Roaches and Rats: A Nativity Reflection

December 17, 2008 by Miguel De La Torre

I must have been about three years old when this image was burned into my mind, and probably it will be the last thing I recall when I lay on my death bed as an old man. The ceiling was moving. As I focused on…

9/11: A Day That Lives in Infamy

September 11, 2008 by Miguel De La Torre

Not to sound trite, but 9/11 is indeed a day that will live in infamy. On this day a sovereign democracy was savagely attacked by a terrorist organization. Unsatisfied with the choice people made in electing their leaders and bitter about the economic path a…

Show Me a Sexist; I’ll Show You a Racist

July 11, 2008 by Miguel De La Torre

Ah! The good old days–when men were men and women were kept in the kitchen; when being white was right for America. Ah! The good old days–when men were men and women were kept in the kitchen; when being white was right for America. When…

What Do Obama, Clinton and McCain All Have in Common?

March 26, 2008 by Miguel De La Torre

What do Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain have in common? All three are ontologically white males. No one can become the leader of the world’s most powerful country (empire?) unless they are committed to what male whiteness symbolizes within the colonial process. Saying…

The Ethics of Waterboarding

March 5, 2008 by Miguel De La Torre

On Feb. 22, the Justice Department revealed that an internal ethics review conducted by the Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating the CIA’s use of waterboarding. This forced suffocation and inhalation of water, or as former CIA director Porter J. Goss prefers to call it,…

Conservatism Not a Choice

July 5, 2007 by Miguel De La Torre

A recent study released by the Baptist Journal of Behavioral Science concluded that conservatism is not a choice, but rather a genetic trait. Dr. Quack is quoted as saying: “For centuries, liberals have imposed their views upon science, insisting that being a conservative was a…

Columbus Day No Reason to Celebrate

October 9, 2006 by Miguel De La Torre

Women were raped. Children were disemboweled. Men fell prey to the invaders’ swords. Within a generation, the lives and cultures of the indigenous people of the Americas were forever changed. Avarice for gold and glory took its course and decimated the population. The original inhabitants…

The Sin of Sodom

August 7, 2006 by Miguel De La Torre

United States’ history has proven that most of its presidents, congressional leaders and Supreme Court justices have been guilty of the sin of Sodom. Many of the religious leaders today, specifically conservative evangelicals, are also guilty of Sodom’s sin. If truth be known, this writer…

Rhetoric Kills

June 30, 2006 by Miguel De La Torre

Rhetoric kills–specifically the war rhetoric emerging from Washington D.C. to justify the invasion of a country which posed no strategic threat to the United States. As we prepare to celebrate the 4th of July, we can expect many politicians to throw around slogans like “fighting…

Speaking in Tongues

May 25, 2006 by Miguel De La Torre

“Then Gilead cut Ephraim off from the fords of the Jordan, and whenever an Ephraimite fugitive said, ‘Let me cross,’ the men of Gilead asked him, ‘Are you an Ephraimite?’ If he answered ‘No,’ they said, ‘Then say Shibboleth.’ He would say ‘Sibboleth,’ since Ephraimites…