BY LUCIA ZERNER I first met my grandfather about a year after I arrived in the U.S as a Chinese adoptee. I visited him with my parents once or twice a year. By then he was living in a retirement…
Month: February 2020
Young Veteran Seeks Community in Aging Organization
BY JOHN PATRICK DEES Mike Drake slams down the phone. The Veterans of Foreign Wars elders have canceled on him again. Disappointed, Drake emails his friends; yet again, they will have to postpone. For months, Drake, a U.S. Army combat…
Reflections on an Asylum Seeker in Cairo
BY MARJORIE TOLSDORF I was hopelessly lost in the center of Old Cairo with a dead phone, a handful of useless Arabic words floating around in my head, and an escalating fear that I would not find my way back…
A Different Experience of a Minority Group
BY BASBIBI KAKAR When Ramzia, a pseudonym to protect her identity, sees people migrating from one country to another, she doesn’t blame them. “You can’t be in a place where your life is not guaranteed,” she says. “You have to…
From Little Brother to Grandfather: A Photographer’s Journey
BY LUCIA ZERNER A Newar father and son kneel in front of their life’s work, a sea of clay bricks drying in the cool Kathmandu Valley air. From the photo, it’s as if their gaze looks directly at us. The…
‘Organizational Interest Comes First’: One Intelligence Officer’s Experience with Interservice Rivalry
BY JENNIFER KELTZ Just because two officers are fighting for the same cause does not mean that they will work together. As a boy in New York, John Gentry never pictured that he would one day spend over twenty years…
An American Muslim Finds his Place in the Marine Corps… and Afghanistan
BY JOHN PATRICK DEES An American Muslim Finds his Place in the Marine Corps… and Afghanistan At 0500 hours sharp the drill instructors barged into the Quonset hut. The entire structure shuddered from the impact of the door on…
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BY MINQI SONG Wes Lam never thought of himself as a stranger in the U.S. Army. A son of Chinese immigrants, Wes served in the army from 1999 to 2009, including one year in Iraq right after the 2003 Invasion. …
A Bridge Between Two Lives
BY MARJORIE TOLSDORF Bahram watched as his mother and sisters wept, soaking the white cloth that covered his uncle’s body with tears. He could hear his mother moaning her brother-in-law’s name over and over, morphing into a single monotonous tone.…
He Sought Refuge in the Kitchen. Now, He Does Not Want to Leave.
BY SARAH SAKHA “I’ll be in the red bandana.” His note had been short, but bold. I spotted Ruslan as soon as I walked into the coffee shop, with his bright red bandana, thick-rimmed crimson glasses, a gray hooded jacket,…