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
The civil liberties of the Constitution are wholesome, pure, and good. They sometimes require holding two ideas in the mind at the same time, not e...

  • Added: Mar 21, 2014
  • Length: 05:36
Piece image
Expert canoe paddlers know that a predictable sign that swimming is imminent when the canoe starts to tip in rough water is the grabbing of the can...

  • Added: Apr 21, 2014
  • Length: 06:03
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
I am a great admirer of bird nests and those who build them. They make them with twigs, string, down. You find them sometimes nestled inside the a...

  • Added: Apr 28, 2014
  • Length: 06:50
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
When politicians talk about "working across the aisle", they talk about it as if they are endorsing a great ethic. But working across the aisle is...

  • Added: May 01, 2014
  • Length: 07:04
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
We live in extremely violent times. Words can provoke aggression, insult and personal harm very quickly. Politicians spend much time trying to r...

  • Added: May 30, 2016
  • Length: 04:26
Caption: The Moving Wall came to Maine not long ago before Memorial Day..., Credit: Susan Cook
History is written by the Big and the Small. "The Vietnam War" documentary has reminded us that. The Moving Wall, a half scale version of the smoot...

  • Added: May 27, 2016
  • Length: 07:06
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
At a jazz performance, the lady next to me and I struck up a conversation. During World War II, she, a Czechoslovakian, and her family were exiled ...

Bought by KICI Iowa City


  • Added: May 18, 2014
  • Length: 06:50
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: My Bipartisan Famiy, Credit: Susan Cook
I have a bi -partisan family. Maybe you do too. It makes understanding politics all the more difficult because sometimes people don’t agree. When ...

  • Added: Jun 06, 2014
  • Length: 05:19
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The vision of Gorbachev now is destroyed by Vladimir Putin. A sonnet will remind us of what Gorbachev made possible and what is now lost by Putin's...

  • Added: Jul 07, 2014
  • Length: :57
Caption: Maybe the gorilla taught the person to sign.., Credit: Susan Cook
I watched a program the other night about a 500 pound gorilla, or maybe it was a monkey whose owner taught him sign language. Whatever. I am begin...

  • Added: Jul 25, 2014
  • Length: 04:11
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
The parades and camaraderie of the Fourth of July celebrate freedom. This nation-wide celebration doesn't mean that the freedoms we have can’t be...

  • Added: Jun 29, 2013
  • Length: 03:58
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry:A Woman of Her Word Moral inquiry means asking questions about what is the right thing to do. So,...

  • Added: Jul 15, 2013
  • Length: :59
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Remember the sixty second moral inquiry asks questions about what is the right thing to do. Today, we ask "How can you tell If a government is bec...

  • Added: Jul 23, 2013
  • Length: 01:02
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks questions about what is right. Thinking about what is right sometimes means finding the question that needs to ...

  • Added: Aug 09, 2013
  • Length: 01:01
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Sometmes exploring what is right means finding the right question to ask. Today's Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks the question: how do we know what...

  • Added: Aug 12, 2013
  • Length: 01:00
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
This is a sonnet written for Antoinette, the school receptionist at the school in Georgia where a man stood outside, then fired a high powered wea...

  • Added: Feb 14, 2019
  • Length: 01:03
Caption: ...wide river as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
To understand what civility is these days in times of tweets, smart phones, blogs and Facebook, we first have to look at "uncivil" and how "uncivil...

  • Added: Aug 25, 2013
  • Length: 02:36
Caption: Is there one person anywhere in the universe, really..., Credit: Susan Cook
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks questions about how to know right and wrong. Today's question: How can you tell if you are being treated disres...

  • Added: Sep 30, 2013
  • Length: 01:08
Caption: Still have to visit the grocery store..., Credit: Susan Cook
Citizens are being reminded these days of everything they don't have control over. Any nutritionist will tell you that the one thing you always ha...

  • Added: Oct 09, 2013
  • Length: 04:02
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Sonnets are a way to find optimism in difficult times. This is a sonnet that acknowledges that the first fish is the best fish and can provide f...

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  • Added: Oct 13, 2013
  • Length: :51
  • Purchases: 1