This month we explore art, creativity and resilience. These three themes are intertwined and made whole in our feature story about Korean American artist Samantha Yun Wall. Barbara Lloyd McMichael has written an excellent article about this astonishing artist whose first major solo exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum explores cultural duality, memory, and societal stigma. In the third part of a three-part series, The Roots of Resentment (Revisiting John Rawls), Rosemary Curran examines how to equalize the playing field between the elite oligarchs and all the rest of us. Annie Searle’s article, What Does it Take to Effect Change, reminds us that it’s important to remember that DHS contains not only ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), but also the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Coast Guard. In Belle’s Big Burden, women have been spurned and rejected since the beginning of time, but unlike Belle Burden, they don’t land a multi-million dollar book deal. The oil painting The Threatened Swan, created around 1650 by Dutch Artist Jan Asselijn, is our top pick for February. A great painting has many meanings. Each month we will feature a work of art that, on some level, speaks to all of us. ––Patricia Vaccarino
Samantha Yun Wall Reclaims Her Past by Barbara Lloyd McMichael Samantha Yun Wall’s first major solo exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum is a collection of 16 drawings and paintings that feature overlapping female silhouettes in stark black or ghostly white, and occasionally shadings of charcoal gray. The exhibition runs through October 4.
Revisiting John Rawls by Rosemary Curran Ph.D. Imagine you were born with average intelligence into a dysfunctional family in a poor environment. Do you prefer a society that will provide the best opportunities for you to enjoy “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” or do you prefer an oligarchy that regards you as “unfit to survive?”
Belle’s Big Burden by Patricia Vaccarino Belle Burden was given the opportunity to write a big book about divorce. Burden’s book, Stranger: A Memoir of Marriage, is a tell-all about nothing at all. It could be perceived as revenge porn, but the characters never take off their clothes to have hot sex.
Alex Pretti Killed by ICE –PR for People Team. On January 24, 2026, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old American intensive care nurse for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, was shot and killed by ICE Agents. The original illustration “In Cold Blood” was created by Robin Lindley, who is a frequent contributor to our publication.
What Does It Take to Effect Change? by Annie Searle As we move closer to the February 13 deadline for a Senate vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Congressional Democrats have this past week offered up a list of ten immigration reforms for the bill, but negotiations are so far non-existent. What has to stop is the now prevalent view that immigrants are enemies.
EXTINCTION! A Mortality Tale by Peter A. Corning, Ph.D. We have been warned – repeatedly. We are headed toward the self-destruction of humankind as a species. The answer is that the global community must come together (perhaps through the U.N.) and make a drastic course change starting now.
The Epstein Files Spark a Class Conflict by Nick J. Licata Class conflict in America has been primarily framed either in economic terms favored by the left or in cultural terms favored by the right. The Epstein files could be presented from either perspective, but their most potent impact has been the cultural division they expose between an elite class and Trump’s populist base.
Book Review: Stony The Road We Trod by Rosemary T. Curran. Stony The Road We Trod is a family saga spread across two volumes that are essential reading to acquire an understanding of the joys, triumphs and struggles borne by the Grimke family. A former slave-holding family in Charleston, South Carolina, the Grimke lineage spans across race ethnicity, religion, and cultural norms. Greater than the usual fare of historical fiction, Stony The Road We Trod is the quintessential American story. –Patricia Vaccarino
The Threatened Swan by Dutch Artist Jan Asselijn The oil painting of The Threatened Swan by Dutch Artist Jan Asselijn was created around 1650.The swan appears to be threatened by a dog rearing its ugly head. Some claim the swan is mute. The swan could be protecting its cygnets, as they often ride on their mother’s back, although none are seen. –Patricia Vaccarino