Nelson Lowhim - Articles / Blogs
  • blog
    Wed, 18 Oct 2017
    blogFrom Szczecin to DC, a Curtain of Ignorance and...

    When I tell people where my fiancé is from, I proudly recall that Churchill mentioned her hometown in his famous Iron Curtain Speech. Her town of birth, Szczecin, was once a part of Germany—and the northern end of Churchill’s Iron Curtain. If you wander through its streets you’ll see German buildings and,... more...

  • blog
    Thu, 21 Sep 2017
    blogSlavery in the 21st Century and the 13th...

    When my fiancé and I arrived in Aruba, my only knowledge of the island was a missing white girl from a few years back. Well, that and the resorts for which I had come. The first few days we spent there we did the typical bourgeois things such as sit on the beach and swim and cool off in the cafes. And, if only to highlight from... more...

  • blog
    Mon, 26 Jun 2017
    blogThe Long Hand of the Pigeon

    As a child I used to believe in just wars, trusting my elders and being able to isolate evil people in the world. All part of my miseducation, I suppose. I’ve come a long way and now look back at this time as an odd dream. I think back in anger at all that was fed to me through school and elsewhere. This is not to say that I am... more...

  • blog
    Mon, 19 Jun 2017
    blogThe Veteran and Pit-bull-itus

    We were picking up a friend when I saw a man pushing down a woman. I walked over and managed to pull him off of her. Of course, he wouldn’t leave her alone, a little too much alcohol on board.  I told another bystander to call the cops, after asking if she wanted them. I asked because it was Seattle, they were minorities, and... more...

  • blog
    Mon, 5 Jun 2017
    blogAging in the Time of Endless War

    When I visited the Brooks Range north of the Arctic Circle many summers ago, I was hit with a curtain of ice that cut down much of my hiking. I was short on food at this point: oatmeal, cliff bars, and a block of emergency rations meant for shipwrecked souls. Perhaps I was shipwrecked, philosophically speaking, but I managed to take in... more...

  • blog
    Mon, 29 May 2017
    blogWriting As A Veteran

    There is much talk about the veteran civilian divide. Indeed, there is plenty separating those from Sparta and those from Babylon—to butcher a pair of historical metaphors—but as a writer, I know there’s plenty they have in common, and one thing in particular: their reaction to writers, negative, as it were. And more... more...

  • blog
    Mon, 15 May 2017
    blogMy Hiking Soul

    My better half thinks my aversion to taking hikes is a little odd. I try not to say much, but for the most part being amongst the splendid silence of nature does nothing for me and even less for my soul—assuming I have one. This isn’t just a function of my relationship with my significant other. Many others have recommended... more...

  • blog
    Mon, 20 Mar 2017
    blogThank You For Your Service

    When I was a grunt in the military, I remember our reaction to the now still ubiquitous “Thank you for your service” (TYFYS). It speaks to the element of Sparta that I was a part of that few people around me were not against the war and in the particular unit I was in, to include myself, many were for it. I won’t bother... more...