Politics

Yesterday morning I had a conversation with a Mexican-American friend of mine. He was born, 40-some years ago, and raised in what I’ll call the backside of Dallas. We were talking about the gunman who took it upon himself to answer in kind for the many black men killed for little reason by law enforcement agents. I was depressed, because I felt that in so many ways that man’s actions might derail the powerful Black Lives Matter movement, which seemed to be gaining a lot of headway across the country. Read more about A Perspective

Most folks reading this blog will have a fairly good idea of what we mean when we talk about an “under-class.” We picture inner city ghettos and barrios, sometimes Native American reservations. Sometimes we think about women or gays or anyone black, brown or tan. Read more about Redneck Revolution

It’s been a tough election season in more ways than one. I believe I can safely say that we are all sick and tired of being trumpled on. The freak show that was the rest of the Republican slate all talked over each other trying to appeal to the baser instincts. Some folks thought it amusing. I found it indigestible. Read more about Berned Out

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world

You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan

In conversation with friends over the weekend, I bemoaned the fact that the newspeeps seemed to have decided to take Donald Trump seriously. They made the very good point that it’s about time we took him seriously, because he is a very serious threat, and I agree. But I wasn’t talking about that kind of serious. I was talking about the kind of serious where you give the man’s utterances credence and discuss them as if they are worth some kind of consideration, based solely on his popularity with a certain demographic. Read more about Seriously!

When Gandalf asks Frodo to lead the way to Mordor, Frodo hesitates at the gate. Right or left? he asks. Left is the reply. And some of us smile. Left, we think. That’s always the right way. Others will remind us that left is the way to Mordor, but we know who wins the day. And so our fellowship heads left.

According to this recent piece in The Atlantic (and in contrast to contrary assumptions), our fellowship is expanding. Given the current crop on the right, we can only hope. Read more about Which Way?

As Gay Rights Ally, Bernie Sanders Wasn't Always in Vanguard
By JASON HOROWITZ

Bernie Sanders expressed varying levels of support for gay rights as he rose politically, and some gay rights advocates say he was less than a leader.

The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers. Henry The Sixth, Part 2 Act 4, scene 2, 71–78 Read more about Adversaries

I was inspired to write this piece by Roger Cohen’s OpEd in the New York Times entitled Why ISIS Trumps Freedom. And then I woke up one morning this week to the news that Julian Bond had died. Read more about The Burden of Freedom

For some time now, I’ve harbored a suspicion that much of the black experience in America, indeed much of African-American behavior patterns, can be traced to a history of what amounts to child abuse, rooted in the core experience of slavery. That is, Africans were brought to this continent as slaves and their descendants continued to be abused, from childhood up, until abuse and the expectation of abuse became endemic. We have a pretty good idea of how abuse as a child expresses itself in self-hatred and abusive behavior as an adult. Read more about American PTSD