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Staff, North Meridian Review

The North Meridian Review 
Manuscript 1075 
Front Matter 
North Meridian Review Staff 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/thenorthmeridianreview 
1 
 
The  
North  
Meridian  
Review 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fall 2022 Volume 3 Issue 1 
A Journal of Culture and Scholarship 
  
2 
 
The North Meridian Review: 
A Journal of Culture and Scholarship 
 
Established 2019 
 
 
Editorial Staff 
 
Founding and Managing Editor: Wesley R. Bishop, Jacksonville State University 
Assistant Editor: Robin Marie Averbeck, California State University, Chico 
Assistant Editor: Janine Giordano Drake, Indiana University Bloomington 
Assistant Editor: Paula Ashe, Purdue University 
Assistant Editor: Lama Sharif, Purdue University 
Copy Editor: Cynthia Gwynne Yaudes, Indiana University Bloomington 
Book Review Editor: Alzbeta Hajkova, Georgia Institute of Technology 
Digital Editor: Cale Erwin, Butler University 
Poetry Editor: Ricardo Quintana-Vallejo, Rhode Island College 
 
 
  
3 
 
Editorial Board 
 
 
 
Andrea Adomako, New York University 
Saladin Ambar, Rutgers University 
Ryan Burns, Jacksonville State University 
Michelle Campbell, University of Michigan 
Valentina Concu, Universidad del Norte 
LaShawnda Crowe Storm, IUPUI- The Polis 
Center 
Sarah Ellis, Jacksonville State University 
John Enyeart, Bucknell University 
Nancy Gabin, Emeritus-Purdue University 
Iridessence, Activist and Artist 
Pádraig Lawlor, Canterbury Preparatory 
School, CT 
Michelle Moyd, Indiana University 
Bloomington 
Andy Oler, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical 
University 
Patricia Oman, Hastings College Nebraska 
Bessie Rigakos, Marian University 
Indianapolis 
Richard Schneirov, Emeritus-Indiana State 
University 
Carina Shero, Activist and Artist 
Kimberly Southwick-Thompson, 
Jacksonville State University 
Harry Targ, Emeritus-Purdue University 
Mauve Perle Tahat, Indiana University of 
Pennsylvania 
Julia Tigner, Jacksonville State University  
Naomi R. Williams, Rutgers University 
Victoria Saker Woeste, Independent Scholar 
Ruisheng Zhang, Tsinghua University
  
4 
 
Table of Contents 
 
Introduction…………………………………….. Wesley R. Bishop, Managing Editor, pp. 5-6. 
Preface to Special Issue………………………… Harry Targ, Guest Editor, pp. 7-11. 
 
Scholarship: 
“Daughter of Orion”…………………………………….…………..Ellen M. Taylor, pp. 14-42. 
 
Special Issue: 
“Nothing Sweet”……………………………………………………….Doug Morris, pp. 46-67. 
“New York City’s Composers’ Collective”……………….…...Julia Schmidt-Pirro, pp.68-105. 
“Behind the Curtain”…………………………………………………..BJ Bruther, pp. 106-125. 
“Insurgent Publishing for the Resistance”………………….…….Timothy Sheard, pp.126-134. 
 
Art: 
“Photo Essay”……………………………………… Iridessence / Essence Walker, pp.138-154. 
“Robot and Dog”…….…………………………………………...... Wesley R. Bishop, pp. 155. 
 
Poetry: 
 
“Constantine”……………………………………….…………………….David Milley, pp.159. 
“Woman Singing”……………………………...……………………..Nancy Cook, pp.161-162. 
“Woman’s Work”……………………………...……………………...Nancy Cook, pp.163-165. 
“Toy Train”………………………………………………………………Ilona Hegedűs, pp.167. 
“Untitled”…………………………………………………...Ricardo Quintana-Vallejo, pp.169. 
 
Reviews: 
Extended Review: “Democracy as a Struggle and Commitment”…………………………... 
……………………………………………………………………..Susan Curtis, pp.172-181. 
Extended Review: “William F. Buckley Was Not a Good Man”……………………….……... 
………………………………………………..………………..Robin Averbeck, pp.182-194. 
Film Review: “Black Political Ideology and Identity”……………………………………… 
……………………………..Valeria Sinclair-Chapman and Andrea Y. Simpson, pp.195-200. 
Film Review: “More than a Historical Narrative of One of America’s Most Notorious Trials” 
……………………………………………………………...…..Yesmina Khedir, pp.201-207. 
Film Review: “Art, the State, and Civil Rights”……………………………………………. 
…………………………………………………..………………...Juanita Crider, pp.208-212. 
Film Review: “A Badge is Scarier than a Gun”………………………………………………… 
………………………………………………………..……………....Mark Latta, pp.213-216. 
Book Review: “The Peacemaker’s Path”…………………………………………………… 
…………………………………………………..…………………Charlie Wiles, pp.217-218. 
Book Review: “The Good Hand”……………………………………………………………… 
……………………………………………………………………….John Lepley, pp.219-221. 
 
