January 19, 2009 - Benjamin Wagner

Conscience Asks The Question

By Benjamin | January 19, 2009 |

I haven’t stepped foot in a high school in years. And for good reason; they’re large, generic, often sterile and sometimes impenetrable institutions — to say nothing of their inordinately soul-crushing social pressures. Fitting, then, that I should return to high school today — Martin Luther King Jr. Day — for a general civics lesson…

Run (Into The Arms Of America)

By Benjamin | January 19, 2009 |

I love this country, though I wouldn’t call myself patriotic. I remember first appreciating the massive scope of the American landscape as I drove from Philadelphia to San Diego in college. The four-week, 8553-mile road trip saw me traverse the Mississippi, Ohio, Colorado, and Rio Grande rivers. I camped in the Buffalo Wilderness, the Badlands,…