Phillip Griffin

Recent Posts

A fraught Thanksgiving weekend at Standing Rock

Overview

I spent my Thanksgiving this year at Standing Rock, where a poverty-stricken Sioux tribe has faced off with a $3.8 billion oil pipeline project. I did not understand the irony and deep significance of my trip until I was reminded of the holiday’s dual origins soon after I arrived at camp. In 1637 during the Pequot War, settlers from Massachusetts Bay colonies massacred something like 700 natives after a white man was found dead in a boat. Casualties included Pequot women and children, who were burned in their village or hunted and shot if they escaped the inferno. (more…) Continue Reading →

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Inside HELP Flight: Cool equipment, important jobs

Chopper

I’ll be honest: one of the main reasons I wanted to write this article was so I could get paid to ride in a helicopter. I mean, what childhood dreams would be satisfied on such a ride? What anxieties quelled? This would be a transcendent experience, a dream come true. Riding on a helicopter would be a closer approximation to the ideal: flying wingless through the air, a body darting through the sky, effortless. Continue Reading →

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Punk bands unite to put on Planned Parenthood benefit

Benefit

In November there was a shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic, remember? In Colorado Springs, Colo., where four people died. That incident may have been buried in the slew of other shootings around the country. But let us focus here. As the man fired 20 shots from his semiautomatic rifle, he made remarks about “baby parts.” We can reasonably take these as a reference to a video released by an anti-Planned Parenthood group, which depicts Planned Parenthood workers dealing in the acquisition and exchange of fetal human body parts for profit. Continue Reading →

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