Sean Davis

By Sean Davis War is a machine designed to lose its parts as it cuts through countries, global politics, and people’s lives. Chaos, fear, and hate fuel it. Fear for those who are different. Hate for our own shortcomings. In the best case, war delays our potential to be better. In the worst case, it destroys it. That’s why we must find the courage to protest, to argue for what is right.  On the…

Purple Heart recipient and Iraq War veteran Sean Davis talks about his military career, his deployments, and the struggles he had after returning home from war. Not every veteran with PTSD is broken. Many can find ways to cope with their trauma and live with it every day. Some find that helping other people and building community helps. This interview was recorded while shooting Rogue Cell’s new…

Ever since I got back from the war, I’ve had the sneaking suspicion that I’m not really here. I’ll smell some diesel fuel from an obnoxiously large truck, I’ll see a flash of light, or I’ll feel some quick pain in my side, and I start to believe that somehow I’m still sprawled out on my back in the middle of a badly paved road with the sun glaring down at me. This isn’t real. You’re not real. I…

Editor: Matty Byloos “…how brains and blood turn from blue to red when they hit air…” Taji, Iraq NAILED MAGAZINE: Tell me about the thing you’ve been obsessed with for the majority of your life. What’s the one thing that’s always playing in a loop somewhere in the back of your mind? SEAN DAVIS: The fear of a major earthquake ripping cities apart keeps many people up at night. Super volcanoes…

“Reality cannot be ignored except at a price; and the longer the ignorance is persisted in, the higher and more terrible becomes the price that must be paid.”—Aldous Huxley Dear, Republicans I’m a middle-aged, straight, white man living in rural America—a former police officer, firefighter, and combat veteran with a Purple Heart from the war in Iraq. In other words, I’m the human embodiment of…

“Since coming back from overseas, this is more of a foreign country than the places overseas. I don’t understand it. It’s like America has lost faith in rational thought.”  ~General Jim Mattis I know many people believe that Trump is a Russian asset deliberately put in power in the US to alienate our closest allies, sabotage our democracy, and tank the global economy so badly that it helps…

I have a unique ability. I lucid dream ideas for new projects. When I have these dreams, I guide the story, add characters, and form arcs. Last night, I had a great dream I would like to turn into a novel or maybe screenplay. Not sure when I can get to it because I am working on four other projects right now, but I wanted to get it down for later. Aliens have taken over the world. They were sick…

Last night at the Writers’ Guild Initiative annual fundraiser gala, a couple of actors read a story of mine on stage. Peter Friedman and James Yaegashi read a piece of my new memoir about the time I went to the Mental Hygiene clinic in Portland. In The Wax Bullet War, I think I was still too close to all that combat. I put that book through a filter. I still like the book, but for this new…

The Great Experiment and Cognitive Tests All Around “We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men – not from men who feared to write, to speak…” ~ Edward R. Murrow As I watch the news cycle spinning, wobbling, and turning, I’m absolutely dumbstruck by the fact that a man who has…

My friend Eric who was killed They hurried me into a room with more light than I imagined heaven would have. I felt each wobble of the gurney wheels in the fault lines of my broken bones and stared up at the unbearable white, letting it bleach my eyes, hoping that would take my mind off the pain. I had lost too much blood, I had fractures, shrapnel wounds, breaks, and burns, but my wrist had…

Chained to the World, and We All Gotta Pull “It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.” ― Voltaire My friends Al and Angelica Artero told me once that in the future there will be a new branch of archeology. You see, instead of digging in the dirt and using their little brushes to uncover the bones and artifacts of the past, there will be a new type of archeologist who will…

The illustrations for Irony Feeds Divinity.

Dispatch 25 – Freedom has Become a Contranym “Americans always try to do the right thing after they’ve tried everything else.” Winston Churchill Just days before the holiday to celebrate freedom, the Supreme Court has again handed down decisions that actively work to take freedom away from vulnerable communities. Handing down decisions that take rights away right before our nation’s birthday…