Bob Schwartz

May 7, 2026

James Baldwin—My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation

For this is your home, my friend, do not be driven from it; great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become….You know, and I know, that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon. We cannot be free until they are free.
—James Baldwin, My Dungeon Shook (1962)

James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time is one of the great works by one of America’s greatest writers. The book includes a brief essay entitled My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation. Written in 1962, before the Civil Rights Act and the forward but fitful evolution of American society, its power is undiminished in the face of unfinished business.

Excerpt:

Dear James:

I have begun this letter five times and torn it up five times. I keep seeing your face, which is also the face of your father and my brother. Like him, you are tough, dark, vulnerable, moody—with a very definite tendency to sound truculent because you want no one to think you are soft. You may be like your grandfather in this, I don’t know, but certainly both you and your father resemble him very much physically. Well, he is dead, he never saw you, and he had a terrible life; he was defeated long before he died because, at the bottom of his heart, he really believed what white people said about him….

I know what the world has done to my brother and how narrowly he has survived it. And I know, which is much worse, and this is the crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen, and for which neither I nor time nor history will ever forgive them, that they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it. One can be, indeed one must strive to become, tough and philosophical concerning destruction and death, for this is what most of mankind has been best at since we have heard of man. (But remember: most of mankind is not all of mankind.) But it is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime….

This innocent country set you down in a ghetto in which, in fact, it intended that you should perish. Let me spell out precisely what I mean by that, for the heart of the matter is here, and the root of my dispute with my country. You were born where you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were black and for no other reason. The limits of your ambition were, thus, expected to be set forever. You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence: you were expected to make peace with mediocrity. Wherever you have turned, James, in your short time on this earth, you have been told where you could go and what you could do (and how you could do it) and where you could live and whom you could marry. I know your countrymen do not agree with me about this, and I hear them saying, “You exaggerate.” They do not know Harlem, and I do. So do you. Take no one’s word for anything, including mine—but trust your experience. Know whence you came. If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go. The details and symbols of your life have been deliberately constructed to make you believe what white people say about you. Please try to remember that what they believe, as well as what they do and cause you to endure, does not testify to your inferiority but to their inhumanity and fear….

For this is your home, my friend, do not be driven from it; great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become. It will be hard, James, but you come from sturdy, peasant stock, men who picked cotton and dammed rivers and built railroads, and, in the teeth of the most terrifying odds, achieved an unassailable and monumental dignity. You come from a long line of great poets, some of the greatest poets since Homer. One of them said, The very time I thought I was lost, My dungeon shook and my chains fell off.

You know, and I know, that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon. We cannot be free until they are free. God bless you, James, and Godspeed.

Your uncle,
James

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May 7, 2026

Met Gala? Birds are better costumed and better for us…and they can all sing.

Nicobar Pigeon

The media madness about the Met Gala has mostly passed. The over-covered event is meant to support the art of costumes and fashion. It is actually an opportunity for celebrities and rich people to show off the expensive creations of designers, one costume more outrageous than another. It is colorful and it does involve celebrities and rich people, so the media are as naturally attracted to it as hummingbirds to flowers.

Speaking of birds, if you are not a fan of the Met Gala and the costumed celebrities and rich people, here is a thought. It is not certain that the Met Gala is good for us. It is certain that birds, more abundant and splendid than the participants in the Met Gala, are better costumed and better for us. Plus, while only a few of the Met Gala people can sing, all of the birds can.

© 2026 Bob Schwartz

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May 6, 2026

Xul Solar

Visit Museo Xul Solar online (or in person if you visit Buenos Aires)

Alejandro Xul Solar (Oscar Agustín Alejandro Schulz Solari, 1887-1963) is one of the most singular representatives of the vanguard in Latin America. In 1912 he went to Europe where he stayed until 1924, living in Italy and in Germany and making frequent trips to London and Paris. At his return he participated actively in the esthetic renovation proposed by the editorial group of the Martín Fierro journal (1924-1927).

Friend of Jorge Luis Borges, he illustrated several of his books and collaborated in various of his editorial enterprises such as the Revista Multicolor de los Sábados y Destiempo. With a vast culture, his interests took him to the study of Astrology, Kabbalah, I Ching, Philosophy, religions and beliefs of the Ancient East, of India, and the Pre-Colombian world, besides Theosophy, Anthroposophy, among many other branches of knowledge.

