The Unclad Soul

There is a moving scene in Season 2, Episode 12, of The Handmaid's Tale. And there aren't a lot of them in this series. Two young people in the camp--a girl, in a loveless marriage to Commander Waterford's driver, and a young man, a worker within the Republic of Gilead-- attempt to run off and experience love as best they can. But they are found and brought back to face execution, the punishment in the totalitarian state for both adultery and escape. They are taken to an Olympic size swimming pool on the grounds. All the Handmaids, the "Aunts," staff and others fill the bleachers inside as though it's some kind of sporting event. The couple each have their hands shackled and each is linked to their own heavy steel ball and chain. As often happens in The Handmaid's Tale, scripture is dramatically read and misused to justify their deaths. They are then thrown into the deep end of the pool and drowned. The camera pans the bleachers where ...

The courageous protest by the former professional football player, Colin Kaepernick, has been so misunderstood and misrepresented that the point of it has mostly been lost. After what seemed like an endless stream of shootings and killings of unarmed black men by white police officers, Kaepernick decided to do something. He didn’t riot or retaliate, scream profanities, or assault white people. Instead, he simply chose not to stand at the playing of the National Anthem before his games . It was not an attack on the American Flag, on the military, or the anthem. His action was simply saying that, for him, the battles of war that our soldiers have fought to make us “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” as spoken in The Star-Spangled Banner song, are not being honored. The violence of white cops against Blacks and the indifference of politicians and the courts to tolerate and excuse it was what Kaepernick was protesting. The National Anthem praises honor, courage, ...