by Jeff Stookey | Oct 1, 2020 | Uncategorized
History Conspiracy theories are not new. In the 1920s the KKK spread the doctrine that Catholics and the Pope were trying to take over the US government. This is one of the threads that weaves through my trilogy Medicine for the Blues. As proof that such conspiracy...
by Jeff Stookey | Sep 1, 2020 | Uncategorized
A recent article in The Nation magazine states that QAnon is “closer in spirit to terrorist organizations like the KKK, which had ties to political elites but also instigated extrajudicial violence.”...
by Jeff Stookey | Aug 2, 2020 | Uncategorized
Racism, nationalism, and religious differences all contributed to prejudices of thought in Elizabethan England—very much like in the present-day USA. In the Beginning Queen Elizabeth’s grant of Letters of Patent to: “…our trusty and well-beloved servant Walter...
by Jeff Stookey | Jul 2, 2020 | Uncategorized
George Washington (left) – Thomas Jefferson (right) The Founding Fathers The recent protest movement against police brutality toward unarmed black people under the banner “Black Lives Matter” should force Americans to re-examine our history. Part of...
by Jeff Stookey | Mar 1, 2020 | Uncategorized
We live in a world that is being colonized by giant multinational corporations—from Giant Oil to Big Tech—and it is our duty to decolonize our minds and our actions. With the topic of colonization in my thoughts, I recently read The Wretched of the Earth,...
by Jeff Stookey | Feb 6, 2020 | Uncategorized
John Calvin (born in France in 1509 and died in exile in Switzerland in 1564) had some interesting things to say about politics—thoughts with lessons for us today. I’ve been trying to understand the 1600s, and I’ve long believed that you can only...
by Jeff Stookey | Jan 6, 2020 | Uncategorized
January is named for the Roman god of gates and doorways, often depicted with two faces, one looking back and the other looking forward—appropriate for the new year. I spent the past year focused on promoting my Medicine For The Blues trilogy, because...
by Jeff Stookey | Dec 7, 2019 | Uncategorized
We hear a lot in this season about the “War on Christmas,” but today’s war is nothing like that of the 1600s. England Soon after the Puritan-controlled government executed King Charles I in 1649, they abolished Christmas observances in England. Puritans...
by Jeff Stookey | Nov 7, 2019 | Uncategorized
There is a well-known story involving an audience member asking a poet who just read one of her poems, “Is that a real poem or did you just make that up?” This fall at the end of the poetry seminar that I took with Andrea Hollander, the subject of feeling like...
by Jeff Stookey | Oct 8, 2019 | Uncategorized
In observance of LGBTQ+ history month, I want to talk about some of the books that were instrumental in helping me understand the gay world of the 1920s as portrayed in Medicine for the Blues. I encourage anyone interested in gay history to check out some of...
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