Frida Berrigan
Frida Berrigan, a columnist for WagingNonviolence.org, serves on the board of the War Resisters League and organizes with Witness Against Torture.
Articles by this author
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Views Tuesday, July 11, 2017 Feeling Not Quite So Hopeless in a World on the Skids In the wake of Donald Trump’s inauguration, George Orwell’s 1984 soared onto bestseller lists , as did Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale , which also hit TV screens in a storm of publicity. Zombies, fascists, and predators of every sort are now stalking... Read more |
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Views Saturday, April 08, 2017 Why Tax Resistance Under Trump Needs Its Antiwar Edge There have always been fights about taxes — stretching back to the crates of over-taxed tea tossed into the Boston Harbor and a thoughtful man’s night in jail for refusing to pay taxes in the slave-holding state of Massachusetts. This country’s long history of tax resistance stretches from the... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, March 14, 2017 Preparing for the Long Haul Under the Trump Administration By now, my inchoate hopes that our nation will just wake up from the bad dream of Trump — or even more remotely that he’ll be impeached by a radicalized Congress — have turned to dust and floated away. He seems here to stay, and I need to figure out how to stay human, stay upright, with him in the... Read more |
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Views Thursday, February 16, 2017 Loving America and Resisting Trump: The New Patriotism So reality has inexorably, inescapably penetrated my life. It didn’t take long. Yes, Donald Trump is actually the president of the United States. In that guise, in just his first weeks in office, he’s already declared war on language, on loving, on people who are different from him -- on the kind... Read more |
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Views Saturday, December 24, 2016 Why My Family Turns Our Christmas Tree Into a Political Statement I picked up a call from an unfamiliar local number. It was someone organizing to give toys to needy families. “We picked your family,” she said happily. I stumbled and stuttered over myself a little as I tried to be gracious while also clear: We do not need or want the beautifully wrapped, ready-... Read more |
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Views Saturday, November 12, 2016 Confessions of a Lifelong White House Protester Like the rest of the world, I woke up to the nightmare of a President Trump on Wednesday. But the first noise I heard that morning was the laughter of my daughters Rosena and Madeline — that quiet early morning gurgle of giggles that sisters make without even thinking, that delight of being alive... Read more |
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Views Sunday, September 18, 2016 Movements Need Imagination, Which Is Why I’m Not Buying My Kids Any More Toys “Mine!” “No. It’s mine!!” They keep this “conversation” going for a while before there is a screech and a wail. “Figure out a way to share it,” I call from the other room. “Madeline,” says four-year-old Seamus, who puts on a very reasonable and emphatic voice with his two-year-old sister. “I want... Read more |
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Views Monday, August 01, 2016 "Pow, Pow, Yous Are Dead!" It was a beautiful evening and the kids -- Madeline, two; Seamus, almost four; and Rosena, nine -- were running across a well-tended town green. Seamus pointed his rainbow flag with the feather handle at his sisters and “pow-powed” them, calling out, “Yous are dead now, guys. I shot yous.” Madeline... Read more |
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Views Monday, May 30, 2016 A Fond Farewell to New York's Peace Pentagon Nearly 20 years ago, as I left the War Resisters League , or WRL, offices in lower Manhattan for the first time, I noticed that my fingertips were covered in black soot and ink. My hands were full of tracts and leaflets, and I had been looking through nonviolence training materials for the last... Read more |
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Views Friday, May 13, 2016 What the Obituaries Missed About My Uncle, Dan Berrigan Father Dan Berrigan’s life, legacy and gifts were celebrated at Saint Francis Xavier Church in New York City on Friday, May 6. The church is supposed to fit only 700 people, but more than a thousand crammed in, packing the aisles and sides, sitting and standing through the more-than-two-hour-long... Read more |