WASHINGTON, DC, 14 May 2021 — I haven’t posted about this project for the past few weeks because I’ve been busy with university business and with preparing the book for release. We’re almost there. I’m giving the manuscript a final review this weekend and plan to deliver it to the independent publisher next week. Depending […]
AMBRIDGE RESERVOIR, Pennsylvania — The Ambridge Reservoir was built in the 1950s to accommodate the water needs of nearby towns and villages in southwestern Pennsylvania, one of them being the town of the same name. Incorporated in 1905, Ambridge takes its name from the industry and the company upon which its inhabitants once thrived – […]
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, 1989 — I never liked El Salvador. It had extracted too much blood from too many people and too many of its victims were my friends and colleagues. A tiny and overcrowded country, El Salvador had a menacing, sinister feel about it. Death squads prowled the streets at night and frantic, […]
MANAGUA, Nicaragua, 20 June 1979 — As it became clear that the U.S.-backed Somoza dynasty was in trouble, journalists from around the world converged on Managua to cover this “David vs. Goliath” story: An impoverished people rose up to cast off a cruel, oppressive regime supported for decades by the most powerful nation on the […]
MASACHAPA, Nicaragua — We had a cooler full of cold beer between the bucket seats. We usually packed bread and cheese and fruit. I had mounted a great sound system with huge speakers in the back of my vehicle, a 1969 International Harvester Scout off-road vehicle that muscled its way up the hills and around […]
LA MONTANA, Nicaragua, 1980s — The mountains of northern Nicaragua enjoy a mystique all their own. Nicaraguans refer to them not in the plural, “the mountains,” but in the singular, “La Montaña,” or “The Mountain,” as if the rugged backbone of the country were a single entity, one special realm apart from, but still within, Nicaragua. […]