The Apostrophe Blog
I took the above photograph at the No Kings Rally and March in downtown Portland, Oregon, on June 14, 2025. It was one of my favorite signs at the march—after all, we are avid community gardeners! I had previously seen it at the April 5, 2025 Hands Off Rally but did not get a good photograph at the time. It sums up so much about this precarious, dangerous moment we find ourselves in here in the United States as our government seizes more tyrannical powers day in and day out.
Luckily, IHRAM Press and its authors and artists are fighting back. I am one of those authors.
As of today, October 1st, IHRAM Press is publishing America’s Slide Towards Authoritarianism, a folio of American and international writers and artists marshaling forces to offer the response to this dire political moment, which our political leaders, justice system, educational institutions and corporations seem unable or unwilling to do.
This book presents 30 writers and 12 visual artists, culled from more than 350 submissions, all offering their take on the fragility of the values that once made America great: freedom of expression, democracy for everyone, religious and ethnic pluralism, and the belief that all people are created equal. My poem included in the anthology is called “the pattern of vanishing.” It is about the recently published list of words to be expunged from every official U.S. government communication including print publications and websites.
This anthology fosters hope for a society that continues to speak up, from stories about the immigration raids, to erasing marginalized voices in the media and historical archives, to our artists and writers who risk repercussions for questioning authority. But there is hope in creative expression and art: they are a gateway to fighting oppression, exploitation, and violation.
The publication includes an introduction by Tom Block, Founding Executive Director of IHRAM.
Purchasing America’s Slide Towards Authoritarianism is not just a book; it’s an act of fighting back and offering a response to this dire political moment in the United States. Your support genuinely helps me as an activist and uplifts the voices of other writers sharing their powerful narratives. Let’s stand together to show that we’re not just a number, but our voice matters. Get your copy now and join the movement demanding safety and equality.
Oh and we will be rallying again to say No Kings yet again on Saturday, October 18, 2025. Find a protest rally or march near you and join in.
Interests: Reading, writing, not arithmetic. The art and craft of poetry. Photography. Vegetable and flower gardening especially heirloom bulbs and dahlias. Movies in real theatres. Theatre on real stages. Art in real galleries. Crossword puzzles and, of course, Wordle. Singer-songwriters like Aimee Mann and Patti Griffin. All kinds of music especially 1930s jazz. Venice, Italy! The Dude abides.
- Publication News: Burn It Down! - October 20, 2025
- We Are All Frog… - October 19, 2025
- Greetings from War-Ravaged Portland! - October 5, 2025
