Mind Wanderings
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The Machinery of Certainty
Joe Broadmeadow “…men fight for their servitude as if for their salvation.” Baruch Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise, preface, 1670 Certainty that answers to no evidence, handed instruments that answer to no one, will reach the same destination every time. It reclassifies…
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The Self-Destruct Sequencer
by Joe Broadmeadow My dryer died eleven days after the warranty expired. Eleven days. Not eleven months, which would suggest ordinary wear. Not eleven hours, which would suggest something too obvious to survive a class action. Eleven days: long enough…
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A Guide to Controlled Bedlam
Field Operations Manual for the Grandparent on Duty by Joe Broadmeadow There is a moment, somewhere around hour two, when you realize the house has gone quiet. Twenty years in law enforcement taught me that silence is not peace. Silence…
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Fear is not Evidence
By Joe Broadmeadow Fear makes a poor witness. It fills the gaps in a story with whatever frightens us most. Watch the public argument over transgender Americans and you can see fear doing exactly that, dressed up as concern and…
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That Won’t Kill You… But This Will
By Joe Broadmeadow Over twenty years with the East Providence Police Department, I stood in a lot of kitchens on the worst day of somebody’s life. I commanded the Investigative Services Division, worked narcotics, and served on the Organized Crime…
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Thauma
And under the stairs, in the space where the light went soft, wonder settled in beside a new little boy and got to work. Joe Broadmeadow By Joe Broadmeadow (Please share the story) When Levi was four, the world was…
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Rhode Island Found $75 Million for a Video Game. It Can Find Enough to Connect Every Kid.
By Joe Broadmeadow Rhode Islanders know how this story goes, because we lived it. In 2010, the state guaranteed a 75-million-dollar loan to lure Curt Schilling’s video game company, 38 Studios, from Massachusetts to Providence. Two years later the company…
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The Efficiency Commission
The morning Marcus Preel was appointed to eliminate government waste, he requisitioned a leather chair that cost eleven thousand dollars. He explained this to no one, because explaining things to people was itself a form of waste. Preel’s official title…
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Rill the Ant: A Journey into the Unknown
To the untrained observer, the ant looked like any other worker, but she carried a secret in her polished, armor-dark body. Her name, at least the name she used when speaking to herself, was Rill. Rill was a scout for…
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Moving Beyond Ideology in America’s Gun Debate
The deluge of outrage and horror about gun violence usually requires an incident as a spark. The ususal pattern ensues, a battle between those who would ban every firearm and those who would put a firearm in the hands of…