Real “democracy” has always been a struggle. “Shayfeen.com” (“We’re Watching You”) was a film brought to my attention in 2009 following the last elections in Egypt. Can we connect the dots between then and now? Note: This post has been updated to correct the spelling for the documentary.
I’m just sayin… Robert L. Lynch, president of Americans for the Arts, a lobbying group, said in an interview on Monday that the arts provide 5.7 million jobs in the United States that generate about $30 billion in taxes, nearly $13 billion of which goes to the federal government. “If they’re serious about jobs and [...]
My interest in state dinners are all about details: protocols, attire, guest list, entertainment, menu. I’m collecting a little data from last night’s dinner honoring Chinese President Hu Jintao. From jump… First Lady Michelle Obama looked FABULOUS This dress outshines everything on the red carpet of the Golden Globes Sunday. (IMO) House Alexander McQueen produced [...]
A few weeks ago a friend sent me a link to an article published in The Chronicle of Higher Education. The title was “The Newly Complicated Zora Neale Hurston” authored by two professors Glenda R. Carpio and Werner Sollors of Harvard University. My first thought was what makes Zora complicated? Zora doesn’t start with a [...]
Based on this trailer, this looks like an important film. I remember back in the day when people pronounced Muslim as “Mooz-lum” and family members would get a bit grumpy about someone changing their name and taking a pass on the pork. In the bigger picture, the filmmaker is being deliberate about how people mis-interpret, [...]
The speeches, sermons and lectures of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are being broadcast today on WPFW (Pacifica Radio). Strength to Love may be one of King’s most important works. I picked it up at the recommendation of a guy browsing, like me, in a Borders bookstore. I was looking in the religious section at [...]
Before We are Democrats or Republicans, We are Americans. If anyone has been paying attention (and that’s somehow rare these days), it’s quite clear President Obama has been consistent in his message about unity and a civil discourse as part of a flourishing democracy. In his remarks at the memorial service in Tuscon last week, [...]
The late great Gospel music artist Rev. James Cleveland’s “Peace Be Still” captures my thoughts surrounding recent events from Tucson to Tunisia, and also the observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birth. This past week, poet Nikki Giovanni made a visit to DC. My first introduction to her writing (as a child) was the [...]
You will be comforted by just how much anonymous goodness there really is in the world. You read about these people and realize that people you don’t even know are leading lives of real dignity and goodness, and you hear about crazy, but it’s rarer than you think. At the end of his comments Monday [...]
Yesterday’s shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and 20 other victims (to date) at a meet-and-greet your Representative gathering outside a Safeway in Tucson, AZ left me speechless. The Congresswoman is currently in a medically induced coma after being shot in the head at point blank range. The chief neurosurgeon at the University of Arizona [...]