Contributor Bios……………………………………………………………………pp.223-227. 
  


English

Front Matter

Quintana-Vallejo, Ricardo

The North Meridian Review 
Manuscript 1089 
Untitled 
Ricardo Quintana-Vallejo 
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169 
 
“Untitled” 
__________________________________________________________ 
 
Ricardo Quintana-Vallejo 
 
Today I was afraid the Universe would end 
of all consuming fire or second flooding, 
if that’s more your style. It would start 
with a single broken toaster or light rain, 
but the key is it wouldn’t stop. 
 
I was afraid of marinara stains on my collar 
in the interview I’d been waiting for 
for months. Of my words being dull 
or simple or not relevant 
at all. 
 
 
Most of all I was afraid of the porch 
vanishing where we will sit and rock 
when we are old men and watch 
our dogs or children play; 
Of the wind or fire or rain. 
  


Untitled

Khedir, Yesmina

The North Meridian Review 
Manuscript 1093 
Film Review: “More than a Historical Narrative of One of America’s 
Most Notorious Trials” 
Yesmina Khedir 
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201 
 
Film Review: 
More than a Historical Narrative of one of 
America’s Most Notorious Trials: Review of The 
Trial of the Chicago 7 
 
Yesmina Khedir 
 
Released on September 25, 2020, Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 came out at a critical 
period of the U.S. contemporary history. With the rising demands for social and racial justice led 
by the Black Lives Matter movement and the huge demonstrations that swept American streets —
and across the world—to denounce police violence and discrimination against people of color 
following the cold-blooded murder of George Floyd in May 2020, The Trial of the Chicago 7 is 
more relevant today than any time since the 1960s. Sorkin himself states in his foreword to The 
Trial of the Chicago: An Official Transcript that “the country’s mood in 2020 is eerily similar to 
what it was in 1968” (p. xv). By taking us back to the 1960s, Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 
aims to reconstruct and revise facts around what happened during one of the most notorious trials 
in the history of the U.S. courthouse. Indeed, the film moves even beyond the mere historical and 
legal representation of the Chicago 7 trial to provide a larger social, political, and cultural overview 
of one of the most tumultuous decades of U.S. history.  
Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a 130-minute historical 
legal drama that is based on the true story of the case of the United States v. Dellinger et al., better 
known as the “Chicago 7,” which started in the fall of 1969 and ended in the winter of 1970, lasting 
for more than six months. The film portrays the trial of a group of anti–Vietnam war and 
202 
 
