If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ve seen me quote before from the Reverend James Lawson’s founding statement of principles for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee well over forty years ago. What SNCC was seeking, Lawson wrote, was “a social order or justice permeated by love.” This has become one of many mnemonics lodged in …
The difficulty I have wrapping my head around patriotism is one I sometimes share with other children of immigrants, those whose heritage, like mine, was stamped with the dark face of nationalism, the imprint of a patriotism that believed the country where our forebears were born would be purified by our absence. I feel deeply …
Judging from my friends’ reactions (and the level of unrest in the Blogosphere and Punditstan), Sarah Palin’s nomination has unleashed a tidal wave of fear and despair large enough to sweep defeat from the jaws of victory—unless we can master this reactivity and get on with winning the election.
I recorded the several hours of the Democratic Party convention broadcast on PBS each night, then fast-forwarded through the pundification that occupied perhaps a third of each program, stopping to listen to all the speeches. On the first evening, I was aware of so many sensations in my body: my heart lifted, but with difficulty, …
All the media world’s a-twitter about the New Yorker cover caricaturing Barack and Michelle Obama as the right’s terrorist nightmare: fist-bumping in mideast mufti in the Oval Office, burning the flag, a portrait of Osama bin Laden over the fireplace, a machine-gun slung across Michelle’s broad shoulder. McCain denounced the cover and Obama defended the …
One reason I keep feeling we have an opportunity to change course right now has less to do with politics than with the convergence of science and philosophy. Human beings have always been interested in our own motives, in how our minds work. Introspection helps, but research is teaching us a good deal more about …
Have you ever had one of those scary ah-hah moments? Hurtling along the freeway or gazing out the window of a jet plane, suddenly coming to consciousness: Ohmigod, I’m in a metal capsule going much too fast to stop, surrounded by other metal capsules piloted by who knows what! This is crazy! All in a …
The Greek root of the word “apology” refers to a speech in defense of oneself, a self-justification. Though the meaning of the word has changed, this bit of etymology does highlight the two main functions of apology: to make restitution to those you have hurt, and to protect oneself from retribution. Each theme has endless …
People keep sending me outraged emails about Barack Obama’s pandering to the reactionary Israel lobby, AIPAC, and on the merits, of course I agree with his critics. He has taken precisely the same hard-right line on Israel and Palestine as Clinton, McCain, and let’s see…. Oh yes, everyone I can recall who has gotten close …
I’ve been going through a whole houseful of possessions, clearing out the past to make way for the future. Last week I recycled three decades of journals without reading a single page. A couple of friends helped me do the same with Day-timers: we ripped the wire spines out of 700-plus month-by-month calendars going back …