Muqtada al-Sadr

Time Magazine has not yet announced its Person of the Year for 2006, but here's a top candidate for 2007: Iraqi's fiery populist leader, Muqtadaal-Sadr. Sadr is a Shia, the group that had the most to gain by the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the overthrowing of the Sunni-led dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Indeed, Hussein was responsible for the death of Sadr's father, yet Sadr has been fiercely opposed to the U.S. presence in Iraq from the start. Now, for better or worse, he's the probably the most powerful politician in a country that we have committed many American lives and a fortune in taxes to remake as a pro-American ally in one of the world's troubled areas. Listen to this Morning Edition piece (12/18/2006).

Musings

• What seems to explain al-Sadr's popularity? Why do countries in turmoil often turn to dictators (like Napoleon in post-revolutionary France), and away from democracy?
  
• Who do you think will be Time's Person of the Year for 2006, for 2007?

This is our last posting for 2007.
Check with us early in 2007 for new topics & musings.

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid

From Day to Day (12/11/06). Former President Jimmy Carter's latest book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, is generating considerable controversy, perhaps even more than the author had expected. One point that Cater makes is hard to dispute: "There are constant and vehement political and media debates in Israel concerning its policies in the West Bank, but because of powerful political, economic, and religious forces in the United States, Israeli government decisions are rarely questioned or condemned, voices from Jerusalem dominate in our media, and most American citizens are unaware of circumstances in the occupied territories."

You can read an excerpt here.


Musings

• Apartheid is a key term in Cater's argument and it seems that even the suggestion that Israeli policy could be so labeled has been the source of much of the hostile reaction to his book. The issue has much to do with the status of Palestians living under Israeli occupation, directly in the West Bank and indirectly now in Gaza: whether or not their status is considered temporary or permanent, or perhaps even deserved (for Israel's own security needs)--a problem exacerbated by Israeli policy of supporting settlements (and hence Israelis with full citizenship rights) in the West Bank territories.
  
  
• Carter seems to have a deep moral sense regarding doing what's right, regardless of the political consequences. Someone who worked for Carter notes that he has "a tendency -- there's a moral streak, some would say moralistic streak -- where if he thinks he's doing the right thing, he's just going to do it no matter what." Carter often traces this part of his nature to his Southern Christian roots. Our current President, George Bush, is also seen as moralistic and religious, and has his own Southern religious connection, yet the two men seem like opposites. Who can explain it?

This will be the only post this week.

PTSD and the Army

From All Things Considered (12/4/2006 - 22:45) comes this extended piece on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq. Estimates are that 20-25 percent of the soldiers who have served in Iraq show symptoms of PTSD, including including depression and serious substance abuse--in other words, a repeat of the wrenching experience Americans had with the Vietnam war.


Musings

• The report focuses on the case of one Tyler Jennings, who describes getting hazed when colleagues found out he was having mental and emotional problems. Hazing, it turns out, can be seen as the rough-and-tumble male way of dealing with such problems: pound people until they either toughen up or break.
  
  
• The Army is still basically a man's world, one with little sympathy for emotional weakness, which in a twisted sort of way is seen as feminine or weak.
  

Auschwitz "Gypsy" Paintings

From All Things Considered comes this fascinating piece (11/30/2006 - 7:38) on a series of watercolor portraits of Gypsies, now known as Roma people, that a young Dina Gottliebova Babbitt painted in 1944, in the German concentration camp, Auschwitz.

Musings

• One fascinating part of this story is legalistic--namely, who is the question of rightful owner of the portraits? While it is hard to resist the claim that the Auschwitz Museum should return the paintings, the Museum's position is not without some merit.
  
  
• Another, equally fascinating issue involves the status of Gypsies, or Roma people, during the Holocaust, a topic touched upon in this Wikipedia piece on Auschwitz.
  

Secret Gitmo Panels

This Morning Edition report (11/21/2006 - 8:56) presents audio recordings of the secret world of military tribunals at the U.S. prison camp for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The recordings were made by the U.S. military in the fall of 2004 in order to review the "enemy combatant" status of six detainees (all Algerians) who were arrested in Bosnia in late 2001, and later acquitted, for a suspected bombing plot. At that point, they were then taken into U.S. custody and sent to Guantanamo Bay. You can read the declassified documents here.
Musings

• Again we are faced with the question of who should have basic legal rights (to have a lawyer, to confront accusers, to see charges, and so forth) when confronting the power of a state to imprison people for life. And here there seems to be three possible answers: only Americans citizens, only American citizens who are free of any suspicions, or anyone and everyone.
  
  
• There is something especially ordinary, bureaucratic, mundane about the interactions on the tapes themselves. The U.S. officials seem earnest, sincere--people trying to do their duty--ye the whole thing also has an air of the absurd.
  

Dorothea Lange and Internment Camps

From Talk of the Nation (11/21/2006 - 13:15) comes this discussion of a new book on photographs that Dorothea Lange took of Japanese-Americans internment camps. More than 100,000 U.S. citizens of Japanese heritage were forcibly moved, under orders by President Franklin Roosevelt, in response to widespread fears following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Musings

• The first caller in the segment raises the connection between the WWII interment camps and our treatment of enemy combatants, including U.S. citizens, following 9/11. One point might be that we lack such compelling images that we have here. What are some of the other differences and similarities?
  
  
• Dorothea Lange is one of America's great photographers. Although we do not learn a lot about her from this segment, there is more at Wikipedia, including a copy of her most famous photo, Migrant Mother.
  

