The Outlaw Steve Corbett ink splotch

Resist Friendly Sons’ Racism

March 3, 2021

Countless white women in Scranton, PA, long ago gave up fighting sexism or never cared enough to begin with. One of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s largely unspoken questions in today’s battle for equal opportunity is whether Black women in President Joe Biden’s birthplace will take up the cause. Will a Black woman be the first woman to […]

Scranton Lives Matter! Ch. 22

March 1, 2021

Awakening from his nap in a cold sticky sweat, Casey rolled off the couch and called for his mother. Ma? Ma? Where was she? Feeling older every day at 75, Casey’s dream images from his nap remained stuck in his head and more vivid than the Day-Glo paint he sometimes used to draw tribal markings […]

Scranton Lives Matter! Ch. 21

February 26, 2021

Scribbling notes in red pen on a yellow legal pad to keep up with the judge’s hallucinations, the psychiatrist grimaced. Your visions don’t seem to be going away any time soon, she said. Lackawanna County President Judge Stanley “Stash” Dombroski giggled. You’re a tulip. I’m a mint julip, he said. Yes, your honor, life’s a […]

Blackballed by Biden?

February 24, 2021

Next time somebody tells you how important local journalism is to democracy I’d like you to think about my first and maybe last experience with President Joe Biden’s White House press team. In a Jan. 21 email I asked White House regional communication director Seth Schuster three simple questions.                 I wrote, “A recent story […]

Scranton Lives Matter! CH. 20

February 22, 2021

Deep in thought, Zerelda talked to herself all the way to the gun store to buy bullet belts for shotgun shells. The Bugaboo was already getting her down. Zerelda simply wanted peace and good government. She didn’t want to kill anybody anymore. Nobody’s fooling me, she said, especially nobody walking around wearing a penis. None […]

The Outlaw Steve Corbett ink splotch