He remained busy as well with the creation of two artificial languages, the “neocriollo” and the “panlengua”, and the “pan-chess”; he proposed a modification of the musical notation and the piano keyboard, and conceived the idea of a puppet theatre for grown ups, among many other things.

You can sense from the above description that any sampling of his life and work is inadequate. The collection provides a bigger picture, and even that is not enough.

As noted, Xul Solar was a friend and collaborator of Borges. A 2026 class that included only Xul Solar and Borges might be enough to get us through these times. More than through, with that unique unprecedented perspective, we might come out of this even better than before.

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May 6, 2026

Coyote stuns scientists by swimming 2 miles from Angel Island to Alcatraz Island

“Coyotes are known to be resilient and adaptable, and he certainly demonstrated those qualities.”

Few convicts were ever able to escape the prison on Alcatraz Island. It is surrounded by the challenging waters of San Francisco Bay.

It is now confirmed that in January, a coyote swam the two miles from Angel Island to Alcatraz. Scientists are stunned, but knowing coyotes, maybe they shouldn’t be:

Coyote swam 2 miles to Alcatraz Island, going farther than scientists expected

A lone coyote stunned biologists and others when earlier this year it paddled its way to the remote Alcatraz Island, a former federal prison in the San Francisco Bay surrounded by swift, choppy waters notorious for thwarting prisoners’ escapes.

At the time, biologists guessed the coyote swam from San Francisco, which is a little over 1 mile (1.6km) from the fortress. But it turns out the male coyote actually made an even longer swim from nearby Angel Island, 2 miles away.

“Our working assumption was that the coyote made the swim from San Francisco because it is a significantly shorter distance. We couldn’t help being impressed by his accomplishment in making it to Alcatraz,” Bill Merkle, a National Park Service wildlife ecologist, said in a news release on Monday.

“Coyotes are known to be resilient and adaptable, and he certainly demonstrated those qualities,” he said.

Camilla Fox, founder and executive director of non-profit Project Coyote https://projectcoyote.org/ , said the coyote probably departed its home base in search of a mate or new territory to defend. She said coyotes, like wolves, do swim, although it is incredibly rare for humans to spot one doing so.

“We have never, ever heard such a story of a coyote making such a long journey in a pretty challenging ocean current,” she said.

Coyotes are included in 25 of my posts over the last few years. If I let myself go, it might be a hundred. My engagement, respect and admiration for these amazing animals began when we moved to a house surrounded by them. After the 2024 election, I even imagined that we might be better off with a coyote in the White House.

Note: National Coyote Day was celebrated on March 23 and I neglected to talk about it. All I can say is that every day is Coyote Day. After all, Coyote created the world.

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May 5, 2026

Dread Pirate Donald

“We’re like pirates. We’re sort of like pirates.”

On May 1, 2026, Donald Trump spoke at The Forum Club in West Palm Beach. Rambling wildly for over an hour, he excitedly described the Navy actions in Iran: “We’re like pirates. We’re sort of like pirates.”

In normal times, whenever that was, the president proudly claiming America acted like pirates would be big news. First, because if we are engaging in piracy, that is not something you proudly announce. Second, piracy is a breach of international law, which is why you don’t announce. There were some mentions, images and cartoons, but it was not big news. Quick coverage, then on to the next instability, incompetence and insanity.

It did offer a creative opportunity.

Below is an excerpt from the speech. And since pirates were a theme, I’ve recreated what that rhetoric would sound like if recited by a pirate, who I’ve named Dread Pirate Donald. Please enjoy.

And when you look at the Hormuz Strait and you see all of those ships, all of those people and ships, they want to get out or they want to get in. They’re all over the place. They’re like little ants, right? They look like a little anthill, and hundreds and hundreds of ships. And we have a navy that is unbelievable. We put up, it’s a blockade. It’s a blockade. But you saw him saying, uh, we have guns trained on your ship, turn your ship around, turn — and this is loudspeakers that go over the ocean and they hear them from two miles away. Turn your ship around, turn your ship around, and all of a sudden, you hear, yes, yes, we are going back to Iran, we are going back. We have such great military and great navy. And they were going straight through. And they said, turn your ship around, and there was no response. Turn your ship around, evacuate your engine room immediately. And you see all these guys running out of there. Now, they’re five miles away and one shot into the engine room, blew up the engine room, the ship stopped, that ship. They use tugboats and then we landed on top of it. On top of everything else, we then land on top of it and we took over the ship. We took over the cargo, took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business. Who would have thought we were doing that? We’re like pirates. We’re sort of like pirates.
–Donald Trump, May 1, 2026

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May 4, 2026

Full moon tries

Full moon tries.