counterculture activists who staged a massive revolution during the 1968 Democratic National 
Convention in Chicago. The trial initially included eight defendants: Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, 
David Dallinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale, with 
William Kunstler as their defense attorney, Richard Schultz as the federal lead prosecutor, and 
Julius Hoffman as the Judge. The “Chicago 8” became the “Chicago 7” after Judge Hoffman 
declared a mistrial for Bobby Seale, leaving the scene with seven defendants.    
Handpicked by Richard Nixon’s newly designated attorney general John Mitchell, Richard 
Schultz is appointed to make a case against the eight defendants and charge them with conspiracy 
to cross state lines in order to incite riots. Though he accepts the mission, Schultz is not utterly 
convinced they can get an indictment on conspiracy because some of the defendants have never 
met each other personally prior to the protests. Asked by Mitchell for his own personal opinion on 
the defendants, Schultz replies “I see them as vulgar, anti-establishment, antisocial, and 
unpragmatic” (1:57:30). He also describes them during the first day of the trial as “the radical Left 
in different costumes” (1:47:22): The Student for Democratic Society (SDS) represented by Tom 
Hayden and Rennie Davis, the Youth International Party (Yippies) represented by Abbie Hoffman 
and Jerry Rubin, and The Black Panther Party, led by Bobby Seale. However, as we may feel, 
Schultz’s view of the case remains controversial throughout the trial and though he fiercely tries 
to win, he shows doubts on “who started the riots. Was it the protesters, or the defendants?” 
(1:57:18). Today, fifty years after the trial, Schultz still firmly believes that the trial was a complete 
mayhem and that the defendants were given exactly what they wanted: “a stage and an audience” 
(1:56:59). He describes Sorkin’s movie as “fun to watch—just a fantasy, that’s all” (Rogers, 2020). 
Perhaps some of the most remarkable and memorable scenes of the movie are the ones that 
feature Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. As nonconformists and counterculturalists, Hoffman and 
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Rubin contribute to most of the movie’s fun parts. Despite the momentousness of the occasion, the 
two defendants’ sarcastic and humorous tactics in addressing Judge Hoffman render the trial rather 
unexpectedly entertaining. The trial, as shown by the movie, feels indeed more like a black comedy 
show1, a political satire that evokes more serious and deeply rooted issues at the heart of American 
democracy and culture. In a Sorkinese theatrical fashion, the courtroom becomes more like a stage 
with Hoffman and Rubin, in their funky hippie outfits and un-groomed hairstyles, more like 
standup comedians mocking the proceedings and pranking on Judge Julius Hoffman and the 
American criminal justice system. For instance, on one occasion, Hoffman and Rubin appear in 
courtroom wearing judicial robes (for which they are charged with one count of contempt), and on 
another one, Abbie Hoffman calls Judge Hoffman “father” (1:48:35) in a religiously scoffing tone, 
only to add later in a more sarcastic way that contempt of court “is practically a religion for me, 
Sir” (1:48:27). Actually, in playing, respectively, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, Sacha Baron 
Cohen and Jeremy Strong can only be hailed for their performance and contribution to the movie’s 
successful portrayal of the Yippies’ approach and role in the countercultural and revolutionary 
climate of the 1960s.  
Humor aside, the movie abounds also with graphically violent and shocking scenes: 
flashbacks of the protesters’ bloody confrontations with the police, a scene of sexual assault against 
one of the female protesters, footage of Martin Luther King’s and John F. Kennedy’s 
assassinations, and above all the extremely humiliating scene of Bobby Seale with his legs and 
hands chained and his mouth gagged and tapped in front of everyone in the courtroom.  The 
 
1 This has also been noted by several reviewers. See, for instance, Owen Gleiberman’s review of the movie in 
Variety, https://variety.com/2020/film/reviews/the-trial-of-the-chicago-7-review-aaron-sorkin-sacha-baron-cohen-
eddie-redmayne-1234781640/; or K. Austin Collins’s review in RollingStone, 
https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/trial-chicago-7-aaron-sorkin-sacha-baron-cohen-review-
1074099/. 
 
204 
 
sympathetic image of Bobby Seale in the shackles is no more but another familiar dehumanizing 
“spectacle” that evokes the ongoing systemic violence against Black people. Commenting on 
Judge Hoffman’s mistreatment of all the defendants, and more particularly of Bobby Seale, 
William M. Kunstler states in his introduction to the The Chicago Conspiracy Trial book, “The 
judge seldom missed an opportunity to hold up the defendants and/or their attorneys to scorn and 
ridicule . . .  In dramatic impact, however, his treatment of Bobby Seale completely overshadowed 
his other excesses” (1970, xiv). In addition to publically mortifying Bobby Seale, Judge Hoffman 
denied him his constitutional right to represent and defend himself in the absence of his lawyer. 
However, as shown in the movie, Seale certainly exhibited great courage and perseverance in 
defending himself and denouncing what he describes as “a racist decadent America where the 
Government of the United States does not recognize the black man’s constitutional rights, and 
have never recognized them” (quoted in Kunstler 1970, xv). As the National Chairman of the 
Black Panther Party, Seale does not believe in non-violent resistance and rather advocates militant 
self-defense. So, when one of his friends mentions the name of Dr. King, Seale replies “King is 
dead. He has a dream? Well now he has a fucking bullet in his head. Martin’s dead, Malcolm’s 
dead, Medgar’s dead, Bobby’s dead, Jesus is dead. They tried it peacefully? We gon’ try something 
else” (2:05:16). Bobby Seale’s phrase certainly reveals one of the major ideological differences 
among the leaders of Black activism in the 1960s as well as the “disenchantment with . . . the 
partial success of the Civil Rights movement” (Gaál-Szabó 2021, 99–100). Besides Bobby Seale, 
Sorkin’s movie briefly covers the story of another Black Panther leader, Fred Hampton. And 
although The Trial of the Chicago 7 does not go into the details around Hampton’s assassination, 
it certainly raises questions and sheds light on one of America’s most heinous crimes and attempts 
at silencing and persecuting Black political activists in the 1960s.  
205 
 
