The signs of cultural change can be subtle and hard to read, but now, an unmistakable signifier has emerged from the muddle: the United States has become a recipient of charity from other nations. This fall, Senators from both parties urged oil executives to take part in winter fuel assistance programs by donating a percentage …
Yesterday was the 57th anniversary of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which the first article reads as follows: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Here is what I have …
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 …
Here’s the good news and the bad news in a single sentence: Yesterday, UNESCO member states have a “Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions” and they did it over the strongest possible objections by the U.S. government. The U.S. State Department called on National Endowment for the Arts Chair …
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, …
It’s official: Friday’s \New York Times\ lead editorial said President Bush’s Thursday anti-terrorism speech to the National Endowment for Democracy “suggested an avoidance of today’s reality that seemed downright frightening.” There is irony here, of course: Bush’s speech was an act of rhetorical terrorism, designed to scare all of us deeply enough to place our …
Something is happening that raises my spirits: ultra-respectable liberal commentators — folks no one can reasonably dismiss as wild-eyed radicals (such as Elizabeth Drew, whom I wrote about on July 5th) — are standing up and speaking truth to power in a forthright fashion that knocks me off my feet. Latest case in point is …
This just in: it really ticks people off when you mess with whatever they perceive as holy. I’ve been reading about the demonstrations around the world against U.S. use of the Koran as an interrogation prop at Guantanamo. Newsweek published an article on May 9 charging that interrogators tried to psych out Muslim prisoners by …
My husband has a cold, which creates tremendous respiratory sound effects in the wee small hours, giving me lots of opportunity for uninterrupted night thoughts (though we’re both looking forward to the return of his good health and uninterrupted sleep). I find myself drawn again to the questions of compassion I wrote about last time. …
The news of the world is so instantaneous, multifarious and bizarre that it provides corroboration for almost any mood. Maybe it’s just my temperament, but when I feel disgruntled, instead of looking at my own choices, I am often tempted to lay it off on man’s inhumanity to man, and the news usually gives me …