Politics

Linnea Ashley on July 2nd, 2013

these days i am contrary to what i have most often been. so much so that i made up a word for it. unopinionated. ask me what i want to do and i’ll most likely shrug my shoulders. ask me what i want to eat and the most i can generally muster is what i […]

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Linnea Ashley on September 20th, 2010

The smoke plumes black and acrid, catching in the branches of the banana tree peering leisurely over my glass tipped fence. The plastic and coated paper smolder below, blue and orange flames peak and then disappear into the charred ooze that is this week’s garbage. My compost festers in a hole at the back corner […]

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Linnea Ashley on August 21st, 2010

August 21, 2010 Iganga Town, Uganda I haven’t mastered this pseudo post-colonial era in africa. In truth, this is my first true interaction with the way things probably were. I have a high fence with broken bottles glittering in the sunlight to deter unwanted visitors. And if that fence fails I have an armed guard […]

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Linnea Ashley on March 4th, 2010

There are times when the generosity and kindness of Liberians makes it easy to forget that the country was ravaged by war – or the crisis, as it is often referred. But little things prick the memory and I am reminded. More than the pin pin boys on flashy motorcycles dodging in and out of […]

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Linnea Ashley on January 21st, 2010

“they held me and gang raped me for three weeks.” It hung there, with no more weight from her voice than when she’d talked about the differences between Nigerian and Liberian palm nuts. She pointed to the jagged gash on her arm where they broke a bottle over her arm. “I almost died,” she said […]

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Linnea Ashley on May 4th, 2009

36,000. It isn’t a huge number but it isn’t small. 36,000 people die annually from influenza in America. The common, everday, unsexy flu. 1. 1 is how many people have died in the united states from swine flue this year. 1. Please don’t think I underestimate the value of life…I don’t. but when I weigh […]

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Linnea Ashley on April 5th, 2009

the thing is, i’m about choice…in its purest form. i’m not talking just when it suits me…but in general. i’m not advocating that i know the right decision for anyone. abortion…i don’t think everyone should get one, just those that want/need one. gay marriage…like any marriage – for those who want the government stamp of […]

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Linnea Ashley on March 26th, 2009

i’ve stopped listening to obama’s press conferences. Sounds crazy I know – especially given that he’s only on his second one. I find the prepared text less interesting than his answers to pointed questions. Not just press conferences…I only marginally pay attention to any prepared text. It’s too much like an infomercial and nothing I […]

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Linnea Ashley on December 26th, 2008

I don’t think any politician is just like me. In fact, I pretty much assume that the lives they live are not just different but VERY different.   Point in fact, no one clamors to see me (let alone pays for that “honor”) when I visit a town. There are no signs with my name […]

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Linnea Ashley on November 11th, 2008

To the Editor: Re “It Still Felt Good the Morning After” (column, Nov. 9): Frank Rich and many others are hailing the election of Barack Obama as something transformational in the American electorate — the breakdown of centuries of prejudice and perhaps the creation of a new center-left coalition. Certainly an event that many of […]

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