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Meryl Ann Butler is an artist, author, educator and OpedNews Managing Editor who has been actively engaged in utilizing the arts as stepping-stones toward joy-filled wellbeing since she was a hippie. She began writing for OpEdNews in Feb, 2004. She became a Senior Editor in August 2012 and Managing Editor in January, 2013. In June, 2015, the combined views on her articles, diaries and quick link contributions topped one million. She was particularly happy that her article about Bree Newsome removing the Confederate flag was the one that put her past the million mark. Her art in a wide variety of media can be seen on her YouTube video, "Visionary Artist Meryl Ann Butler on Creativity and Joy" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGs2r_66QE A NYC native, her response to 9-11 was to pen an invitation to healing through creativity, entitled, "90-Minute Quilts: 15+ Projects You Can Stitch in an Afternoon" (Krause 2006), which is a bestseller in the craft field. The sequel, MORE 90-Minute Quilts: 20+ Quick and Easy Projects With Triangles and Squares was released in April, 2011. Her popular video, How to Stitch a Quilt in 90 Minutes with Meryl Ann Butler can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrShGOQaJQ8 She has been active in a number of international, arts-related projects as a citizen diplomat, and was arts advisor to Baltimore's CIUSSR (Center for Improving US-Soviet Relations), 1987-89. She made two trips to the former USSR in 1987 and 1988 to speak to artists, craftpeople and fashion designers on the topic of utilizing the arts as a tool for global wellbeing. She created the historical "First US-Soviet Children's Peace Quilt Exchange Project" in 1987-88, which was the first time a reciprocal quilt was given to the US from the former USSR. Her artwork is in collections across the globe. Meryl Ann is a founding member of The Labyrinth Society and has been building labyrinths since 1992. She publishes an annual article about the topic on OpEdNews on World Labyrinth Day, the first Saturday in May. OpEdNews Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in "Beyond Surviving: How to Thrive in Challenging Times" at https://www.opednews.com/articles/Beyond-Surviving--How-to-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Anxiety_Appreciation_Coronavirus_Creativity-200318-988.html Find out more about Meryl Ann's artistic life in "OEN Managing Ed, Meryl Ann Butler, Featured on the Other Side of the Byline" at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/OEN-Managing-Ed-Meryl-Ann-in-Life_Arts-Artistic_Artists_Quilt-170917-615.html On Feb 11, 2017, Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in Pink Power: Sister March, Norfolk, VA at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Pink-Power-Sister-March--by-Joan-Brunwasser-p*ssy-Hats-170212-681.html "Creativity and Healing: The Work of Meryl Ann Butler" by Burl Hall is at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Creativity-and-Healing--T-by-Burl-Hall-130414-18.html Burl and Merry Hall interviewed Meryl Ann on their BlogTalk radio show, "Envision This," at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/envision-this/2013/04/11/meryl-ann-butler-art-as-a-medicine-for-the-soul Archived articles www.opednews.com/author/author1820.html Older archived articles, from before May 2005 are here. OpEd News Member for 1012 week(s) and 2 day(s) 999 Articles, 2414 Quick Links, 7089 Comments, 8 Diaries, 106 Series, 0 Polls
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Wednesday, October 15, 2025
How to Protect Your Right to Culture SHARE 
The right to culture is fundamental, and its revocation has grave consequences for the texture of daily life.The United States government's coordinated repeal of the right to culture has grave consequences for the texture of our daily lives. But there are ways to fight back.
Saturday, October 11, 2025
Former GOP election official buys Dominion Voting Systems SHARE
Voting Systems, the election vendor that was falsely accused of rigging the 2020 election, is being sold and rebranded as Liberty Vote effective immediately.The Liberty Vote announcement also says its actions will be in compliance with President Trumps executive order, signed earlier this year, on election integrity. Parts of that order have already been blocked by a federal judge, and leading election experts have said the order is likely unconstitutional.
Thursday, October 9, 2025
Mahmoud Khalil Warns That the US Is Failing the Palestine Test SHARE
Perhaps youve heard of the Palestine Exception, the idea that all sorts of behaviors and speech that are acceptable in other contexts are denied and punished when it comes to advocacy around Palestine. But what if the treatment of Palestinians wasn't an exception, but a stress test? A test of our tolerance as a nation and as a people, for cruelty and the consolidation of authoritarian rule. Authoritarians name an enemy, declare an emergency, and, on that pretext, invoke extraordinary, often military, powers to shock and intimidate credible sources of opposition and dissent, including politicians, the law, the media, the academy, free speech, and even the truth itself.
Wednesday, October 8, 2025
OSHA Admits It Told Healthcare Employers Not to Report COVID Vaccine Injuries SHARE
After a whistleblower alerted The Defender, an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) spokesperson confirmed an internal directive telling healthcare employers not to report or track COVID-19 vaccine injuries. The directive stated that OSHA, a division of the U.S. Department of Labor, would not track workers COVID-19 vaccine adverse events even though it acknowledged that the vaccines may cause injuries that would require employees to take time off work. OSHA continued to track reactions to other vaccines.
