Monday’s New York Times carried a story of epochal significance: the town pool of Stonewall, Mississippi, which had been filled with dirt to avoid integrating it in the 1970s, is being excavated and reopened for the benefit of the entire community, black and white. More than 20 years ago, my partner and I were hired …
A friend sent me the link to a story on NPR about Juan Williams’ new book condemning what Williams perceives as the stuck irrelevance of entrenched African American leadership and calling for a new leadership paradigm. “Have you thought about blogging on” this book? “It would be good,” she wrote, “to see what you have …
If you watch television, you may have noticed a remarkable rise in the number of programs infused with some sort of millenarian spirit: the benign intervention of extraterrestrials and the super-intelligent, the ascendancy of misfits, the cheerful embrace of end-of-the-world scenarios. Ain’t we got fun? Actually, yes. In fact, I’m so thrilled by the whole …
Do you hear a faint crackling sound? Don’t be alarmed, it’s just a paradigm shifting. And about time too. Today’s New York Times carries a report on policies proposed by the Association of Art Museum Directors; AAMD says museums should take care in exhibiting sacred objects. A particular focus is on indigenous objects, such as …
I feel I must stipulate that loyalty is a virtue, because so many wise people think it so. But the truth is, I’m not sure whether loyalty is a good thing, or even what it is. A friend wrote to me about her own loyal affections, by which I think she meant her tendency to …
It is reputed that Sigmund Freud died asking this question: What do women want? Everything, I suppose. This week, I discovered one surprisingly specific answer. If I could take a pill that achieved the effects of daily exercise, I would. But my desire for a hale and limber golden age easily trumps my indolence, so …
As I sat listening to someone speak eloquently against an injustice he had never directly experienced—you know the kind of thing, a man condemning the oppression of women or a non-Jewish German speaking passionately against the Nazis—an evil little thought arose in my mind. I overheard myself smugly dismissing the speaker as a hitchhiker: What’s …
It seems even the basic lessons, the things we feel we know as well as our own names, have to be refreshed from time to time. I’ve been preaching the healing powers of dialogue all my adult life, so I’m a little taken aback to find myself amazed that it turns out to be true! …
Jonathan Demme’s new Neil Young concert film, Prairie Wind, is out on DVD, so I rented it. I like much of Young’s music, especially the melancholy, sweet songs, but I wasn’t prepared to be blown away by the totality of the artist and his art. The film documents two nights on which Young and a …
I recently watched a fascinating documentary jointly broadcast on the Sundance Channel and Court TV. The Human Behavior Experiments was directed by Alex Gibney (who also made the excellent Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room). Now I can’t stop thinking about it. In the compass of an hour, Gibney and his collaborators touched down …