Fight of the Century: Louis vs. Schmeling

Here is another classic, historical recording from the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, featuring what many continue to see as the greatest boxing match, and possibly the single greatest sports event, of all time: the heavyweight championship fight (11/25/2006 - 8:46) between "the Brown Bomber" Joe Louis and the German, Max Schmeling, on June 22, 1938.

Musings

• Listen to the report and list some of the many reasons this fight continues to resonate throughout history. For more on the fight, see Wikipedia.
  
  
• The fight was probably the single biggest radio event of all time. Discuss the role of radio is shrinking the world, and how that role is the same or differs from that of television today.
  
  
• The aftermath of Louis and Shmeling also makes a great story--both how Louis was treated by his country and how the "bad German" lived his life. Listen to Frank Deford's commentary on Schmeling (2/9/2005).
  

Baking Memories

I believe that as long as I keep baking, my grandmother hasn't really gone. I believe baking is the best way for me to express love for my people in the present and honor the people of my past, all in one batch.

So ends Emily Smith's loving "This I Believe" essay, from Morning Edition: Baking by Senses and Memories (11/20/2006- 4:18). And what better way to get ready for the comfortable indulgence of Thanksgiving.

Musings

• While baking is a universal in human culture, it is also, at least as a family endeavor, perhaps no longer a common element in our lives. What can we learn about ourselves by changes in the pattern of baking in our lives?
  
  
• Emily Smith focuses on pecan pie. What baked item would you focus on in your essay?
  

WWI Veterans

The eleventh day of the eleventh month, now celebrated as Veterans Days, was originally known as Armistice Day and marked the end of what was known as the Great War, 88 years ago this week.

More than 4 million Americans served in the war; only fourteen were alive when Will Everett traveled across the country to interview these men and tell their stories. In this piece from All Things Considered (11/10/2006 - 8:18), we hear about and from these last veterans of the war meant to end all wars.

Musings

• The trench warfare of the time is consider red some of the most horrific conditions ever faced by soldiers. You can read a brief overview at Wikipedia.
  
  
• The web site for the WWI Living History Project has the full story of these men. One wonders just how much or how little has changed for U.S. soldiers in the near-century between WWI and the current war in Iraq.
  

Barack Obama

Sen. Barack Obama is the junior senator from Illinois, but has already achieved the stature of a possible U.S. Presidential candidate for 2008. In this interview with Michele Norris, from All Things Considered (10/19/2006 - 8:02), we get a glimpse of the person and hence what makes him such an important national figure.

Musings

• Abe Lincoln started from almost nowhere (a backwoods cabin); Bill Clinton from almost nowhere (Hope, Arkansas), while two other Presidents were the sons of Presidents. All this raises the question of what makes one a serious presidential candidate?
  
  
• The President is our only nationwide office, so it may not be that surprising that we have never had a woman or an African-American President. Read more on Obama at Wikipedia and consider the many obstacles he would have to overcome to be elected.
  

Elvis at 21

"The nation was waking up from the doldrums of the post-war Eisenhower era, ready for something new."

Photo-Op is a regular feature of Alex Chadwick's Day to Day, and this show, Elvis at 21, (11/10/2006 - 8:56) features an exhibit of some of the 3,000 photos that Al Wertheimer took for RCA in 1956 when Elvis Presley was transformed from an unknown young singer to the most famous entertainer in the world.

Musings

• The interview focuses on one special photo, The Kiss. Anyone can play photo critic on this one. Take a look and see what you think before listening to Al Wertheimer's explanation.
  
  
• Explain the special fascination with these photos generally, or, conversely, the appeal of the young Elvis. Perhaps today it is hard to understand the blandness that pervaded American culture of the 1950's prior to Elvis's ascent to stardom, although it might help to note that one of the major pre-Elvis stars was Pat Boone.
  

Vietnam War Diary

Here is a really special piece by Michael Sullivan, A Wartime Diary Touches Vietnamese, All Things Considered (10/11/2006- 10:11), on a recently discovered diary of the Vietnam War, kept by young doctor Dang Thuy Tram, who served with the North Vietnam fighters, that is, with our enemy at the time, although the same side that now runs Vietnam and hence the same government that hosted President Bush this past weekend.

Musings

• There are two touching stories here--that of the American veteran Frederick Whitehurst, who saved the diary, and that of the short, poetic life of Dang Thuy Tram herself, and possibly a third story as well, the reunion of Dang Thuy Tram's mother with her daughter's words, and the fact that her daughter's diary contained an honesty that she had never shared with her family. Perhaps there is even a fourth story here, as Whitehurst struggles with his own easy acceptance of war as the proper solution to political disagreements.
  
  
• While is Vietnam last week, President Bush said that the lesson of the Vietnam War for Iraq today is, “We’ll succeed unless we quit.” Yet one thing that seems never to have sunk into the American consciousness is that we did quit in Vietnam, basically walked away (or, perhaps more accurately, "cut and ran"), after years of struggle and after some 57,000 American military fatalities (and over a million Vietnamese). SO what is the lesson of Vietnam for today?
  

Gone to the Dogs

"Anyone who hates children and dogs can't be all bad"--so says the famous comedian W.W. Fields. This Morning Edition piece features librarian Nancy Pearl discussing her favorite dog books (11/6/2006 - 7:18). This is an easy piece for me to select as a pup-sitting Mickey, a dead-ringer for Mr. Bones, the dog on the cover of Paul Auster's novel Timbuktu. Among the other books Pearl discusses are John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, Carol Anshaw's Lucky in the Corner, and Clifford Simac's City.