Saturday, September 20, 2025
Behind Many a Great Male Writer Is a Woman Holding a Pen SHARE
The success of many iconic male writers was due in part to women whose contributions are rarely known and acknowledged. Some of the most beloved and acclaimed male writers had help from their wives when writing, and while some of them acknowledged those contributions, others let their spouses remain unappreciated. These women inspired, edited, typed, translated, or even partially wrote many influential works, but their names rarely appeared on the cover alongside their husbands.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Dems Break GOP Supermajority in Iowa state Senate SHARE
In an indication of anupcoming Blue Wave, Dem Catelin Drey flipped an open Iowa state Senate seat, defeating GOP Christopher Prosch,in the race to replace the late state Sen. Rocky De Witt (R), who died in June from cancer.The extra Democratic vote, which will bring the margin in the chamber to 33 GOPs to 17 Dems, will ensure that the governor's nominees cant get approved on a party-line vote. The district voted for Trump in 2024 by more than 11 points, but now "wants change."
Thursday, August 21, 2025
Time for Democrats to Get With the Program SHARE
In the wake of the Democratic Party's brutal losses in the 2024 elections, a new movement of defiant economic populist candidates is seizing the Democratic political world by storm. Most prominent among them, of course, is Zohran Mamdani, who crushed corrupt, abusive, conservative Dem Andrew Cuomo in a dominating primary victory on a democratic socialist platform laser-focused on bread-and-butter economics. He's joined by Nathan Sage, a mechanic from Iowa challenging Joni Ernst, and Dan Osborn, an independent union leader challenging billionaire Republican Pete Ricketts, both of whom are running explicitly anti-billionaire populist platforms. Congressional candidates Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Robert Peters in Illinois, and Rebecca Cooke in Wisconsin are all joining Bernie Sanders on his Fight The Oligarchy tour that is turning out packed crowds in red and blue states alike.
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Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Sub-versive DC Protester Becomes Memeorable SHARE
Nothing outsmarts aspiring autocrats and their flunkies as much as humorous resistance, and the latest unlikely peoples' hero was sporting a Subway sandwich that he famously flung at US Customs and Border Protection officers last week in Washington, DC. Don't miss these memes and other tributes to the hero with a hero!
Monday, August 11, 2025
Letitia James, New Yorks Badass AG- The Nation SHARE
No attorney general in the country is battling Pres. Trump more proficientlyand drawing more of his firethan James. When Trump was out of office, she brought the successful civil case charging him and his company with business fraud for alternately inflating and deflating the value of his assets in order to reduce property taxes and obtain favorable rates from banks and insurance companies. The case resulted in a $454 million fine, which Trump is appealing.
Since Trump's reelection, James has emerged as a North Star in the chaos, inspiring progressives in NY and nationally. "Tish James and the other state AGs on the front lines of this fight are not only defending a Constitution and federal laws against a Supreme Leader and lawless autocrats, says Jamie Raskin (D-MD). "They are also showing the country what real attorneys general do..."
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Report Exposes How Major American Corporations Aid Israeli's Atrocities in Gaza SHARE
Francesca Albanese's expose, "From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide" lays bare how major American corporations have been all too eager to facilitate Israel's atrocities in Gaza in exchange for billions of dollars in revenue. It also reveals our nation's now undeniable complicity in what has been described as the worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century. Thousands of famished people waiting hours in 90-degree heat to secure bags of flour that run out in minutes is a typical scene at the 4 aid distribution centers remaining in Gaza. The cause of this desperation isn't shortages per se, because the World Food Programme has 116,000 metric tons of food waiting to be delivered to malnourished Palestinians. Instead, the problem is Israel's monthslong blockade of aid, which over 100 humanitarian organizations have stated is causing chaos, starvation, and death.
Thursday, July 17, 2025
"Wall Of Shame": Brooklyn Art Installation Spotlights Pardoned Insurrectionists SHARE
On July 4th, in the heart of Brooklyn, artist Phil Buehler and the team at Radio Free Brooklyn unveiled Wall of Shame, a striking outdoor installation that confronts the legacy of the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Installed along a 50-foot stretch of chain-link fencing outside Pine Box Rock Shop, the project presents a sobering archive of over 1,500 individuals involved in the riot, many of whom have since received pardons or had their sentences reduced. The installation displays photos with the stories and crimes: "pushed a police officer over a railing," "charged the Capitol with a flagpole," "destroyed government property." The mural doesn't ask viewers to judge. It forces them to bear witness.
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Summer Camp Kids Did Not Have to Die in the Texas Floods SHARE
In May, five former directors of the National Weather Service wrote that the budget cuts could leave weather forecast offices so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life. The NWS, which lost 500 staff positions since the Trump-Musk budget cuts, provides the data and analysis that inform virtually all of the weather forecasts Americans receive. Early reports indicate that the problem in Texas was that the budget cuts crippled the NWS's ability to warn residents about the oncoming flash floods. It's not that the service's scientists didn't forecast the potential flooding accurately enough; it's that the service's communications staff had been so shrunk that the forecasts were not shared promptly with the public and emergency managers. Only hours after NWS issued its storm and flood warning did safety officials pass that warning on to the general public.
