The River Is Wide

Series produced by Susan J. Cook

Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Image by: Susan Cook 
...wide river as ever... 

The River Is Wide is one listener's complement to public radio as media that has always made room for thoughtful, humane human discourse. These essays and poems are commentaries written by a political activist, psychologist and play therapist about the many provocative events in our state, country and world that remind us that the river is wide and each and everyone one of us is needed to cross it. We have much to lose- all of us- when our ideas and actions are premised on the belief that we never need any help getting across. Public radio that stirs the public conscience- free of personal influence peddling- that values thoughtful voice and speaks truth above partisan rhetoric - helps us all get across. The River Is Wide presents a series of Citizen's Guides, the occasional Congressional Guide when necessary, sonnets when no other format seems appropriate, an ode here and there In the Department of Poetic Justice, Sixty-second Moral Inquiries and brief commentaries . Public radio is a muse and PRX has become the pen and paper, yes, for many former and current letter-to-the-editor writers, including this one.

The series began rowing when a local editor refused to publish a letter criticizing a political candidate for a failure to acknowledge human rights violations by the Chinese government calling it "uncivil". Another inspiration has been the censorship of "The humble Farmer" from Maine Public Broadcasting (see freethehumblefarmer.com). The commentaries and entries in the Citizen's Guide, sonnets and odes In the Department of Poetic Justice, Sixty Second Moral Inquiries and the 'new' Two and One Half Minute Conspiracy Theory section speak to issues that stir the public conscience (and mine) and speak truth to power (everyone else's) especially surrounding freedom of speech in the media, injustice and harm.


327 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Not long before the earthquake in Nepal, I drove by yet another SUV with the bumper sticker “No child left a dime.” Then, as now, I am reminded ag...

  • Added: May 09, 2015
  • Length: 05:55
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Well, in my state we have a remarkable example of corporations having their way with state legislators to pass a bill that- in the long run did not...

  • Added: Apr 22, 2015
  • Length: 05:46
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
I read a column in which the author tried to express what I’m guessing is her moral outrage. I am all for expressing moral outrage. At least it pu...

  • Added: Mar 24, 2015
  • Length: 05:38
Caption: Political Gamesmanship's Hostages? Water, Birds, Wildlife  2009 to 2018, Credit: Susan Cook/Google Earth
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks questions about what is right and what is wrong. Today's Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks what is wrong with pol...

  • Added: Mar 16, 2015
  • Length: 01:19
Piece image
The Supreme Court of the United States has decided that Arizona’s 2000 law which created an Independent Commission to determine Congressional Re-d...

  • Added: Mar 09, 2015
  • Length: 07:04
Caption: 'shipwrecked, lost everything, all's well...", Credit: Edgar Cook
Poems are solace in times of not knowing. Today, a Sonnet for What Will Be Well. "There are events that narrowly avoid crossing our paths, eve...

  • Added: Jan 12, 2020
  • Length: 01:01
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Elected officials or politicians aspiring to be elected officials say things that would register on our Hackle o’ meters and our Politically Unfit...

  • Added: Mar 19, 2016
  • Length: 03:19
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Seventy thousand Google responses to ''Republicans Refuse'' or 37000 responses to ''Democrats Refuse'' say Donald Trump is not the first to bring ...

  • Added: Mar 15, 2016
  • Length: 04:04
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
The River Is Wide today offers a musical tribute to the 2016 Republican primaries to the tune of "Tonight" from the Broadway musical "West Side Sto...

  • Added: Mar 09, 2016
  • Length: 01:22
Caption:  Time to Practice Your Odds for the Derby and Presidents, Credit: Susan Cook
I was reading the New York Times article about the last batch of the 30000 emails released that Hillary Clinton received on her private server- wh...

  • Added: Mar 04, 2016
  • Length: 05:17
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Today's Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks 'Since Apple claims they refuse the order to open the San Bernadino murderer's I-phone to respect the ...

  • Added: Feb 25, 2016
  • Length: 01:14
Caption: The worldview of fifteen year olds is often very very small. , Credit: Susan Cook
So we now know that Apple has made the extraordinary contribution called ‘Enter the wrong password 10 times and all the data on your way-too-expens...

  • Added: Feb 19, 2016
  • Length: 05:07
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Riding on the train to the Democratic National Convention one year, I had the good fortune to talk with a former president of N.O.W. For young twen...

  • Added: Feb 10, 2016
  • Length: 05:03
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Today’s Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks :As politicians one-up each other, what’s the difference between the candidate as demagogue- who openly app...

  • Added: Feb 04, 2016
  • Length: 01:21
Caption: Nobis Deus...he likes it.., Credit: Susan Cook
In Today's Department of Poetic Justice (and The Great American Wrongbook), "Donald J. Trump- The Evangelical Version" which could be sung to the ...

  • Added: Jan 28, 2016
  • Length: 02:59
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
From the Department of Poetic Justice, here at The River Is Wide , we offer an original composition, titled 'LIMBO'. There is such confusion and f...

  • Added: Apr 02, 2016
  • Length: 03:25
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
In my state, this week, leaping off the lower right hand corner of the Front Page of the state’s largest newspaper was this “Educator who won one...

  • Added: Apr 09, 2016
  • Length: 05:42
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Back in 2005, Dana Connors, Maine State Chamber of Commerce president said, "This is not the time or place to expand Maine care coverage to more u...

  • Added: Apr 24, 2016
  • Length: 07:02
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Human Growth and Development textbooks may be the ‘go to’ reference to explain ‘what the hell is going on’ as the new Republican opponent appar...

  • Added: May 04, 2016
  • Length: 04:52
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
In a Presidential primary that taxes our belief that the purpose of government is to benefit our lives, I remember legislation that Hillary Clinton...

  • Added: May 13, 2016
  • Length: 03:14