Love and conflict go together. Passion creates arguments. Enchanted April is rainy, at least in my neighborhood.

Of course it doesn’t have to be that way. In this month’s issue on the conflicts that arise from coupling, you’ll also find a country girl and city boy who surprisingly meld in reader Annie Murphy’s personal story Where metro and manure become one, a 70-year-old pair of lovebirds in Kathrin Spirk’s photo essay, and arranged matches that have survived the transfer to America in Radhika Sharma’s piece Outsourcing marriage.

But as leftist reader Tania Boghossian found out, coupling also leads to complications, both personal and political. Her essay Left/right love details a disastrous affair with a staunch Republican. Later this month, on April 19th, Henry Belanger explores the unhealthy tendencies of the President’s “Healthy Marriage” initiative, while Adam Lovingood shares photos of ecstatic but controversial gay newlyweds in San Francisco.  

Our columnists share their own unique take on the current political battleground. Benoit Denizet-Lewis marks his ITF debut by unearthing the tape of a late-night conversation between John Kerry and Al Gore while Afi Scruggs heralds a new civil rights movement and reexamines the old one. Cartoonist Tak Toyoshima begs the question, “Why can’t all of us American immigrants just love each other?”

Alas, love and harmony are not the bedfellows we’d like them to be. At least not in this day and age, when the nuance and complexity of relationships has been exchanged for self-help guides that help men get girls quickly. While editor Laura Nathan’s attempts to sabotage one such guide went unappreciated by the author, ITFers can enjoy the irony.

So enjoy our Enchanted/Haunted April of Love. And don’t forget to take our Readers’ Survey to let us know your views on relationships: straight, conflicted, or otherwise.

Nicole Leistikow
Managing Editor
Baltimore

Coming in May: Our special issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision

Nicole Leistikow