Author: Cryn Johannsen
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Homesickness and the Endless War on Terror
Every spring, the mist over the shallow lakes across Kansas settles quietly in the early morning hours. During the long winter months in Massachusetts, the ponds and bogs encased by bent willows are sprinkled with slipping ducks on slick ice patches. On the mountaintops in California, in early fall, snow kisses their rocky tips, while…
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Love Letter to a Soldier, Part Three
We are connected by fiber-optic cables, technological threads that crisscross the world. Over 4,200 kilometers of fiber optics exist in Afghanistan, and you are there, a mere 11,297 kilometers away from me. Messages of hope, frustration and the mundanities of everyday life—both in Arlington, Virginia and there in Kabul, Afghanistan—are transmitted over thousands and thousands…
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Homesickness and the Endless War on Terror
Every spring, the mist over the shallow lakes across Kansas settles quietly in the early morning hours. During the long winter months in Massachusetts, the ponds and bogs encased by bent willows are sprinkled with slipping ducks on slick ice patches. On the mountaintops in California, in early fall, snow kisses their rocky tips, while…
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Moral Education
Moral Education By Cryn Johannsen Every Sunday when she was a little girl, she would go to a big Gothic church with her parents and her older, increasingly rebellious brother. With her hair covered in bows and her body clothed in neat little dresses – white ones in the summertime and purple ones in the…
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Keeping the Hope Alive through Trauma
The following series of essays have been written while teaching ESL classes to adult students from all corners of the world (this writing exercise began in late January, and continues to be a part of my classes). Each morning, I required the first class – which was what inspired this project – to answer one…
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The Freedom of Love
The following series of essays have been written while teaching ESL classes to adult students from all corners of the world (this writing exercise began last month, and continues to be a part of my classes). Each morning, the first class – that began this project – was required to answer one of two questions.…
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Free Will Versus Destiny
The following series of essays have been written while teaching ESL (English as a second Language) classes to adult students from all corners of the world (this writing exercise began last month, and continues to be a part of my classes). Each morning, the first class – that began this project – was required to…
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The Student Lending Crisis
On September 17th, 2011, people took to the streets in lower Manhattan as Occupiers to denounce the financial and banking institutions that, as they saw it, caused suffering, economic disaster, and uneccessary harm during and after the financial crisis of 2008. Many of the protesters, Occupiers, asserted — and with solid arguments — that the…
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Are There Viable Possibilities Now for Student Loan Reform?
It’s hard to avoid the clichéd statement—and every pundit has been saying it over and over again—this was truly an historic election. Not only was President Barack Obama re-elected, but a number of very progressive candidates, such as Elizabeth Warren, seized seats in Congress as well. It seems clear: the values of the American public…