Musings

• Can you find any common themes in the handful of books that Pearl discusses, that is, in addition to the dogs?
  
  
• No surprise that this NPR feature quickly made it to the top of the most-emailed list, although it may be a little harder to explain the appeal of canines. Here is a link to a brief piece on the current best-seller mentioned at the start of the NPR piece, Marley and Me.
  

Carl Sandburg

In this piece from Morning Edition (10/26/2006 - 7:18), NPR's Susan Stamberg discusses the poetry of Carl Sandburg with the editor of a slim new volume of his poems, Paul Berman. This new collection focuses on Sandburg's early works, from what Berman calls his "great period": "Mostly what I trimmed away was poems he wrote in his later years," Berman says. "I think [for] Sandburg, as with a lot of poets, his greatest years were early on. There was a moment there, ten years or so, beginning around 1914, when he was hot. He had the vision, he was going. He had one fine inspiration after another. That was his great period."

Musings

• Sandburg eventually became something of a venerated national institution in his later years, as seen by his appearance on the cover of Time magazine, a place usually reserved for world leaders. Berman suggests an inherent tension between being a young, creative artist and a distinguished figurehead. Can you see such tension at work among artists today?
  
  
• Sandburg is forever connected with Chicago, not just the city, but as Berman suggests, the attitude towards language that city represents. Can you see that attitude in Sandburg's poem, "Chicago"?
  

Barber's "Adagio for Strings"

Here's a real change of pace, from All Things Considered (11-4-06 - 8:59) and the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress, a piece on Arturo Toscanini's first performance of the what has become perhaps the most popular piece of classical music written in the 2oth century, Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings." The NPR piece focuses almost exclusively on the performer, in this case the great conductor Toscanini, rather than the composer.

Musings

• Try listening to the 7-minute piece (a link is on the same page) before listening to the discussion, and see how your response differs from that of the experts at NPR, or the more formal analysis at Wikipedia. The Wikipedia entry also notes the numerous times the Barber piece has been used in films and pop culture.
  
• Adagios are basically slow, somber pieces of instrumental music. What is the appeal of such music, or of somber art generally.
  

The Addams Family

Lurch, Morticia, Gomez . . . just a few of our favorite characters from the Addams family, the creation of cartoonist Charles Addams, and later a TV series that ran for two years in the mid-1960's. To celebrate Halloween, Morning Edition ran this piece on the cartoonist, Father of the Addams Family (10/31 - 7:19).

Addams, who died in 1988, is the subject of a new biography by Linda Davis, who is interviewed in this segment.

Musings

• At the NPR site you can view a slide show of 8 Addams cartoons, with biographer Davis offering a detailed annotations for each. Here we can see the contrast between the economy, even perfection of a cartoon versus that of the explanation.
  
  
• You read about the Addams Family TV series at Wikipedia. How would you describe the difference and similarity between the original cartoons and the popular TV series.
  

NPR's All Things Considered has started a five-part series on the language of the "war on terror," with this piece on jihad, "The War on the Word 'Jihad'" (10/31/2006 - 7:31). Future episodes will be devoted to "Islamofascists," "imperialism." "democracy," and "war on terrorism." As NPR states, this is such an important series since all these terms have a practical effect on our foreign policy and how we interact with with the Muslim world.

Musings

• Like many terms, "Jihad" has multiple meanings; perhaps even more important is the connotation the term has--whether "jihad" is inherently or primarily a negative term in the Muslim world. Check the entry at Wikipedia.
  
  
• One suggestion is the use of hirabis (originally meaning "brigands") as a more pejorative terms for jihadists. What are some English synonyms for "jihadists"? Are all the English terms equally negative?

Limiting Free Speech

"Freedom of expression must include the right to offend." This is the proposition that formed the basis for a debate among six speakers (journalists, professors and activists) who came together in New York City on October 18, and which is available here (10/26/06 - 53:00). The debate was part of the series Intelligence Squared, which is produced by WNYC and is based on a similar series that began in London in 2002. One can get a gist of the debate by reading the commentary and listening to the six excerpts.

Musings

• Early on we learn that the audience was polled about their opinion before the debate. Why is it not a surprise to learn that they were overwhelmingly in support of the proposition?
  
  
• Maybe the proposition was poorly worded since Americans people are going to support strict limits on free speech. perhaps a better proposition would deal with the question of their ever being a need for any limitations on free speech, any need ever to curb what people can say, or when or where they say it.

Jonestown

At the end of this Day to Day piece, Jonestown: Portrait of a Disturbed Cult Leader 10/20/2006 - (6:10) by Karen Grigsby Bates, the director of a new documentary on the tragedy remarks how so many young people today know nothing about Jonestown, other than the phrase, "Drink the Koolaid." Indeed, the events that happened to some 900 Americans in the small South American country of Guyana are difficult to fathom, maybe eveen impossible to accept without the incredible photographic evidence of the horrific events. This NPR piece was done in conjunction with the release of the documentary, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. You can read a detailed account of the tragedy at Wikipedia.

Musings

• It seems to be part of our nature to want to draw lessons from such an event, perhaps as a means of re-assuring ourselves about our safety and sanity. What, then, is the lesson of Jonestown?
  
  
• Certain sects or splinter groups often feel the need to arm themselves; in Iraq and Lebanon today we hear constant talk of militias. Take a look at this article on militias.

