Very often these days, I am struck by the absurdity of our political situation: people of goodwill find themselves debating questions that in a less anxious and more humane moment would be no-brainers. Take Senator John McCain’s Anti-Torture Amendment to the defense appropriations bill. It would outlaw torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of …
Last week, amidst the news of earthquakes, storms and governmental misdeeds, I sat around the dinner table with half a dozen friends, having “the conversation”–you know the one I mean. These conscientious, thoughtful people contribute a great deal of time and resources to heal the earth and create more just societies. But on this evening, …
We who attended school in the U.S. have a little chip in our collective unconscious that gets activated this time of year. It happened to me as I walked by the water yesterday afternoon. Even though I’m not planning a vacation and don’t have kids in school, something about the angle of the sun and …
This month marks the first anniversary of Arlene’s blog. In one of my first posts, I wrote about a consulting project I was doing with Global Kids’ Newz Crew Project, which involves high school-age kids in online dialogues about global issues. As I am a certifiable fogey, this project also gives me a chance to …
The headlines from Lebanon have propelled my imagination years into the past, to the period in the late eighties and early nineties when my current ideas about social change first took shape. In news photos, we see massive crowds in Beirut, waving flags and asserting their right to self-rule like so many figures out of …
This weekend I revisited the writings of Martin Luther King, looking for something to read in his honor at a gathering of friends. In my mind, he stands for eloquent justice in the face of stubborn privilege, and as far as it goes, that’s true. But taking him literally, he stands so much more for …
I have a birthday coming up in a few days, and because I’ve been very, very good this year, I’ve decided to make it an eight-day birthday festival. (What I want for my birthday is a column! If you can give me an introduction to an editor who might be interested in regular dispatches from …
I suspect most people have by now gotten several communiques from folks who are concerned about fraud in the recent presidential election. I found many of these questions and citations troubling enough to sign a petition by MoveOn.org calling for a Congressional investigation. We can’t know whether the charges are true without a full and …
I was in New York last week, mainly talking with groups of NYU arts students about roles for artists in social change. Every once in a while in such milieux, I run into the complacent view that artists are doing good just by being artists. It annoys me when people trot out essentialist ideas of …
We had houseguests this past week, dear friends we?ve known for decades. Lingering over breakfast on Friday, we divvied up the \New York Times\. Whoever commented first on the employment report (200,000 new jobs had been forecast for July, but only 32,000 actually materialized) spoke what all of us were feeling: I hate to say …