Reflecting on the September 19th death of 83-year-old Allister Sparks, political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi wrote that fearless journalists like Sparks contributed to the defeat of apartheid. “Theirs,” said the struggle veteran, “was a golden age of journalism which coincided with one of the darkest periods in our history.” For me, a young reporter in Johannesburg from 1974 to 1977, I think Matshiqi has it right. … Continue reading South Africa’s Golden Age of Journalism

In the early 1900s Theodore Roosevelt and his friend John Muir liked to say that wilderness saves the human spirit. That being the case, we in Washington, D.C. are lucky to have wilderness so close at hand. I arrived in Hancock, MD where I-70 veers north into PA at 2:30 on a Friday afternoon. Leaving the car in the town lot adjacent to the C … Continue reading Wilderness at the Doorstep: People and Bears Between Hancock and Paw Paw