Now publishing 3 new topics a week--
Monday, Tuesday, and (this week ony) Thursday.

YouTube

YouTube is one of the phenomenons of our age--a sign that DotCom boom may not be entirely over. The site was launched in August 2005 and was recently purchased by Google (another DotCom phenom) for $1.65 billion (with a 'b'). Paul Boutin's report Videos That Put YouTube.com on the Map (10/19/2006 - 5:09) reviews some of the most popular postings on YouTube in the last year--and, since this is a radio report, there are links to the actual YouTube videos.

Musings

• How would you explain the popularity of YouTube? What advantages, if any, does an audio report like Boutin's have over a video clip?
  
  
• The Wikipedia article on YouTube discusses the key role of copyright in its success--the ability to reproduce someone else's intellectual property.
  

Now publishing 3 new topics a week--
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

U.S. Census

Last week the U.S. census had an odometer moment--when all the 9s turn to 0's, in this case to 300,000,000, the estimate last Tuesday of the current U.S. population. This piece by Robert Smith (10/16/2006 - 5:05) plays up some of the key forces affecting changes in not just the number of Americans but, more importantly, the make-up of that number.

Musings

• One great demographic trend continue to be movement away from the dominance of the white, two-parent, two-child household. How does your own experience accord with t his change?
  
• Some of the tensions in the American political landscape seem to be the result of this demographic shift as well, even though politicians, especially nationally, still seem to cling to the older pattern.
  

Now publishing 3 new topics a week--
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

The Haditha Killings

This piece, Haditha and the Nature of War, from Talk of the Nation (10/5/2006 - 30:12) features an interview with journalist William Langewiesche in which he discusses his in-depth article, "The Rules of Engagement," on what happened in Haditha, Iraq on November 19, 2005, when insurgents blew up a Marine Humvee, killing a popular 20-year old Marine, and the bloody, much-disputed aftermath in which 24 Iraqi men, women, and children were killed. (Report at Wikipedia)

Musings

• If you read Langewiesche's piece, you will get a sense of the grim, horror of the American presence in the middle of an insurgency, especially the muddled question of who are the "good guys" and "bad guys"?
  
  
• In the NPR interview, Langewiesche uses the metaphor of an iron wedge going through water to describe the impact of U.S. military patrols in Iraqi villages--that is, a tool that creates a big but only momentary effect on the immediate environment. After the patrol-wedge leaves, everything fairly quickly returns tot he status quo.
  
  
• Langewiesche's piece is entitled "Rules of Engagement," undoubtedly a tricky term--here's a brief article at Wikipedia.

Now publishing 3 new topics a week--
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Dizzy on Tour

Today the United States is in a battle to win the hearts and minds of the Muslim global community--a battle that few think is going as well as it should, and many think has been a near-disaster. In the mid-1950's, the United States was in a similar battle (the Cold War) in many of the same places, combating the appeal of Communism. One thing that we did then was to send leading jazz artists of the time such as Louis Armstrong and, in this case, James Birks Gillespie, already known to the world as "Dizzy."

This piece from Day to Day (10/16/2006 - 5:11) describes Dizzy's tour and its role as cultural diplomacy. The person behind the tour was a New York Congressman from Harlem, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. His son Adam Clayton Powell, III, helped organize a concert celebrating Dizzy's tour. "Really interesting music attracts people, and then they hang around for a discussion of the politics," Powell, III says. "They may hate our policies, but they love our music."

Musings

• Here's an obvious jumping off point: Just which musicians or others would make a good cultural ambassador for the U.S. today in the Muslim world?
  
• There is some cultural diplomacy going on today, although usually not government sponsored--in sports.

Now publishing 3 new topics a week--
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Andrew Sullivan

From All Things Considered comes this interview with iconoclastic social critic and blogger Andrew Sullivan (10/12/2006 - 8:49). Sullivan is perhaps best known as an openly gay, Catholic, conservative--a position that has him defending himself often in the media. In his new book, The Conservative Soul, Sullivan calls into question the "conservatism" of the current Republican Party, arguing that many of the party's current positions are not necessarily "conservative."

What Sullivan wants is to get back to the "conservative" principles of limited government, balanced budgets, individual liberty, and the rule of law.

"I am asking for a conservatism … that gets back to understanding that we have to restrain government, not empower it, and that faith and politics need to be kept apart for the sake not only of politics, but also of religion, which is being poisoned by partisan politics," he says.

Musings

• One question that Robert Siegel's interview with Sullivan raises is just what it means to be a conservative. Here's a link to the Wikipedia article on the term.
  
• Blogs are becoming a big part of American political culture. Take a look at Sullivan's, The Daily Dish, now published in partnership with CNN.

Once again we will be publishing 3 new topics this week:
on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday--
and, as always, your feedback is welcomed!

Philly's Microsoft High

The accompanying picture shows two freshmen at Philadelphia's new Microsoft High, officially known as theSchool of the Future--a $61.4 million joint venture between the Philadelphia public schools and the Microsoft Corporation. The school serves the West Philadelphia neighborhood, an area where 85% of the residents live below the federal poverty level. This Morning Edition piece (10/11/2006) highlights this "what if?" bold experiment in improving education through technology.

Musings

• "No pencils, no papers, no books. None." This is how a student describes the school, with technology, especially laptop computers, replacing traditional school materials. While this may sound cool, there are any number of possible concerns with such reliance on technology.
  
