From the desk
Writing
Essays, op-eds, and mind wanderings on justice, policing, aging, the trail, and whatever else won’t leave me alone.
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Rhode Island Deserves a Way Out: Ken Block for Governor
By Joe Broadmeadow For more than a generation, the single party governing Rhode Island is so well entrenched that the machinery of state has come to serve itself rather than the people who pay for it. In 2026, voters have…
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The Enduring Advantages: How White Males Have Benefited from the Systemic Oppression of Minorities and Women
An Analysis of Structural Inequality in Western Civilization The history of Western civilization, and much of the modern global order, cannot be told without confronting a central and uncomfortable reality. White men have accumulated disproportionate economic, political, and social advantages…
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Critique of a False Christian Meme
This meme, shared by those who claim Christ as a mascot more than a sincere understanding of the faith, is not an expression of Christian doctrine; it is an exercise in fear, caricature, and political demonization. It bears no…
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Threescore and Ten
Author’s note: In keeping with my plan to check out on my birthday for the sake of balance, I have survived another and look forward to, at a minimum, 364 more days on this planet. This one, for some reason,…
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The Joy of Purity
Joe Broadmeadow There are three things in this world that should never be changed. Ice cream should be vanilla. Pizza should have anchovies. And Cheez-Its should be just Cheez-Its. I hold these truths the way other men hold mortgages—reluctantly at…
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Okay, now this is getting ridiculous
by Joe Broadmeadow Today, I turn seventy years old. I want to say that again because it hasn’t sunk in and I’m not sure it ever will. Seventy. Years. Old. I’ve typed those words and I’m still waiting for my…
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A Conversation on the Porch
The year is 2050. I am now 94 (I can dream, can’t I?) and engaged in a conversation with my two grandsons, Levi, age 31, and Wyatt, age 29. LEVI: You said you’d explain it to us. How it happened.…
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What the Ice Keeps
The memory didn’t come back all at once. It came back the way ice breaks in March—a crack, then another, then the whole black river moving again. Mara Doyle was thirty-one years old, standing in line at the Cumberland Farms…
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The Reginald Cycle
A Play in Five Acts on the Subject of Dogs, their Droppings, their Masters, and the Mysteries of the Walk Act I. The IndignityEnter Reginald, a dog of impeccable standards Act II. The Tragedy of Reginald, Hound of SorrowsA soliloquy,…
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Follow the Evidence: What Rhode Island’s Overdose Numbers Actually Tell Us
By Joe Broadmeadow For twenty years I built cases on evidence. You learn quickly that a number without context can lie as easily as any witness. So when the state announced this June that 219 Rhode Islanders died of accidental…
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The Traitors Within
By Joe Broadmeadow Shakespeare gave the line to a minor character in Measure for Measure, almost in passing: “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might find by fearing the attempt.” But there is nothing…
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Last Thoughts
Author’s note: This is not predicated on any particular awareness of a pending expedited change in my mortality. It is not something of any urgency compelling me to write this. But as I near the 70 mark in a few…