I recently posted these short book and author recommendations on Facebook. My reasoning was pretty simple: though we are now obsessed with the coronavirus and the re-emerging recognition of how pervasive racial injustice and inequality still is in America, it is only a few short years ago that we were obsessed with a quite different... Continue Reading →
Blog
If (a poem)
This Poem is dedicated to all people everywhere who work for a more just, peaceful, and compassionate world. It is about persistence in the cause of seemingly forlorn hopes, seemingly quixotic quests, and seemly lost causes. Stay true! Don’t give up the ship! Carry on! And if the world isn't roundMere noise at the rootInstead... Continue Reading →
Peter Beinart’s Unremarkable Letter (AND A LITTLE UNREMARKED ISRAELI TERRORISM)
In recent weeks I have received a barrage of “alerts” about an article by Peter Beinart entitled “I no Longer Believe in a Jewish State.” There have been follow ups like an article by Joshua Leifer which refers to the “Two-State Solution” as a “Liberal fiction.” After reflecting carefully on what they had to say,... Continue Reading →
A Rebuttal to Peter Beinart’s recent article “I No Longer Believe in a Jewish State”
I am writing this piece in response to the recent article by Peter Beinart and a follow-up by Joshua Leifer who both try to drive a final stake into the heart of a “Two-State Solution.” At the risk of offending well meaning (but I think somewhat misguided) fellow activists who have tried to support the... Continue Reading →
Our Pandemic Angels*: A Note on Re-opening Schools Too Soon
I think some basic truths need to be faced squarely as we struggle with how to keep our schools open in the midst of a lethal pandemic. Before I begin, I should make my position quite clear: I am not a parent. My experience with children is partly from my own memories and partly from... Continue Reading →
Trump’s Tulsa Travesty
It seems like a lifetime, but it was only two weeks ago that Trump conducted his travesty in Tulsa. In a recent post about “America’s Great Evasion” I pointed out that America’s “frontier experience” had helped create in our nation a tendency to: “view groups of people that we deemed ‘others’ as fair game for... Continue Reading →
History, Heritage, and the Holocaust
Currently there is a debate raging in the country about what to do with old monuments erected to celebrate the feats of the “heroes” of the Confederacy during the Civil War. I believe there is a civil solution. First, I find racism abhorrent, and I think the prominent display of these symbols of a regime... Continue Reading →
Africa
African Tapestry At first lightAfrica is like our soulsLong dark green hillsLoping into a distanceWhich can't be measured.Alive like nothing we have met beforeAnd longed to meet.The pounding of small delicate hoovesEchoing the pounding of the heart We travel never reaching thereThose colors dependent on a distanceWe never find ourselves insideThe singular color that lies... Continue Reading →
Observations on Racism (part 2)
Reverse Racism, Affirmative Action and “Partisanship” During the last week, an episode occurred that should help clarify some things I said about racism in part one of these “Observations on Racism.” That sad but revealing event was the noose found hanging in the garage of the only prominent black NASCAR driver, Bubba Wallace. It... Continue Reading →
Some Observations about Racism (Part 1)
In the ongoing debate about racism in our country, there seems to be a lot of confusion about basic terms. This is often a serious obstacle to any real dialogue. With that in mind, I thought I would share a few thoughts and try to clarify things a bit. To my mind, this is not... Continue Reading →