• Educational technology, as a key to our future or greatly oversold, is a topic which students themselves have a high level of expertise: for better or worse, all students have had a host of experiences (good or bad) with educational technology.
  

Huey Long

The recent remake of the Robert Penn Warren's classic American novel, All the King's Men, as a film starring Sean Penn has not been a commercial or critical success, so it is unclear just how much new interest it has awakened in the Louisiana populist politician Huey Long. One of the strange aspects of Long's career is that he comes out of the tradition of American populism, which basically represents the concerns of the "little man." While much populist sentiments today are directed at intellectuals, liberals, Hollywood, elites, and the mainstream media, Long directed his brickbats at those who controlled American wealth. (Read more about Long at Wikipedia.) Here in this Morning Edition piece (12/23/1997 - 3:19), we can hear Long in a broadcast from December 1934, attack J. D. Rockefeller, among others.

Musings

• Imagine Long's speech in 2006. What politician today would make such a speech? Would that person be a conservative or liberal? Was Long a liberal or a conservative?
  
  
• Populism is a little understood but nonetheless still powerful force in American life. Read more about populism here.

We will be publishing 3 new topics this week:
on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Amish Teens

The horrific shootings in the Amish school last week once again have brought the pious, deeply private Anabaptist community into the national spotlight. One little known aspect of Amish life is the unusual way they handle the troublesome teenage years. This Morning Edition piece (5/30/2002 - 8:42) discusses Rumspringa, the unusual Amish practice of of encouraging their teenagers to experiences the ways of the world, to sow their wild oats, so to speak. The report coincided with the release of a documentary entitled, The Devil's Playground. This past June, Tom Shachtman published a book on the topic, Rumspringa: To Be or Not To Be Amish (Talk of the Nation).

Musings

• What are you thoughts on rumspringa? How does it compare to your sense of the "normal" way we deal with teens, how you were dealt with when you were sixteen?
  
• There seems to be some parallels between rumspringa and the New Testament Parable of the Prodigal Son.

We will be publishing 3 new topics this week:
on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Gay Republicans

In the midst of the uproar over the scandal surrounding Republican Congressman Mark Foley, here is a report on the small movement of gays within the Republican Party, known as the Log Cabin Republicans (3/17/2004 - 4:16). The name harkens back to Abraham Lincoln and the origins of the Republican Party--learn more at Wikipedia.

Musings

• Why is it surprising to learn that there gay Republicans, or, more to the point, an organized group of gay Republicans? Why is it not surprising that there should be a sizeable number of gay Republicans?
  
  
• There are 535 members of the U.S. Congress, some 85% men, and with very, very few gays living out of the closet, of which Democratic Rep. Barney Frank is by far the best well known. How do you feel about Congressmen and women who are living in the closet? How do you think they will be affected by the current Foley scandal, especially in light of the fact that their sexual orientation is often known by the political leadership?
  

A Jewish Soldier Witnesses Nuremberg

The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg was established by the United States and the other allies after World War II as the cornerstone of a new international law that recognized "crimes against humanity." The evidence presented there represented the first account of the Nazis' atrocities and mass murders of the concentration camps. Commentator Clancy Sigal was a sergeant in the American army of occupation in Germany and gives this account (10/2/2006 -3:25) of what he saw.

Here you can hear legendary reporter Walter Cronkite's account (2/20/2006-12:55) of the trials.

Musings

• Sigal makes a direct comparison between the Nuremberg trials and the current controversy over how to prosecute detainees. Sigal seems to think that the similarities are more compelling than the differences. Do you agree? Just what are these similarities and differences?
  
• Why does Sigal focus on Herman Goering?

Eyes on the Prize

Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years (1954-1965) is a documentary series about the American Civil Rights Movement that originally aired on PBS in 1987. Then, three years later, eight segments dealing with the years between 1965-1985 were added to the original six. The documentary is noted for its sweeping use of rare archival footage.

After years of legal wrangling over copyrights on some of this archival footage, the original six-part series is being re-aired on public television this week--the first time it has been available in thirteen years.

This NPR broadcast (10/2/2006 - 11:48) the efforts that went into bring this classic documentary back to television.

Musings

• There is a saying to the effect that "History is written by the winners"; today it may be hard to realize just how broad, determined, and generally well connected were the opponents of the Civil Rights Movement.
  
• How can you explain the success of the Civil Rights Movement--the part played by activists, by ordinary people, and finally by the federal government? Indeed, one way of looking at the movement as a whole was as an attempt to force the federal government to act, after decades of largely ignoring the plight of African-Americans in the South.

We will try a slightly new format this week, by focusing on this one topic. The daily postings will be in the form of comments that add links and new perspectives to the week's topic, as a means of encouraging greater feedback and depth of study.

Idi Amin

In a movie opening today, The Last King of Scotland, portrays one of the towering and largely despised figures of the second half of the 20th-century, Uganda's dictator Idi Amin. Here is Bob Mondello's review (9/27/2006 - 3:53), with links to an interview with actor Forest Whitaker and with two scenes from the film.

Amin seized power in 1971, and ruled Uganda with an iron fist, in the process killing some 300,000 people before he was deposed and forced to flee to Saudi Arabia in 1979, where he died in 2003.

Musings

• What makes a dictatorial leader a hated figure instead of a strong leader? Consider, for instance, what we know about the President of Sudan, Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir, the man largely responsible for the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of his country?
  
  
• What is your sense of the status of Saddam Hussein, and just why and when he earned his current reputation?
  