Friday, July 11, 2025
Zohran Mamdani Is Making History. When Will Top Democrats Catch On? -John Nichols SHARE
Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani did not just win the NYC Democratic mayoral primary convincingly enough that his chief rival, former governor Andrew Cuomo, conceded immediately on the night of the June 24 election. Now, two weeks later, with the city's Ranked Choice Voting count finally concluding ... Mamdani can celebrate the fact that "our campaign has officially earned the most total votes in a primary in NYC history."
Why did Mamdani secure such a historic victory? Because he did exactly what national Democrats, stunned by the party's defeats in the 2024 presidential and congressional elections, keep saying they know they must do. "Zohran Mamdani talked about issues of relevance to working-class people. The city responded to him, and he won the [primary]" explained Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont and two-time presidential candidate.
Sunday, July 6, 2025
Trump Just Drowned His Own Supporters - The Feed SHARE
Trump gutted funding for weather services and is now shell shocked that these services couldn't predict the weather. Who could've known? Literally everyone. At least 40 people, including kids, died in catastrophic floods after record-shattering rainfall swallowed highways and homes. People had no time to escape, and warnings came too little, too late. Here's what no one wants to say out loud: these deaths are a policy choice.
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Anti-Trump Protests Planned Across U.S. on July 4 SHARE
"They want us scared, divided, and alone. They don't want us to dream about freedom. But that's exactly what we have to do."
This July 4, some Americans are planning to retire their Independence Day barbecues and instead head to the streets in protest against President Donald Trump and his Administration.
The collective demonstrations will be the latest in a long line of protests that have taken place since Trump returned to the White House for a second term.
Women's March, which coordinates protests across the U.S. against sexism and oppression, has published a list of over 140 events set to take place on July 4. The displays of protest range from rallies and marches to block parties. Women's March has invited communities across the country to create even more events.
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
New Yorkers Aren't Afraid of a Democratic Socialist Mayor - John Nichols SHARE
John Nichols: Andrew Cuomo's allies spent a fortune shouting that Zohran Mamdani is a socialist. Result? A Mamdani landslide in the Democratic primary. Fifty-six percent of New Yorkers supported a democratic socialist for the Democratic Party’s nomination to lead the nation’s largest city, according to New York City’s ranked choice voting tabulation. The results, which were released Tuesday, gave Zohran Mamdani a resounding 56-44 victory over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, confirming that Mamdani’s campaign had upended not only the calculus of municipal politics of New York City but also of a national Democratic Party that is struggling to identify its ideological direction following its 2024 election setbacks.
Saturday, June 28, 2025
Zohran Mamdani Defeated a Corrupt, Weak Democratic Party Establishment SHARE
Zohran Mamdani proved to be a superb campaigner with a message about affordability that resonated with voters. Cuomo, by contrast, was aloof and seemed to try to see as little of voters as he could get away with. Perhaps he felt that as a former governor, the job was beneath him. Like the 2024 presidential election, the mayoral primaries were a change election. Winning depended on harnessing voter anger. It's notable that Mamdani seems to have done well with the demographics that had shifted away from the Democratic Party in 2024, including young people (particularly young men), Asians, and Latinos.
Saturday, June 28, 2025
ICE agents scatter as SD Bishop Pham, other clergy visit immigration court SHARE
Any other day, said a local activist, two to four immigrants would be detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and taken away in vans operated by private prison CoreCivic. Bishop Pham, himself a Vietnamese refugee as a child, said ICE agents were "standing there covered with masks as we walked toward the courtroom. Eventually the agents kind of scattered and went away. No wonder people come in fear." The masked immigration agents scattered after seeing the clergy delegation led by Bishop-elect Michael Pham."Our presence made a difference," one priest said, quoting an immigration lawyer saying their client was given more time to prepare for another hearing. Nobody was detained as had been expected.
Monday, June 16, 2025
'No Kings' Was Biggest Protest in U.S. History: Data Analyst SHARE
The "No Kings" protests in every state may have been the biggest day of demonstrations in American history, a data analyst has suggested. Based on hundreds of crowd-sourced records of No Kings Day event turnout, and extrapolating for the cities where we don't have data yet, it looks like roughly 4-6 million people protested Trump across the U.S. yesterday, dependent data journalist G Elliott posted to X Sunday. For reference, that's between 1 and 2 percent of the total population of the United States.
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Thursday, May 22, 2025
Biden officials knew about potential COVID-19 vaccine risks -- and took steps to downplay them: scathing Senate report SHARE
Top federal health officials actively took steps to delay warning the public in 2021 about the potential risks of heart-related complications from receiving mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, a scathing interim report from Sen. Ron Johnson's office alleges. On Feb. 28, 2021 an Israeli Ministry of Health official attempted to contact the CDC and FDA about 40 cases of myocarditis and other heart-related ailments in young people from the Pfizer vaccine, but these agencies waited until late June to make that side effect known... jeopardizing the health of young Americans. Doctors who warned about the potential risks of myocarditis among those who took the vaccine were subject to censorship, suppression or accusations of peddling misinformation.
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