Nonfiction

By Michael Collins Morton

More from Michael Collins Morton

My Mother's Son (Part 4)

By Michael Collins Morton
As a young man with no older male figure in my household, I had to find my own way through the hormonal maze of puberty. The Swinging Sixties were happening all around me, with relations between young men and young women becoming looser, but I was too circumspect (and also a few years too young) to derive much benefit from it, which was probably for the best. My mother and I never got around to having a discussion about "the birds and the bees," so I had to sort it out for myself. Because I had been brought up as a Catholic, and because I was prone to taking such things more seriously than most boys, I always felt as if the Pope was looking over my shoulder, waiting to scold me if I strayed from the sanctified path of chastity and virtue. After my father was out of the picture in 1966, no longer dragging me to the barber every two weeks, I began to let my hair grow longer, doing my utmost to approximate the look of The Beatles. When necessary, I would carry out a slight trim ...
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Covid-19 Poses a Grievous Danger to Every Human Life

By Michael Collins Morton
At this stage of the ongoing pandemic, in 2026, it should be unmistakably apparent to any rational person that the uncontrolled spread of Covid-19 poses a grievous danger to every human life. Unfortunately, most people are still foolishly dwelling in a blank condition of mindless denial regarding Covid-19. It is, therefore, urgently necessary for the complete truth of Covid-19 to be strongly affirmed at every opportunity, again and again. •   •   • Covid-19 is not "just a cold." Covid-19 is not merely a "nuisance." Covid-19 is not a "respiratory disease." Covid-19 is not a "seasonal disease." Covid-19 is not, by any true reckoning, a "mild disease." •   •   • Covid-19 is an unceasing destroyer. Covid-19 has not lessened, diminished, retreated, paused, or stopped since the start of the pandemic in 2020. Covid-19 has not become endemic. Covid-19 is a savage, unrelenting disease that frequently proves to be fatal. Covid-19 should be avoide...
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An Unpublished Letter to The Guardian Regarding the Pandemic of Covid-19

By Michael Collins Morton
(The letter below, which I wrote in an attempt to heighten awareness regarding the ongoing pandemic of Covid-19, was submitted, in June, 2026, to The Guardian , a British newspaper renowned for its self-proclaimed dedication to the common good, but was not published, offering another shameful instance of a media outlet apparently being unwilling to acknowledge Covid-19 as an extreme threat to human safety.) To the editor: Although The Guardian is to be commended for regularly using its journalism to promote a thorough examination of the many problems that currently threaten the human community (climate change, nuclear weapons, rampant fascism, capitalist inequity, etc.), it has overtly failed in its moral obligation to promote the same degree of examination in regard to the ongoing pandemic of Covid-19. It appears that in 2026, The Guardian , in common with the general public, has wrongly chosen to view Covid-19 as a lesser threat (or indeed, as no threat) to human survival. The foreb...
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An Unpublished Letter to The Oregonian Regarding the Pandemic of Covid-19

By Michael Collins Morton
(In May, 2026, I composed the following letter regarding the extreme threat still posed by the pandemic of Covid-19, and, as a matter of principle, duly submitted it to the editor of The Oregonian , the leading newspaper in the state of Oregon, with the strong presumption, which not surprisingly turned out to be quite correct, that it had little chance of being published.) To the editor: Contrary to the comfortable delusion being promoted by government and media, the harsh truth is that the pandemic of Covid-19 is not over. In 2026, Covid-19 continues to spread freely (particularly in medical settings), continues to result in repeated infections, and continues to cause life-threatening harm throughout the human community. According to the website Our World in Data , the worldwide number of "estimated cumulative excess deaths" ascribable to Covid-19 since 2020 is likely to be upwards of 27 million. The complete lack of necessary measures to curb the airborne contagion of Covid...
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My Mother's Son (Part 3)

By Michael Collins Morton
My father, seemingly a devout Catholic, took up with another woman (a divorced Mormon with two children) when I was twelve, and left our family in February, 1966, leading to my father and my mother getting a divorce. I had never been close to my father, so his departure, in itself, did not perturb me. After he was divorced from my mother, he soon married the other woman and moved into her house, living not far from us, pretending to be the "father" of her children, while showing no concern for the well-being of his own children, regularly failing to keep up with his obligation of paying child support in a timely manner. He proved himself to be patently condemnable as a man and a father: callous, selfish, deceitful, and thoughtless. My mother, not a citizen of the United States and with none of her English family nearby, had a huge burden of care dumped on her as a result of my father leaving, a burden that she had to shoulder on her own. To hold our family of four together, t...
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