  
• In the theater and films, one sure-fire way to define a strong hero is by creating a strong villain. Does this seem process apply to politics?
  

1906 Atlanta Race Riot

Kathy Lohr presents this overview of four days of race riots (9/22/2006 - 7:44) in the city of Atlanta. The exact number of deaths is in dispute, although the official count was 12 blacks and two whites. The match that seemed to light the fuse was the incendiary claim of black men raping white women, a claim flamed by competing politicians and special editions of competing newspapers.

"There was a great deal of concern about the city itself, and the decaying morals associated with an urban environment," says Cliff Kuhn, history professor at Georgia State University, a concern centered on the question of the danger to white women posed by black men. Then there was a series of allegations of new rapes of white women, all unsubstantiated. Kuhn continues the story:

Newsboys are hawking these editions: 'Extra! Extra! Read all about it!' And at the corner of Pryor and Decatur Street, a man gets up on a soapbox and waves one of these newspaper headlines and says, 'Are we going to let them do this to our white women? Come on, boys!' And the mob surges down Decatur Street.

Musings

• Current heated debate over illegal Hispanic immigration in the U.S. seems to lack the hot-button issue of race. Is that because we have changed or because we feel differently about Hispanics?
  
• Check out this lengthy list of U.S. race riots at Wikipedia.

We welcome your comments on this topic,
including annotated links to related Web materials.

Politics and the English Language

George Orwell's 1946 essay, "Politics and the English Language," has rightly become, not just a modern literary milestone, but a touchstone text of a liberal education, one found in practically every textbook used in freshman English classes in colleges across the country. In this piece from All Things Considered, Clarity Is the Remedy (9/22/06 - 4:05), writer Lawrence Wright discusses his own admiration for the piece, "which I first read as a freshman at Tulane University and immediately adopted as my guide":

Orwell's proposition is that modern English, especially written English, is so corrupted by bad habits that it has become impossible to think clearly. The main enemy, he believed, was insincerity, which hides behind the long words and empty phrases that stand between what is said and what is really meant.

The NPR site provides a link to the original essay, which is also available, along with a host of other Orwell material, at Charles' Orwell site. Note that the site claims that Orwell's works are in the public domain in Canada, where this site is hosted.

Musings

• One explanation of the enduring popularity of this piece is that it appeals to both the political left and right, to both conservatives and progressives.
  
  
• Orwell's point is that how we describe the world is of crucial importance; furthermore, that some language hides the truth from us (and is thus used to manipulate us) while other language (that which is clear, for instance) helps us to see the world as it really is. How does such an analysis apply to what has become the dominant decriptive metaphor of our age--that we are engaged in a "war on terror"? Does this phrase help or hinder our seeing the struggle we are engaged in?
  

Maurice Sendak

"Childhood is a tricky business," says noted children's author and illustrator, Maurice Sendak (9/26/2006). "Usually, something goes wrong." In this piece from Morning Edition, NPR's Steve Inskeep looks at the latest work from the beloved, but sometimes disturbing, children's author and illustrator, Maurice Sendak (9/26/2006 - ). The interview is about Sendak's latest book, Mommy?, although discussion with or about Sendak never goes far without mention of his classic story, Where the Wild Things Are. Sendak is most noted for placing his children in great dangers; in Mommy the child hero wanders among such famous monsters as Frankenstein and the Mummy.

Musings

• What can you learn about the connection between Sendak's art and his childhood, from this slide show and this conversation, as well as the video at this American Masters site?
  
• How would one answer a concerned parent who might find Sendak's work inappropriate for kids?
  
• At one point, Sendak discusses how the Lindberg kidnapping played such a key role in his childhood fears. How do world events affect children?

Bela Fleck

"I believe in figuring out my own way to do things. This approach can yield great results, but it's got its negative sides." So begins folk-jazz guitarist Bela Fleck in his essay, Doing Things My Way (9/25/06 - 4:00), part of the ongoing NPR series "This I Believe."

Recently, Fleck discussed his early experiences with music, and played variations on "Oh! Susanna" on the NPR's From the Top (9/20/2006 - 7:04).

Musings

• There's a peculiarly American strain in both Fleck's music and his attitude about it, especially as revealed in this short essay.
  

• The "This I Believe" series entails what turns out to be a rather difficult format, not that people lack opinions about what they think but precisely because everyone has them and after a while they all tend to blend together. Thus producing a good NPR piece in this series is akin to writing a good college essay. Here are two key suggestions from the "This I Believe" tips-page for doing just that:
  
  
  • Be specific. Take your belief out of the ether and ground it in the events of your life. Consider moments when belief was formed or tested or changed. Think of your own experience, work and family, and tell of the things you know that no one else does. Your story need not be heart-warming or gut-wrenching -- it can even be funny -- but it should be real. Make sure your story ties to the essence of your daily life philosophy and the shaping of your beliefs.
    
    
  • Be personal: This is radio. Write in words and phrases that are comfortable for you to speak. We recommend you read your essay aloud to yourself several times, and each time edit it and simplify it until you find the words, tone and story that truly echo your belief and the way you speak.

Clinton on Detainees

In this piece from Morning Edition, former President Bill Clinton (9/21/06-6:19) gives his opinions about what has become a major policy debate in the U.S. Senate: how to handle terrorism suspects. On the same show, NPR Washington editor Ron Elving (2:35) places Clinton's remarks in context.

