Hope in a Darkening Age...
news, comment, arts, ecology, wisdom, obsessions, the past, the future...
"THE END OF ALL INTELLIGENT ANALYSIS IS TO CLEAR THE WAY FOR SYNTHESIS."--H.G. Wells. "It's always a leap into the unknown future to write anything."--Margaret Atwood "Be kind, be useful, be fearless."--President Barack Obama.
Melissa Harris-Perry made her debut as a substitute host for Rachel with a stunning segment, exactly what is missing from the dominant news media. As a woman of color, Professor Harris-Perry had the chops to analyze the Pew study released Tuesday that calculated the dimensions of the "wealth gap," with median white wealth at about 20 times that of median black and Latino families. The above video is that segment, and the transcript is here. Two points stand out: the wealth gap was seeded a few generations ago when federal programs (especially in housing) that paid for the basis of the white middle class, discriminated against black and Latino families and mostly did not include them. And that, with America set to be a non-white majority country by mid-century, if the weath gap were closed, there would be plenty of new tax and other revenue sources from people of color, as well as greater economic activity, to erase deficits in the federal budget.
Apart from what this portends for public policy and the public debate (which is mostly depressing), this debut more than suggests that there is a place for Melissa Harris-Perry (or "Melissa" as she will be called) on MSNBC--and that there is a crying need for such a presence in the media. It may be that Melissa's academic responsibilities preclude a nightly gig, but at least a weekend program.
The Games Are Over, Let the Blah Blah Blah Begin
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The Lakers victory over New Orleans was surprising, but Sacramento
pummeling the Golden State Warriors was almost shocking. Depending on who
is talking...
Origins: Easter and April Fool's Day
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Easter is what’s known in Catholicism as a moveable feast—that is, it
doesn’t occur on the same date every year. This religious holiday had been
observ...
N. Scott Momaday 1934-2024
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N. Scott Momaday, poet, novelist, playwright, artist, essayist, scholar
and teacher, died in January. He is best known for his first novel, *House
Mad...
Strange Old Worlds
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On September 8, 1966 the first season of the Star Trek series began. It
explored strange new worlds in the galaxy of imagination as well as in
televis...
Legacy of the Carnegie Libraries
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The centennial celebration in 2004 of the Carnegie Library in Eureka, CA,
transformed into the Morris Graves Museum of Art a few years earlier, was
the occ...
1 year ago
The Malling of America
available at your online bookseller
Manifesto
..."The answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve, to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day."--Barack Obama Nov. 4, 2008
"Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage." Barack Obama January 20, 2009
"If you turn away now – if you buy into the cynicism that the change we fought for isn’t possible…well, change will not happen. If you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, then other voices will fill the void: lobbyists and special interests; the people with the $10 million checks who are trying to buy this election and those who are making it harder for you to vote; Washington politicians who want to decide who you can marry, or control health care choices that women should make for themselves. Only you can make sure that doesn't happen. Only you have the power to move us forward.--President Obama on Sept. 6, 2012
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