HEADLINES JUNE 2026

by Margaret Gannon

PAY-PER-VIEW CAGE FIGHT 

ON WHITE HOUSE LAWN  

 

(Israelis are still killing Palestinians in Gaza) 

 

ICE RAIDS THREATENED 

DURING WORLD CUP FINALS 

 

(Israelis are still killing Palestinians in Gaza) 

 

SAN FRANCISCO D.A. DEMANDS 

15 YEARS JAIL FOR PROTESTERS 

 

(Israelis are still killing Palestinians in Gaza) 

 

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE DECLARES 

MORMONS ARE NOT CHRISTIANS 

 

(Israelis are still killing Palestinians in Gaza) 

 

TRILLIONAIRE’S IPO TITILLATES 

RETIREMENT ACCOUNT OWNERS 

 

(Israelis are still killing Palestinians in Gaza) 

 

STRAIT OF HORMUZ BLOCKED; 

WORLD ECONOMY THREATENED  

 

(Israelis are still killing Palestinians in Gaza) 

 

AMERICAN DEMOCRACY STAGGERS 

TOWARD TWO AND A HALF CENTURIES 

 

(Israelis are still killing Palestinians in Gaza) 

 

 

Margaret Gannon is a retired attorney in San Francisco, CA.

ODE: TO WITNESSING

by Margaret Gannon

Dedicated to poet journalist Ron Riekki who has covered all of Michigan’s mass shootings for The New Verse News since July 2025.

Each time the news repeats 

a scene of rampage, of chaos 

among folks who only yesterday 

went to the market 

for eggs or cigarettes. 

Each time the news zooms in on 

someone else’s pavement smeared 

with blood and worse; 

someone else’s daytime shattered,

nighttime exploded. 

Each time the news serves breakfast 

with jelly spread on toast and 

coffee spilled a bit on the table 

by the digital screen showing

a picture of a police car.

Each time, one by one, the news

forgets yesterday’s message 

and last week’s, twice, and doesn’t 

remember last month’s and then 

again, again.

Each time, the news reports

the reason, the explanation, 

the context that says 

human nature is the trigger.

If the news arrived with a face 

that had looked and looked 

at all the sameness of death — 

the vacant lot, the corner store, 

the porch, the schoolyard, 

the bar, the beauty shop,  

the man, the men, the boys, 

the singular girl, 

the shooters, the victims, 

their mothers, the neighbors 

all stunned in deadly experience —

each time asking why 

that despairing human being 

had a gun,

would the answer be like the kid 

to the cop in The Wire:

“Got to. This America, Man.”?

Margaret Gannon is an attorney retired from representing women in Bay Area courts for 50 years.