Social Justice Magazine
This year, one hundred fifty years after his birth, Anton Chekhov is as relevant as ever. In January a web site noted that “more than a century after his death [in 1904], Chekhov is one of the most widely translated and imitated writers in the world. His works are performed as far afield as Tokyo, Santiago, and New Delhi. Already available in many dozens of languages, Chekhov … [Read more...]
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) recently proclaimed that there is insufficient time during the Congressional lame-duck session to ratify the “New START Treaty.” President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had signed it on April 8, 2010. Since Sen. Kyl is regarded as the key Senate Republican negotiator with the Obama administration, which claimed there had been “29 meetings, … [Read more...]
Erik Erikson wrote that he “can’t imagine a wise old person who can’t laugh.” Several wisdom scholars like Richard Trowbridge have listed humor as one of the qualities or values of the wise.[1] In another essay, I have dealt at length with the wisdom of the poet, Lincoln biographer, and public entertainer Carl Sandburg and his wife Paula, but did not give much attention to the way his … [Read more...]
Having just completed research on economist and environmentalist E. F. Schumacher (1911-1977), I have been struck by how relevant many of his warnings are to today’s events. Although I don’t necessarily agree with everything he wrote, his comments are well worth considering as we struggle to deal with all our complex problems. If our leaders over the last three or four decades had acted more … [Read more...]
The BP month-long oil spill dramatically illustrates why Progressivism is necessary. But first, a little historical background. Many conservatives have contended that the free-market capitalist system unfettered by big government is the ideal political and economic system. Perhaps the one American economist most admired by conservatives was Milton Friedman (1912-2006). Among others that he … [Read more...]
On May 1, 2010, before a crowd of about eighty thousand people in the University of Michigan Stadium, President Obama gave one of his best speeches since becoming president. It was a commencement address that attempted to outline a proper government role and detoxify the present toxic political atmosphere. At the same time, he furnished his audience with some historical context—e.g., … [Read more...]
In March 2009 President Obama’s chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, described the origins of what some called the Great Recession: “An abundance of greed and an absence of fear on Wall Street led some to make purchases -- not based on the real value of assets, but on the faith that there would be another who would pay more for those assets. At the same time, the government turned a blind … [Read more...]
When on March 23 President Obama signed into law health care legislation, among those in attendance were 11-year-old Marcelas Owens and relatives of Natoma Canfield. In his remarks the president noted that “Marcelas lost his mom to an illness, and she . . . couldn't afford the care that she needed,” and “Natoma [who has cancer] had to give up her health coverage after her rates were jacked … [Read more...]
What would you most like to have by the time you reach 30? In these economic tough times you might say “a really good job.” Or you might opt for “a good marriage.” Few of you would say “wisdom.” Even if religious you would probably not take too seriously the words offered in many religions such as those in the Jewish Bible (or Christian Old Testament): “Wisdom is better than rubies; … [Read more...]
Next week President Obama will appear at an international climate summit in Copenhagen. A few weeks ago, he pledged his administration would work toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions by about 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050. In June a House of Representatives’ bill had already approved these targets, but the full Senate still needs to address the issue.In … [Read more...]
In a presidential debate in October 2008, moderator Tom Brokaw asked, “Is health care in America a privilege, a right, or a responsibility?” When Barack Obama answered, “I think it should be a right for every American,” he was following in the footsteps of three Roosevelts.When Theodore Roosevelt, the former Republican president, ran as the Progressive Party candidate in 1912, he ran … [Read more...]
Fuzzy thinking is rampant among us. Michael Moore, out with his new movie "Capitalism: A Love Story," is often an incisive critic of corporate abuses and powers that threaten to weaken democracy, but he is inaccurate when he declares that the “opposite of capitalism is democracy.” In the ongoing debate on health care legislation, some of Obama’s opponents charge him with trying to institute … [Read more...]
There seems to be something about the month of August that makes people ask the question “Where's Obama's Passion?” On August 21, 2008, Joe Klein in Time wrote an article with that question as a title. Exactly a year later, Eugene Robinson wrote in the Washington Post regarding the debate on health care that “there's not enough passion on the Democratic side, not enough heat. . . not nearly … [Read more...]
Obama and Lincoln, okay; but “Obama, Sandburg, and Lincoln”? Lincoln scholar, poet, and folk singer Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) is seldom mentioned anymore, but that’s unfortunate. A half century ago he was, in the words of his friend Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson, “the one living man whose work and whose life epitomize the American dream.” During the Great Depression and World War II, … [Read more...]
Jerry Brown’s election as governor of California, the recent nuclear accident in Japan, and a late March episode of Bill Maher’s Real Time have all reminded me that 2011 marks the hundredth anniversary of E. F. Schumacher’s birth. Brown was a great admirer of the insightful economist/environmentalist and spoke at his London funeral in 1977—although born in Germany, Schumacher spent most of … [Read more...]
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