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May 4, 2026

Netanyahu Scapegoats the Palestinians for Holocaust (2015)

The post below was originally published on October 21, 2015, more than ten years ago.

In 2026, it can be hard to remember all the dangerous and mendacious absurdities that have been inflicted on us, since they come at us so fast and furious every day. Yet some absurdities promoted not so long ago are worth remembering, particularly if they reflect on current leaders and current atrocities.

Netanyahu blamed the Holocaust on the Palestinians. Maybe he still does.

Trump is mentioned in the post, even though he was not yet president, and in fact was being vilified at the time by his Republican opponents as an immoral nut case. Some of those opponents became his most loyal supporters and even joined his cabinet.

Netanyahu and Trump are very much still with us, spouting lies and inflicting pain with impunity.

The more things change…

The Jews killed Jesus. The Palestinians started the Holocaust. So who’s the scapegoat now?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that in the early days leading up to World War II, Hitler visited the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and it was that Palestinian leader who came up with the idea of the Final Solution:

“Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews. And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, ‘If you expel them, they’ll all come here.’ ‘So what should I do with them?’ he asked. He said, ‘Burn them.’

Historians have already weighed in heavily on how historically bogus this is, given that, among other things, Hitler published Mein Kampf three years before that meeting. The assertion has been described as “jaw-dropping”, with even friendly politicians “agog” at this dark nonsense.

Just when you thought it was the Jews who have for centuries been scurrilously blamed for every terrible thing, Netanyahu goes and turns the tables and scapegoats somebody else. Not just any somebody else. The enemy within and on the borders, the one that you could happily live without.

It appears that the very unpopular Prime Minister is trying to take lessons from Donald Trump, with whom he shares the kinship of attending Wharton. The strategy: Demonize those unwanted immigrants and/or natives. Say anything, no matter how incendiary, explosive, ridiculous or unrelated to fact about the enemies within, and people will love it. And you.

Just one glitch. Trump doesn’t lead a nation at the center of global conflict; actually he doesn’t lead any nation at all. And if America has a history of scapegoating, which it does (take your pick among religious, cultural, political and ethnic groups), it doesn’t compare in long-term viciousness to what the Jews have endured.

Starting, of course, with the big one. In fact, if you look closely at Netanyahu’s indictment, it is not that the Palestinians actually ran the death camps. They just planted the idea, whispering in the ear of an emperor, who was happy to carry out the deed. This time a German emperor, instead of Roman one.

Who’s the scapegoat now?

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May 3, 2026

One mistake after another

Shoshaku jushaku. Literally, to use a file to file a file.

I first discovered the idea of shoshaku jushaku–one continuous mistake–a long time ago in talks by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (see below). I may understand it a little better, just a little better, now, as I’ve made and experienced many more of what I considered mistakes, by me and others, one after another.

We seem to be witnessing so many public and harmful mistakes right now, which is how the phrase “one mistake after another” came to mind. We may point out constructively things that could be done or said better and offer corrections. But when we get mired in judgments about mistakes, we bring ourselves and others down. As Dogen wrote, “We should understand that, in reality, mistakes are called learning.” And as Suzuki Roshi said:

“So we should not say, “This is good,” or “This is bad.” Instead of saying bad, you should say, “not-to-do”!”

“When we reflect on what we are doing in our everyday life, we are always ashamed of ourselves. One of my students wrote to me saying, “You sent me a calendar, and I am trying to follow the good mottoes which appear on each page. But the year has hardly begun, and already I have failed!” Dogen-zenji said, “Shoshaku jushaku.” Shaku generally means “mistake” or “wrong.” Shoshaku jushaku means “to succeed wrong with wrong,” or one continuous mistake. According to Dogen, one continuous mistake can also be Zen. A Zen master’s life could be said to be so many years of shoshaku jushaku. This means so many years of one single-minded effort.”

–Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind

“We should understand that, in reality, mistakes are called learning, and the state of no mistake is called nowness. In nowness there is no before or after, no goals, agendas, or fixed direction. Like the meandering river, it twists and turns in accord with circumstances but always knows how to find its way to the great ocean. If you wish to travel like this, you must go alone, not carry any baggage, and trust yourself implicitly.”

