So Sovereign?
Dear Donald, I'm writing you to discuss the speech you gave in front the United Nations General Assembly. I'm not too pleased with what I heard from you, and many others aren't either.
Chelsea KendrickPublished 7 years ago in The SwampCorrupt the Youth
This essay does not intend to add to the thousands of think-pieces on Donald Trump's profound unfitness of the Office of the Presidency on the basis of his politics, for it is clear that the subjectivity surrounding the definition of “unfitness” has rendered this line of argumentation useless for those not already convinced of its validity. For 60-odd million Americans, Trump's attitudes do not qualify as unfit, and I will leave it to others to rip the hair from their own scalps as they shout hollowly, but how do you not get it?! The disbelief that the other side of the political aisle could possibly believe whatever lunacies they hold true is based on the presumption that one's own core values—whether they inclusivity and fairness on the left, or security and stability on the right—be intuited just as readily in the hearts of their opponents, and it is this incredulity that has led to so many argumentative stalemates among the Public. All of our moral-political decisions stem from these core values, and to assume that everyone shares core values is to have stopped discussion before it has begun. Therefore, I will not argue with either the right or the left, because in the present case it does not matter—this administration has launched an attack on the truth itself, a concept without which "left" and "right," along with most everything else, is mostly meaningless.
Is Trump At It Again?
In my previous article here on Vocal dealing with Trump, I talked about why he didn’t seem to fit the job in my opinion. As time has gone on, it seems like I’m becoming right.
Jared RimerPublished 7 years ago in The SwampIndian Guides
A truly moral nation, wishing to leave as its legacy the foundational principles and guiding ideals of freedom, fairness, justice, responsibility, and love and regard for future generations, must fully own the sins of its past and bend over backward to rectify crimes against humanity, which have too often been fueled by the American government’s unlawful interest in favoring the greed of a master population over the survival and viability of the oppressed peoples from whom its power was unlawfully derived. Particularly victimized have been this continent’s and nation’s First Peoples. As the majority of Americans continue to be beneficiaries of unconscionable acts of brutality, malice, racism, religious bigotry, theft, and other wanton acts of avarice against First Peoples, it is incumbent upon us and future generations to show the moral courage, stamina, sound judgment and wisdom the generations before us abdicated, for the evils exist not only in the past, but much as our own continued benefits from the crimes and privations of genocide sustain us, so do those crimes and privations continue to inflict undue suffering upon the most marginalized, impoverished, and vulnerable among us—a people so marginalized, indeed, that even the most well-meaning of liberals, rejecting the overt and cynical racism of President Trump’s brand of immigration reform, rally to the cry, “We’re all immigrants!” — seemingly or happily oblivious to the reality that some 5.2 million of us are not.
Padma ThornlyrePublished 7 years ago in The SwampFor Those Who "Don't See Color"
Welcome to your alternate universe, where up is down and down is hate. It would be ignorant of me to not touch on this particular subject, especially considering what's happening in the United States. From "building a wall" to the immigration ban, it seems that the theme for 2017 is white power. Where Democracy once reigned, some countries like Greece or Hungary are now reveling in what they call "nationalism" but we all know it by its old name: fascism. It is now seen as freedom of expression to be outwardly hateful to other human beings based solely on the fact that some people cannot accept the fact that the landscape of the world is now changing. Welcome to 2017, where the need for a Martin Luther King or Gandhi has never felt more needed than now...
Claire BeauvoirPublished 7 years ago in The SwampI Was at the #PhoenixProtests.
We wore anti-Nazi "45" shirts. We were turned away from the doors of the convention center for our shirts. The guy said, "we have the right to refuse anybody from entering the rally," but we also heard him say, "yeah, not with those shirts."
Luis RamosPublished 7 years ago in The SwampWhy You Should Remove My Ancestor's Statue… And All the Other Confederate Monuments
My ancestor was Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, the Pathfinder of the Seas. You may have never heard of him, but he is buried between presidents James Monroe and John Tyler at the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA.
Justin @ VocalPublished 7 years ago in The SwampLet Teenagers Be Vocal
I'm outspoken. I kind of always have been, often finding my voice in political movements and social justice, always standing up for what I believe is right.
Kendall WisniewskiPublished 7 years ago in The SwampTrump Can't Handle The Truth
In the television show Whose Line Is It Anyway? "Everything's made up and the points don't matter." It almost sounds like President Trump's White House, doesn't it?
Christina St-JeanPublished 7 years ago in The SwampDear Donald: It's Not Always About You
Mr. Trump; When you are already holding the top job in the United States, you shouldn't need to keep campaigning, and especially not with children.
Christina St-JeanPublished 7 years ago in The SwampAppreciate Not Appropriate!
EXTRA! EXTRA!! DO NOT APPROPRIATE MINORITY CULTURE!!! Ladies and gentlemen, Boys and girls, White people. I have heard a lot of bullshit in my life on why culture vultures (people who steal from other cultures) always appropriate the cultures of minority groups (like black, Latina, Native American cultures etc.) and believe me, it's a lot of bullshit (my next article will talk about one of them). On the other hand, I've had a lot of people (who happen to be white) ask me how they can appreciate rather than appropriate culture. My white colleagues often tell me that they listen to rap music and enjoy it very much (I don't know why they feel the need to tell me but...okay). The follow up is often a question asking me if they are appropriating black culture just by listening to rap music. First, the answer is no. Second, my humble self would like to give you some tips on how to appreciate rather than appropriate minority cultures.
PHILLY THE AFRICANAPublished 7 years ago in The Swamp