Musings

• Of interesting here is Clinton's folksy language, referring to the supposed need to whack a detainee, whereas President Bush has been referring to "alternative means of interrogation." Bush also claimed that he could not discuss this means since doing so would help the terrorists prepare for such intense questioning. Sounds nice, but it's a little hard to see the difference between "whacking" and "alternative" as a matter of national security.
  
  
• Clinton also talks about waterboarding (discussed here at Wikipedia). Here's a link to Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Convention, which prohibits "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment"--language that President Bush claims is too vague.
  

Pope and Islam

This past Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI said that he was "deeply sorry" and regretted the reaction to his comments about the prophet Muhammad that he made during an academic speech the week before at a German university. The pontiff had quoted a 14th-century Christian description of Islam as "evil and inhuman," causing Islamist leaders from around the world to demand an apology.

In this piece from All Things Considered, commentator Joe Loconte (9/19/06 - 3:45) makes the point that it's possible "to make the right point in the wrong way." Loconte argues that Christianity has its own rich history of violence and irrationality from which the Pope might have selected his illustration.

Musings

• This NPR page conveniently cites world opinion on the Pope's comment and "apology." It is sometimes hard to get U.S. students interested in what the rest of the world thinks about anything, but these diverse opinions might arouse some interest.
  
  
• Political correctness is an often maligned term, since it entails a certain softening from what others might see as "straight-shooting" or the "unvarnished truth." (See more at Wikipedia.) The problem is that there are lots of situations when all of us are trained (rightly?) to say what's expected, what's polite--think of interviews with ball players, who are trained never to criticize a teammate in public.
  

Castro

Tom Gjelten provides this overview of the 50-year career of Cuban premier and revolutionary, Fidel Castro (9/15/06 8:50).

There were left-leaning politicians all across Latin America in the 1950s, but none of them was anything like Fidel Castro -- the bearded firebrand revolutionary who fought his way down from the mountains of central Cuba, vowing to build a nation based on social justice.

Fast-forward two generations: Castro is now an old man, still recovering from abdominal surgery and unable to make an appearance at a summit of non-aligned nations in his own capital of Havana. But a few of the gray-haired diplomats at the summit recall how Castro's triumph electrified the continent.

Musings

• Castro is a polarizing figure in American political discourse--officially labeld a dictator by U.S. government, and with few public defenders in the country. Yet as the Gjelten piece makes clear he still has heroic standing for some (or many) outside the country. How can you explain this discrepancy.
  
  
• Castro has lived to old age, and governing a country the whole time, while his compatriot Che Guevara died young. Hence whereas Castro is an elderly leader, his contemporary Che remains a youthful and, for many, beloved revolutionary.
  
  
• For decades, college dorm rooms were adorned with posters of Che. Who has replaced Che on posters; do young Americans have any political heroes today?
  

Two Muslim Sisters

NPR special correspondent Judy Woodruff (9/14/06 - 8:03) interviews the sisters Assia and Iman Boundaoui. The sisters are 20 and 18, in other words, college students. Part 2 (8:56) of the story, on the same page, focuses on wearing a hijab.

"I'm proud to be Algerian," Assia says, "but it makes me mad when people think just because you have a scarf on, you can't be American. You know, they have to ask you, 'Where are you really from? No, no where are you really from?'"

This interview is part of the series Muslims in America, as well as Woodruff's ongoing work of the Generation Next Project.

Musings

• The hijab, or headscarf, seems to play a central role in defining Muslim identity. Indeed, the NPR page has a lengthy discussion of Assia's decision. (See more on the hijab at Wikipedia .) How can one explain such importance being attached to a single piece, by Muslims and non-Muslims alike?
  
  
• Equally important are the broader social issues involved with the hijab, especially in "open," Western democracies, including a national controversy in France. The Boundaoui sisters are critical of the French law, but it does have its defenders; for more see the Wikipedia entry on the French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools

Exiting Iraq: A General's View

Weekend Edition Saturday has this straightforward interview with retired Lt. Gen. William E. Odom (9/16/06 - 7:17). Odom was the director of the National Security Agency under an earlier Republican President, Ronald Reagan. This is part of a series of interviews that includes interviews with Ambassador Peter Galbraith, University of Maryland professor Shibley Telhami, historian Frederick Kagan, and former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Musings

• Odom is what might be called an old-fashioned Republican, a group that in foreign policy liked to pride itself on its sense of realism (sometimes referred to by the German term realpolitik), an approach that basically avoided ideological debates (about good and evil), and instead sought to manipulate others as a way to minimize one's own costs, risks, and exposure.
  
  
• One of the more interesting points Odom makes is that a country cannot have a strong army without a strong central government. We will will never be able to build an army in Iraq, in other words, if the warring parties do not trust each other, since the group that ended up controlling the army would then control the country, which is something that the other party (Odom suggests) would never allow.

Enemy Combatant

From Morning Edition comes this report (9/14/06 - 4:46) on British-born Moazzam Begg (@ Wikipedia), a man who spent two years incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay as an enemy combatant (@ Wikipedia) of the United States, before being released in 2005. There's a brief follow-up interview (1:03) with NPR's correspondent Jackie Northam.

Like most enemy combatants, Begg was never charged with a crime during his time in prison, and now in a new book Begg claims that he was "never ever was a threat to the security of the United States of America." The Pentagon, disagrees, claiming that Begg is still a dangerous man.

