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 discourse about human decency and prevention of harm. Written by a psychologist and political activist, The River Is Wide presents Citizen's Guides, The Indifference Diaries, 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 can be a muse and PRX has become the pen and paper, yes, for many letter-to-the-editor writers, including this one.The series began after a local editor refused to publish a letter he called "uncivil" which criticized a political candidate for a failure to acknowledge human rights violations by the Chinese in his appeal to bring Chinese business to Maine. At a public forum, the Candidate for Governor was asked why he ignored this Chinese indifference to human rights. He replied, "What? Bring it on," he sneered. The censorship of "The humble Farmer" by Maine Public broadcasting for speaking against the Iraq War also influenced the creation of this series. We hope there will never come a day when the public conscience (and mine) ignore a flagrant omission of concern for human rights. Speaking truth to power about those omissions is the task of The River Is Wide series.

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". When the former Candidate for Governor at a public forum was asked why he ignored the human rights violations, he replied, "What? Bring it on," he sneered. Another inspiration has been the censorship of "The humble Farmer" by Maine Public broadcasting for speaking against the Iraq War. Citizen's Guides, The Indifference Diaries, sonnets and odes In the Department of Poetic Justice, and Sixty Second Moral Inquiries speak to issues that the public conscience (and mine) won't let us ignore and speak truth to power (everyone else's) especially surrounding freedom of speech in the media, injustice and harm.


322 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
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I’m not sure how one marries the  proprietary "I give the right to life”  to the “I give the right to life free from emotional and physical torment...

  • Added: Sep 17, 2016
  • Length: 06:17
Caption: ...wide River as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Here we are just weeks before the 2016 Presidential election and what seems to be on the line- still- is whether or not Hillary Clinton is a truth...

  • Added: Sep 30, 2016
  • Length: 02:40
Caption: ...wide River as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Child prodigies need the chance to find themselves- the moment they become ‘spellbound’ because they have found the field their gift has been looki...

  • Added: Oct 02, 2016
  • Length: 07:04
Caption: ...wide River as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Today's Sixty-second Moral inquiry brings quotations from the Republican Bible on Adultery which ask 'Why Shouldn't the GOP Presidential Candidate...

  • Added: Oct 05, 2016
  • Length: 01:18
Caption: ...wide River as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
The then director of the Harvard Eating Disorders program gave a talk to a small group of eating disorder mental health providers in my work town. ...

  • Added: Oct 10, 2016
  • Length: 07:33
Caption: ...wide River as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
Today’s Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks when men engage in sexploitation whose responsibility is it to refuse to sanction or accept as ‘just the wa...

  • Added: Oct 13, 2016
  • Length: 01:14
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The anniversary of the loss of my childhood friend who died from suicide just passed. She, like many women, was sexually abused and never told an...

  • Added: Oct 19, 2016
  • Length: 07:59
Caption: Big screen, little truck..., Credit: Susan Cook
In today's Department of Poetic Justice, we offer a musical tribute to a fictional radio host, Rushton Limbo, who poetically longs for the respite ...

  • Added: Oct 24, 2016
  • Length: 02:53
Caption: ...wide River as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
In honor of the upcoming Presidential race, The River Is Wide presents a melding of our favorite features. A Citizen's Guide, A Sixty Second Moral ...

  • Added: Oct 29, 2016
  • Length: 01:34
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The Standing Rock Sioux are protesting the construction of the 1200 mile Dakota Access oil pipeline because it threatens and places at enormous r...

  • Added: Oct 30, 2016
  • Length: 06:15
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As women in this country grieve the lost opportunity to elect a woman President, the widespread sanctioning of Donald Trump’s sexploitation is ther...

  • Added: Nov 09, 2016
  • Length: 05:11
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There is always, someone, somewhere who "like a bird on the wire" from Leonard Cohen's song, is trying “in [his or her] way to be free“. Since 1...

  • Added: Nov 13, 2016
  • Length: 07:40
Caption: Shared human experience..makes us human., Credit: Susan Cook
Amazon has announced they will soon launch an attempt to eliminate that pesky feature of day-to-day life- ‘the grocery store check-out employee’. ...

  • Added: Dec 06, 2016
  • Length: 07:13
Caption: In another time- Democratic National Convention 1996, Credit: Keith Meyers/NewYork Times
The Sixty Second Moral asks questions about what is right or wrong in 60 seconds more or less. So, today, we ask, will there be yet another man who...

  • Added: Dec 09, 2016
  • Length: 01:32
Caption: Wondering about life post-Obama..., Credit: Susan Cook
Possibilities for a suppression of the Electoral College vote results are gone. We now come to terms with the reality that at least for the next fo...

  • Added: Dec 20, 2016
  • Length: 04:59
Caption: There are always more than one..., Credit: Rebecca Farnum/Current Inc.  Colorado Springs
How does a whole country find its better angels. We hear that this new administration’s policies will deny care to the most vulnerable, escalate ...

  • Added: Dec 27, 2016
  • Length: 07:11
Caption: Carol Gilligan was Ms Magazine's First Woman of the Year..., Credit: Ed Levy/Boston Globe
If you missed the smearing, cheap shots and character assassination against women this year, and one woman in particular, maybe you were cut off f...

  • Added: Jan 01, 2017
  • Length: 08:11
Caption: Private Insurance Jobs Lost..., Credit: Susan Cook
Like the Defense Industry, Obamacare was created to keep America strong. Like the Defense Industry, Obamacare government stipends are paid to priva...

  • Added: Jan 06, 2017
  • Length: 01:12
Caption: ...wide River as ever..., Credit: Susan Cook
The Presidency and being Presidential staff are not power pills that work their way out in sweat and perspiration after swallowing. They are power ...

  • Added: Jan 18, 2017
  • Length: 03:39
Caption: Girls Wanna Have Fundamental Rights, Credit: Susan Cook
Millions of women all over this country are protesting the denial and exclusion of women’s rights by the new Washington, DC throne holder. So to e...

  • Added: Jan 21, 2017
  • Length: 03:09