I was shocked this afternoon to get the news of the apparent murder of English and African American Studies professor, Lindon Barrett. He was apparently murdered this past week in his Long Beach, CA apartment.
Barrett was a wonderful scholar, teaching English, African American literature and Comparative literature at both UC Irvine and Riverside. He's the author of the book Blackness and Value: Seeing Double and a Ford Fellow.
But more importantly he was a wonderful man and mentor. He will be greatly missed. To all his students, current and former, and to his family I offer my deepest sympathy.
For more details on Professor Barrett, see this blog entry.
[Forgive me for bursting into our nominee diary-fest (yes, I am pleased it's Obama and thrilled it's over and I get to focus on how we take down McCain), but I figure this is the best place to get ideas from like-minded souls.]
Even though I live in Santa Monica and work in Los Angeles, I don't drive. Instead I spend a total of 3-4 hours commuting on foot and bus 2 -3 days a week. I used to read, but lately find I really like listening to podcasts. It's probably no surprise to readers here that my favorites are of a political stripe.
Below are a list of my current favorites and a request that you add your own favorites. I'm always looking for something new to listen to.
As I listen in the morning, please no shouting and no conservatives. ::G::
It's been kind of funny to watch. My father, smug now because he's supported Obama since last May (he'd read both books already), has gotten to see us all move over from our respective candidates.
My mom was the last convert. (Okay, partly that was that her original candidate, Hillary, stayed in the race) -- deciding to change her support Obama only after listening to Bill campaigning in SC. But Mom's fond of Hillary on a lot of levels, even as Obama is reminding her more and more of her own experiences campaigning for RFK back in 1968.
So why do I say she's now in the hearts category? Because I just got an email with this. A second look shows it's gone out to all her friends and family.
The story of 22 year old Jamie Leigh Jones, front paged on Tuesday by Miss Laura continues to (very slowly) build and get air time.
Yesterday Keith Olbermann spoke about the rape and the apparent lack of any sort of investigation on Countdown, rightly broadening the discussion into one about the lawlessness of US contractors.
There appears to be cross-party support for hearings into this matter with both Republican Congressman Poe and Democrats (including Hilary Clinton) calling on the Justice Department to update them on the status of this case. Another woman has apparently contacted Democratic Senator Bill Nelson about her sexual assault while she was a KBR employee. Congress has asked the JD to respond by next Friday.
There's a world-weary tendency among those of us who are active in politics to look at certain fights and decide that "it doesn't matter." The reasons can be that realistically the fight can't be won, that there are other more worthy issues, that we're saving energy / goodwill for another time or whatever. This creeping cynicism comes from the often necessary compromises of politics. But we're wrong when we say a fight (whether fought or not) doesn't matter. Especially if our reasoning is that it would be a losing battle anyway.
The obvious example today is the confirmation of (now) Attorney General Michael Mukasey by the US Senate despite his (in Schumer words) being "wrong on torture." As we look at the facts: he was passed on through Senate hearings, no one opposed to his confirmation attempted a filibuster, our presidential candidates didn't show up for the vote. As we listen, stunned and disgusted, there are voices trying to explain, to tell us that "it doesn't matter because...."
Sometimes the fight can't be fought. Other times the fight can't be won and discretion is the better part of valor and all t hat. At times though a fight has to be worth losing but fighting all the same.
Yesterday my partner and I planned to go see the film Shi mian mai fu (House of Flying Daggers), a nicely surrealistic martial arts film I've been wanting to see. But as these things go we got stuck in traffic on Sunset and arrived 10 minutes after the film had already started. As an alternate choice, Paul surprised me and asked if I still wanted to see Hotel Rwanda, a film I've wanted to see for several months, but that I thought I'd see alone as it isn't really his sort of picture.
Dear God. The crazy, far-right protect-children-from-knowledge crowd are burning the classic Chicano novel, Bless Me, Ultima in Norwood, Colorado. Burning it with the help and support of a superintendent of schools Bob Conder who admits to never even having read it. The copies couldn't be donated, he explained, because he didn't want to risk them falling into the hands of a child.
The LA Weekly is reporting that even before actor Christopher Reeve's body is cold, Republicans in Congress are playing politics with the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Act, which has already passed in the House in a 418 to O vote, and, prior to this week, was expected to sail easily through its Senate vote.
