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Home Issue: 144

Issue: 144

June 30, 2005

Cover Story

It’s Time to Build a Mass Movement

By The Black Commentator Guest Commentator

“Democracy… does not come from the government, from on high, it comes from people getting together and struggling for justice.” – Howard Zinn, Spelman College commencement address, Atlanta, 2005. Politicians are elected and selected, but mass movements transform societies. Judges uphold, strike down, or invent brand new law, but mass movements drag the courts, laws…

“Democracy… does not come from the government, from on high, it comes from people getting together and struggling for justice.” – Howard Zinn, Spelman College commencement…

Continue reading 11 min

Commentary

Freedom Rider: America’s Love of Empire

By Margaret Kimberley Guest Commentator

It is easy to tell when the heat is on and getting to the American right wing. They lash out with lies and run back to their tried and true standbys, September 11th and the war on terror. Karl Rove, head propagandist in charge, didn’t just orchestrate the latest attack. He carried it out himself.…

It is easy to tell when the heat is on and getting to the American right wing. They lash out with lies and run back to…

Continue reading 5 min

Commentary

Still Separate, Unequal: Race, Place, Policy, and the State of Black Chicago

By Paul Street Guest Commentator

A shorter version of these comments was delivered at the South Side headquarters of the Chicago Urban League on June 21, 2005, in connection with the public release of Still Separate, Unequal: Race, Place, Policy, and the State of Black Chicago (Chicago, IL: The Chicago Urban League, 2005). Forty years ago, the great social justice…

A shorter version of these comments was delivered at the South Side headquarters of the Chicago Urban League on June 21, 2005, in connection with the…

Continue reading 22 min

Commentary

Think Piece: Violence is the engine of U.S. history

By Ira M. Leonard

“Increasingly, Americans are a people without history, with only memory, which means a people poorly prepared for what is inevitable about life – tragedy, sadness, moral ambiguity – and therefore a people reluctant to engage difficult ethical issues.” – Elliot Gorn, “Professing History: Distinguishing Between Memory and Past,” Chronicle of Higher Education (April 28, 2000).…

"Increasingly, Americans are a people without history, with only memory, which means a people poorly prepared for what is inevitable about life – tragedy, sadness, moral…

Continue reading 16 min

Commentary

Psycho Americans

By The Black Commentator Guest Commentator

This article originally appeared in the Jamaica Observer. About two weeks ago there were news stories to the effect that one in four Americans were afflicted by mental illness and that fully a quarter of those were so seriously affected that their illnesses disrupted their ability to live normal lives. These stories were based on…

This article originally appeared in the Jamaica Observer. About two weeks ago there were news stories to the effect that one in four Americans were afflicted…

Continue reading 10 min

Guest Commentary

Never Too Late to End Terror

By Ron Scott Guest Commentator

It is never too late to end terror. That’s what I think about as I look at the news about the conviction of Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen in the murders of civil rights icons/martyrs Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney, whose story was told in the movie, “Mississippi Burning.” I cannot help but reflect on…

It is never too late to end terror. That’s what I think about as I look at the news about the conviction of Ku Klux Klansman…

Continue reading 4 min

Guest Commentary

Pining for the Pistons

By Dave Zirin Guest Commentator

Note: This column is 200 words shorter than usual because Billy Hunter lost 25% of it in the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The world be an incrementally better place if the Detroit Pistons had won the NBA championship. I believe this even though their Game Seven loss to the Spurs meant that we’ve been…

Note: This column is 200 words shorter than usual because Billy Hunter lost 25% of it in the NBA's new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The world be…

Continue reading 5 min

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