–Dogen, The True Dharma Eye

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May 1, 2026

Law Day: Critical times are tough tests for lawyers. Some pass, some fail.

May 1, as I’ve mentioned in other posts today, is Law Day.

I’ve written frequently about the role of lawyers in the first Trump administration and during the attempts to deny that Trump lost the 2020 election (which six years later are still ongoing). None of the lawyers involved in that administration have been sanctioned, but a few of those who lied and promoted baseless election denial have lost their licenses to practice. As noted below, lawyers are officers of the court and are held to very high standards of professional ethics and responsibility.

Any contemporary discussion of miscreant presidential lawyers always brings us back to Watergate. The post below was originally published in October 2017 during the first year of that first Trump administration. It is safe to say that the current Trump lawyers make the lawyers of that first administration, where there was a semblance of upholding the rule of law, look like legal angels. The Watergate lawyers were no angels, and as one of the linked posts chronicles, they paid the price, with jail and professional sanctions.

Lawyers are sworn officers of the courts of their respective states and federal jurisdictions. They take a solemn oath. They take that oath because as citizens we give them substantial power as officers of the court. As Spiderman (not a lawyer) reminds us, with great power comes great responsibility.

In normal times it is hard enough for lawyers to balance all the interests surrounding them—professional, personal, political. In abnormal and critical times—like these—lawyers may be pushed to pick a lane. The onerous professional demands, as embodied in the oath, may be in conflict with other interests, including ambition, success and ideology.

In previous posts, I’ve mentioned a few examples of times in which lawyers chose poorly. One is the case of attorneys involved in Watergate, almost two dozen of whom ended up being punished and sanctioned.  Another is Hans Frank, a brilliant attorney known as Hitler’s Lawyer.  There are many other infamous examples.

The number of lawyers involved in current events, as principals or as advocates, is growing exponentially. It will only expand as dark matters surrounding the president get deeper and more serious. Please keep this in mind as this drama unfolds.

Here is an example of an oath, one taken by attorneys in the State of Washington:

OATH OF ATTORNEY

I do solemnly declare:

I am fully subject to the laws of the State of Washington and the laws of the United States and will abide by the same.

I will support the constitution of the State of Washington and the constitution of the United States.

I will abide by the Rules of Professional Conduct approved by the Supreme Court of the State of Washington.

I will maintain the respect due to the courts of justice and judicial officers.

I will not counsel, or maintain any suit, or proceeding, which shall appear to me to be unjust, or any defense except as I believe to be honestly debatable under the law, unless it is in defense of a person charged with a public offense. I will employ for the purpose of maintaining the causes confided to me only those means consistent with truth and honor. I will never seek to mislead the judge or jury by any artifice or false statement.

I will maintain the confidence and preserve inviolate the secrets of my client, and will accept no compensation in connection with the business of my client unless this compensation is from or with the knowledge and approval of the client or with the approval of the court.

I will abstain from all offensive personalities, and advance no fact prejudicial to the honor or reputation of a party or witness unless required by the justice of the cause with which I am charged.

I will never reject, from any consideration personal to myself, the cause of the defenseless or oppressed, or delay unjustly the cause of any person.

 

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May 1, 2026

Labor, Loyalty and Law Day


It is May 1, and there is no Google Doodle for it. Maybe because it is hard for Google to know exactly which May 1 holiday to celebrate. Or maybe Google does not want to be involved in any controversy that the different May Days might engender.

May Day has been for ages a universal celebration of spring, with sprightly traditions including dancing around the Maypole. Then it took a darker, more serious turn, becoming International Workers’ Day (Labor Day), a commemoration of the bloody death of workers at the Haymarket Riot in Chicago in 1886. To counter this populist/communistic direction, in 1921 it became Loyalty Day (originally Americanization Day), with Congress and President Eisenhower officially affirming this in 1959 at the height of the Cold War. Almost simultaneously, in 1958 the President also declared May 1 to be Law Day.

May Day remains all this and whatever else you choose to make of it. Consider these virtues: the importance of labor and economic justice, the value of deserved loyalty, the significance of the rule of law, and the joys of spring that make all of them worthwhile. If you miss May 1, May 2 or every other day will do for working on all these and for dancing, with or without a Maypole.

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