As a script writer, Sorkin insists that “[t]o keep your story compelling and believable, make 
sure the stakes in the character’s life are high, urgent, and believable” (Olchawska, 2020). And the 
film does a good job in exploring the inmost motives and the underlying tension between the 
defendants. And perhaps the most obvious ideological clash in the movie is the one between Abbie 
Hoffman and Tom Hayden. The two have differing views of the very meaning and appropriate 
methodology of revolution. While Hoffman believes that a cultural revolution, which involves 
street demonstrations, music, theatre, performance, sexual liberation, etc., is the most effective 
way to end the war, dismantle social norms, and bring political and cultural changes, Tom Hayden 
asserts he has “no time for cultural revolution. It distracts from actual revolution” (1:41:45) and 
goes further to verbally and physically attack Hoffman and doubt his real desire to end the war. 
Hoffman, in his turn, also accuses Hayden of taking advantage of the war cause to achieve other 
personal political goals. Despite the obvious competing visions of the defendants, the movie 
features as well other moments of solidarity among them. For instance, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry 
Rubin led the march to free and bail out Tom Hayden after being arrested for deflating the tire of 
a police car. Also, as a gesture of opposition to Judge Hoffman’s discriminatory behavior and 
public humiliation of Bobby Seale, the defendants refused to stand up for Judge Hoffman when he 
adjourned the session—except for Tom Hayden who first stood up but then sat down hesitantly 
explaining later that his behavior was just “a mistake, a reflex” (46:37).  Furthermore, Abbie 
Hoffman’s view of Tom Hayden changes radically by the end of the trial as he finally comes to 
see him as a “badass of an American patriot” (18:51). 
206 
 
We cannot talk about Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 without pointing to the almost 
complete absence of women2. The movie’s all-male ensemble cast leaves little space for 
highlighting the important role that women played in the antiwar and civil rights movements of 
the 1960s. Indeed, the very few occasions where we see female figures are scenes of women that 
are being either verbally and physically sexually assaulted (the attempted rape of one of the female 
protesters and the sexual harassment over the phone of the “conspiracy office” female employee) 
or excluded from decision-making (the young female juror who is removed from the trial allegedly 
for receiving a threatening letter from the Black Panthers, but most probably for being seen holding 
a James Baldwin book). However, whether the absence of women reflects a failure of the movie 
in giving credit to women’s activism and contribution in the civil rights struggle or is due to the 
very nature of the story, it certainly tells something about the sexist and anti-feminist political and 
cultural climate of the 1960s and before.   
Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 triggered both positive and negatives reactions. While 
the movie has been criticized by some reviewers and critics for its occasional lack of historical 
accurateness, its unfaithfulness to the trial’s official transcript, and its exaggeration of the 
conflictual relationship between the defendants3, it remains first and foremost a creative work of 
art which has its own aesthetic take and approach of the story. The Trial of the Chicago 7 is indeed 
more than a historical narrative of one of the most infamous trials in U.S. history or of the complex 
cultural and political swings of the famous 1960s but rather a reminder that change comes only 
with resistance and a call for continued action for social and economic justices in a time of serious 
 
2 The film’s complete erasure of the role of women in the antiwar movement has been highlighted by Judi Gambo, 
1960s counterculture activist and member of the Yippies. For more details see, 
https://www.berkeleyside.com/2020/10/28/berkeley-antiwar-organizers-trial-of-the-chicago-7-aaron-sorkin-netflix. 
3 For more details on the film’s shortcomings, see Frances Dinkelspiel’s article on Berkleyside, 
https://www.berkeleyside.com/2020/10/28/berkeley-antiwar-organizers-trial-of-the-chicago-7-aaron-sorkin-netflix 
 
207 
 
global challenges. No wonder the movie has earned several Oscar nominations, including Best 
Picture, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Original Screenplay. 
  


Film Review: “More than a Historical Narrative of One of America’s Most Notorious Trials”

Sleep issues and their relationship to health and operational effectiveness problems are a growing concern for those serving in the military. In this small study, all 23 members of a U.S. Army Selected Reserve medical unit participated over one month in an online sleep hygiene intervention. Participant sleep quality and sleep duration before and after the intervention were measured using a pre-post assessment design utilizing the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Although no change in pre-post total PSQI scores was found, there was a statistically significant (p \u3c .05) increase in participants’ self-reported number of hours slept per night. This change over time suggests the online sleep hygiene intervention may affect number of hours slept per night over a monthlong period

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An Online Sleep Hygiene Intervention for a Medical Unit of U.S. Army Reservists

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