Category Archives: Uncategorized

Three Poems

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Doug Cumming
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A freedom song, for Election Day

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Doug Cumming

On this morning of Election Day, 2024, I am waving the flag of a poem by Richard Wilbur called “On Freedom’s Ground: A Cantata.” Read it aloud, slowly with a touch of drama. Record yourself doing so, as I did … Continue reading →

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Brief candle, against dark politics

Posted on October 24, 2024 by Doug Cumming

On April 3, 2008, a mother I did not know held her newborn daughter for 27 minutes of life in a Virginia hospital. The newborn, in utero, had developed with a chromosomal disorder called Trisomy 18, or Edwards Syndrome. The … Continue reading →

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The Sam Hose case, 1899

Posted on October 4, 2024 by Doug Cumming

In a 1963 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, I read an account by Ralph McGill, who was editor and publisher of the Atlanta Constitution when I was growing up in Atlanta, of his interview with the distinguished black scholar W.E.B. … Continue reading →

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Crypto- klepto-mania

Posted on August 30, 2024 by Doug Cumming

In the spring of 2014, I took a class of 14 students to New York City for three days to visit magazine offices. This was the first six spring-term courses that became my most popular and successful teaching at W&L, … Continue reading →

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Georgia votes on history’s hinge. Again.

Posted on August 22, 2024 by Doug Cumming
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Seeing “hot button” issues coolly

Posted on August 5, 2024 by Doug Cumming

Sometimes, it’s hard for people to connect the daily stuff of their own lives with Washington D.C. policies or even state-level politics. Military aid for Ukraine doesn’t seem to hamper our day-to-day struggles, but defending Ukraine against Putin’s Russia also … Continue reading →

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What’s the meaning of ‘meaning’?

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Doug Cumming
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Jazz Concert for Rick

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Doug Cumming

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, July 13, 2023 Contact: Doug Cumming, cummingd@wlu.edu 540-570-0293 Second Concert of the “Rick Saylor Memorial Jazz Series” Thursday, July 25, at First Christian Church of Decatur A jazz combo that grew from years of “workshopping” at the … Continue reading →

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Let’s go, Joe. Please.

Posted on July 12, 2024 by Doug Cumming

On April 16, I voted in Georgia’s Democratic presidential primary for Joe Biden. It was the only choice at that time for beating Donald Trump. That’s what my vote meant then. Now, Biden is no longer my choice. He is … Continue reading →

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