Michael Ventura
Jul 18, 20206 min read
Ventura at 4am / The Horrors in Portland are 'Legal'
Last night Jazmin showed me a feed from NPR about federal officers in unmarked vans cruising Portland, Oregon, and (her word)...
Michael Ventura
Jun 14, 202017 min read
Ventura at 4am / History as Oneself
April 4, 1968 – New York City As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love....
Michael Ventura
Feb 20, 20204 min read
Ventura at 4am / Impressions - Democrats Debate in Las Vegas, February 19, 2020
Who did we see? A gay guy. Two New York Jews age 78. A no-nonsense hard-working Oklahoma woman and a no-nonsense hard-working Minnesota...
Michael Ventura / Art: Dan Hubig
Feb 14, 20207 min read
Ventura at 4am / The Most Integrated Space in the U.S.A.
1: Some data A majority non-white U.S.A. is widely predicted in more or less a generation. That doesn’t mean someone in 2045 (my...
Michael Ventura
Oct 22, 201911 min read
Ventura at 4AM / Election 2020 – Some Notes / October 2019
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY —– Missing the Point The most important element of the 2020 election stood unnoticed in plain sight from start to...
Michael Ventura
Aug 13, 201922 min read
BACK TO THE GARDEN: WOODSTOCK Across 50 Years
This beautiful world is a garden of flowers . . . This beautiful world is a city of pain . . . This beautiful evening it’s time to rock...
Michael Ventura / Art: Dan Hubig
Jul 12, 20192 min read
Ventura @ 4am / Re Concentration Camps
“Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They’re...
Michael Ventura / Photo Art: Dan Hubig
Dec 4, 20188 min read
No Hiding Place - An Election Notebook
There’s no hiding place down here — traditional Gospel song November 3 I look up at a clock: In more or less eighty hours the polls will...
Michael Ventura / Photo Art: Dan Hubig
Oct 18, 20186 min read
Ventura at 4am / The Politics Of Helplessness – Part II
They strewed white flowers of cowardice, as they passed… ~ Anne Spencer If a society permits one portion of its citizenry to be menaced...
Michael Ventura
Sep 21, 20187 min read
The Politics of Helplessness - Part 1
Art/Photo: Dan Hubig © 2018 This essay begins with poetry by Tadeusz Rozewicz (1921-2014). For most Americans, he needs an...
Michael Ventura
Aug 20, 20187 min read
Ventura at 4am / Naunie, 1935 - 2018
I’ll fly away, Oh Glory! I’ll fly away! In the mornin’! When the shadows of this life have gone I’ll fly away! One of her Gospel...
Michael Ventura / Art: Dan Hubig
Jul 12, 20187 min read
Ventura at 4AM / THIS USA: Origins
Each sluggish turn of the world has such disinherited to whom belongs neither what’s been nor what’s coming next. Rainer Maria Rilke, The...
Michael Ventura
May 14, 20189 min read
Ventura at 4am / March 24 2018: History As This Afternoon
Note: My first draft was written on the afternoon and early evening of March 24th. Pneumonia intervened. The piece was completed in May....