@sparkysend
rhetoric/writing scholar, assistant teaching professor studies narrative & communication theory, digital/visual/aural rhetoric, WWII Japanese American incarceration, and Gertrude Stein Likes: art, philosophy, pickles Dislikes: fascism Houston, TX
BREAKING: Alabama Governor Kay Ivey commuted the death sentence of Sonny Burton.
The state was set to execute Sonny for a crime he didn't commit, but tens of thousands of people nationwide demanded justice — and our voices were heard.
NBC’s Richard Engel: “The White House meme campaign is outraging many former US military commanders… they say only someone who has never really seen combat would think it’s a joke and put out material like this.”
Navy background with prominent microphone, and lots of text: "CAPTURING COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS: an audio storytelling workshop / Saturday, March 7, 2026, 2:00-5:00 p.m., Convention Center, Room 6, FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE, Hosted by the Sound Stiudies and Writing Collective
If you're hanging around #4c26 to the end, please join the Sound Studies & Writing Collective for a free Saturday workshop on audio storytelling from 2-5 p.m.
All are welcome, including BEGINNER-beginners. We'll walk you through recording a brief story of your own and editing in music.
WE'RE FUN.
Photo of the author of Indigenous Voices in Digital Spaces posing with her book at the Utah State University Press booth
Congrats to Cindy Tekobbe on the 2026 CCCC Research Impact Award! Come flip through INDIGENOUS VOICES IN DIGITAL SPACES at our booth at #4C26
Alabama is set to execute Sonny Burton on March 12, even though he never killed anyone and the state admits that.
Sonny has stayed on death row for 33 years while his health deteriorates. Governor Ivey must commute his sentence.
Bernard LaFayette, who died Thursday, laid the foundations of the Selma, Alabama, campaign that culminated in the passage of the Voting Rights Act. He was a Freedom Rider and helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. n.pr/4csIbWh
🧵🧵🧵
I can think of several dozen historians who would be happy to lecture @jaketapper.bsky.social about why "concentration camp" is, in fact, an apt term.
Children being held at an ICE detention center in Dilley, Texas, are "despondent and depressed," Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, said after a visit there this week. https://to.pbs.org/3Z9u14w
A bird's-eye view of a former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp showing a wide dirt pathway flanked by parallel rows of barbed-wire fences. Groups of visitors walk along the path, surrounded by the remnants of brick structures and barracks, now reduced to foundations. Green grass contrasts with the somber history of the site, as the path leads toward a guard tower in the distance.
Auschwitz was at the end of a process. We must remember that it did not start from gas chambers.
This hatred gradually developed: from ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder.
Auschwitz took time.
So important. What they say is not the story. That is never the story. What happened is the story. Write what happened.
If you're living somewhere outside the USA, one thing you can do is pressure your leaders to boycott World Cup and Olympic events here.
Screenshot of an X post from FactPost (@factpostnews) with the headline “US citizens detained by ICE speak out,” followed by a quoted account describing being dragged outside, put in a headlock, repeatedly saying “I’m a citizen. I have an ID,” and an agent responding “That don’t matter,” plus hearing wailing and crying from detainees and banter and laughter from federal agents. Below the text is a split-screen TV news image: on the left, a heavily armored officer in a helmet and gas mask with the caption “MINNEAPOLIS ON EDGE,” and on the right, a blonde female news anchor in a white blazer in a studio. A lower banner reads “CHRIS JANSING REPORTS,” with an MSNBC-style logo and a “LIVE” timestamp.
Americans are realizing that unfettered federal power to detain and arrest is a very dangerous thing. I learned that lesson as a child when they put us into internment camps just for looking like the enemy. Don’t go further down this road.
I’m announcing my plan to take on our broken, corrupt political system:
✅Ban corporate PACs & super PACs
✅Ban lawmakers from trading stocks
✅And require every member of Congress to hold annual town halls
This is how we build a government of, by, and for the people.
I love the idea that protesters are “meeting up in hotel rooms” to plan the challenging and intricate group activity of …ah yes, chanting the single word “shame” in unison.
Grateful to @geneweingarten.bsky.social for bringing up a story of a murder in the Civil Rights era that I had never heard of, one that has particular relevance right now.
geneweingarten.substack.com/p/this-has-h...
Screenshot of a post on X by Team Talarico (@TeamTal…) quoting James Talarico calling for a full investigation into ICE if Democrats win a Senate majority, saying masked agents should be brought before Congress so the world can see their faces. The post also calls for a law banning agents from wearing masks and “kidnapping people off the streets without a warrant,” and ends: “We shouldn’t be afraid of our government — our government should be afraid of us.” Below the text is a video thumbnail showing James Talarico speaking on camera in front of a backdrop repeating “TALARICO FOR TEXAS,” with an “Exclusive” lower-third and a 0:38 timestamp.
We need more leaders to insist on accountability the way James Talarico has here.
Screenshot of a post on X by Neil Stone (@DrNeilStone) quoting the phrase “Only very sick kids should die from measles,” then responding: “No, Secretary Kennedy. NO child should die from measles. Because there’s a vaccine to prevent it.” Below the text is a Fox News video still showing two men in suits speaking in a newsroom-like setting. A banner reads “MEASLES OUTBREAK” with a subheading “KENNEDY EXPLAINS RELIGIOUS OBJECTIONS FOR UNVACCINATED,” alongside Fox News branding and the word “EXCLUSIVE.”
This is what RFK thinks about vulnerable children.
Every time something like this happens, I am reminded due process matters even in a flawed and unequal justice system. Law-enforcement officers are not the justice system. And part of their job is to deal with the public. It’s striking, how many of these people lead with cowardice and blood thirst.
NPR built a visual archive of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, showing exactly what happened through the lenses of the people who were there. In Chapter 3, we lay out a timeline of key moments throughout the day as the assault on the Capitol unfolded.
What I always hear: “We can’t afford to pay our workers more than $15 an hour.”
What I never hear: “We can’t afford to pay our CEO millions of dollars a year.”
Funny how that works.
Less than 48 hours after the deadly attack at Sydney's Bondi Beach that left more than a dozen dead, Australian authorities announced proposals for sweeping new gun laws. n.pr/48UTa7g
Thou shalt not condemn “violent rhetoric” after your ally is murdered and then mock the murder of someone who criticized you.
2014 from me: No, students aren't customers. Because you, the student, are much more important than a financial transaction.
www.chronicle.com/article/facu...
Now it’s on the official CDC site… they really are losing it. The statements shown directly contradict:
- The NIH
- WHO
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- National Academy of Medicine
- Every major medical and scientific body in the U.S. and worldwide
I'm editing an anthology about unlikable characters and seeking work from younger writers, 15-21. If you know of one such writer who might want to submit their work for consideration, please share this call for submissions: audacity.substack.com/p/acquired-t...
this story was reported on as a suicide three months ago.
the family has now obtained evidence that Chaofeng Ge's hands and legs were tied behind his back at the time of his hanging.
justice for Chaofeng Ge.
www.pennlive.com/news/2025/11...
Cool not like we needed the water or anything
