poverty

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Repairing, Apology

August 2, 2008 in African-Americans, Barack Obama, apology, election 2008, forgiveness, injustice, justice, memory, poverty, racial representation, racism, reparations, slavery apology by John | No comments

I’m really not enjoying the strange journey of race in the presidential election thing. I doubt many people are, save for the occasional Karl Rove, for whom it is a fabulous tactic – if you’re creative. I must admit to being surprised, though, to see the issue of reparations come up. It’s a nuanced and compelling issue, if one has the time to examine all of the folds. It’s about memory, state history, back wages, social justice, economics, the nature of representation, and so on. But that’s too much to ask. Turns out, sometimes a non-reparation actually is one.

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Our History, A Little Bit Of Messiah

February 19, 2008 in Barack Obama, Barack Obama is the messiah, Cindy McCain, injustice, justice, messiah, messianism, poverty, racial representation, racism by John | 7 comments

Two things struck me in recent campaign commentary and “controversy.” They say a lot about how, even at a moment when we are witnessing an unthinkable, the pain of the past seems to fog our vision. Yes, I’m talking about how it is entirely possible that we will have a black president. I wonder if we’ve even begun to register how the once unthinkable is almost mundanely becoming, well, thinkable (don’t we expect a bigger soundtrack?). The moment it becomes so momentous, however, that moment is being sunk by how painful the history that makes it “a moment” actually is… Read the rest of this entry »

Uncanny Poverty

January 30, 2008 in Bush, George W. Bush, John Edwards, Reagan, capitalism, ideology, individualism, injustice, justice, meritocracy, poverty by John | 3 comments

No one following the Democratic primary will be surprised that John Edwards stepped out of the race today. It didn’t happen and certainly wasn’t just wasn’t about to happen. I find his withdrawal sad, not because I’m especially enthused about him, the Democratic party, or our particular brand of democracy, but only because he was such an uncanny presence – he talked about poverty. And this is part though not nearly enough, of the Time magazine story on his candidacy: why Edwards did not catch on… Read the rest of this entry »