Musings

• Part of the problem is what to do with people (mostly soldier-aged males) who clearly do not like us and hence, given the right opportunity, might conceivably act violently against the U.S. or our interests. The old-fashioned solution was basically two-fold: (1) to make each country responsible for policing its own citizens, and (2), at least in the U.S. and most democracies, not to arrest or otherwise detain people until or unless they have actually committed a crime. In other words, we did not arrest people on the likelihood that they would commit a crime, that someone like Begg is potentially dangerous. What's different today?
  
  
• A related issue is our use of the language of war. Again, the old-fashioned notion of war was between states. When one state was defeated, a new government was put in place that then had the task of policing its citizens. We now seem to be at war, not with governments, but with individuals and groups, and do not seem to have solved the problem of what to do with the people we fight against and do not kill. What do you think of what has been our short-term solution of our creating a global prison system?
  

Living Wage in L.A.

What to do about the minimum wage continues to be a contentious policy issue across the country Wikipedia has this historical overview of the minimum wage in the U.S. The same article surveys global policies on the issue. In this piece from last April (4/10/06 - 8:57), Renée Montagne reviews the impact of the living wage ordinance in Los Angeles.

This report is part of a larger series, Fighting Poverty in America, all of which deal with how general policy issues impact specific
people, helping us to see, or hear, how real people deal with tough circumstances.

Classroom thoughts

• This NPR piece fcuses on the policy concept of living wage. What are your thoughts about the movement in cities and municipalities to create their own, higher minimum wage?
  
  
• What do you think of the tactic of focusing on specific individuals, as Renée Montagne does in her piece?
  

HBO's The Wire

Michelle Norris reports on HBO's highly praised police drama, The Wire (9/7/06 - 8:09), called by critics "the most demanding, intelligent hour on television." The show is set in Baltimore, and after focusing on corruption in the police force, drug wars, and the port, the new, fourth season offers a realistic look at the Baltimore city schools. Perhaps what is most surprising is that chief writer and producer Ed Burns has decided to look, not at high school, but middle school students and their lives in and out of school. Burns says he wanted to "go back to when choices are made" and thus that for this group of students high school was too late.

"This is the tragedy of their school experience," Burns adds. "They spend time in class warring with the teacher. They're suspended. They go to time-out rooms, and then they hit the streets, and within five years, a lot of them are victims of murders or are committing murders." Too often, he feels, better options are closed off to these kids: "It's not from personal choice, but from other doors shutting around them." Learn more about The Wire at Wikipedia.

Classroom thoughts

• Middle school gets much less play in stories, in print, film or television, than high school. Any thoughts as to why?
  
  
• Some studies show that of all age groups the college-age population watches the least amount of television. Indeed, while we often think of TV as popular entertainment, it is much more likely that professors rather than their students will be watching almost any television drama. Find out who is watching The Wire or any other dramatic series in your class.
  

The Weepies

Music is not an easy topic to deal with in an academic setting, as all music listeners have lots of strong feelings about what they listen to, young listeners especially. In this piece from Weekend Edition Saturday (9/8/06 - 10:49), we get to hear the music of the Weepies and, perhaps just as importantly get to meet two interesting young people, Deb Talan and Steve Tannen.

Their latest album, Say I Am You, was recorded at their house in Pasadena, Calif. "World Spins Madly On," a track from that album, appears on the soundtrack of the recent film Friends with Money. More on the group at Wikipedia.

Classroom thoughts

• We are used to thinking about music in terms of big hits, big stars, lots of marketing; here we get a different picture of the music business as a cottage industry. As a career choice, what's the appeal of each approach?
  
  
• A key element in music listening is genre, distinct, readily recognizable qualities that must be present to make a work of art appropriate--that is, appropriate to it genre. If these elements are not present, the work is immediately deemed as outside the genre, hence, inappropriate and, more to the point, often unlistenable, regardless of any other feature. See what Wikipedia has to say about genre, and discuss the role of genre in your own music listening.
  

Images of Sept. 11

This NPR report by Karen Grigsby Bates (9/8/06 - 5:23) features an interview with David Friend, the editor of a new book of 9/11 images, Watching the World Change. The interview with Bates focuses not on the famous, often-reproduced Thomas Franklin image shown here (although Friend does discuss this image at the NPR Web site) but the much more disturbing image of one the jumpers, a man plummeting to his death, taken by Richard Drew.

We learn in the piece that not many American newspapers elected to publish this. "Pictures of that sort of power tend to be foreign images," Friend says. "[Americans] don't tend to want to see our own dying before our eyes."

Classroom thoughts

There is a world of difference in the two photographs. While it is easy to see these differences, it may be a bit more difficult to articulate them for others--why are eyes are drawn to one image and averted from the other.

• What do you think about decision of newspapers editors not to publish the Drew photograph?
  
  
• Here's a link to an NPR piece on cell phone photos taken after the London subway bombings in August 2005. What do you think of the proposition that such photographs are going to change how we understand history?
  

Music and Mayhem in Laurel Canyon

In this entertaining piece, Music and Mayhem in Laurel Canyon (9/7/06 - 7:18), NPR's Renée Montagne interviews Michael Walker, author of the Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Legendary Neighborhood. It seems while San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood got all the publicity as the hotspot of the late-60s counter-culture, many of the major musicians of the era were ensconced in this rustic Los Angeles neighborhood: the Byrds, the Mamas and the Papas, Frank Zappa, Crosby Stills and Nash, the Eagles, Jim Morrison, and a host of others.

Here's Walker's take on why this happened: ""Musicians need to breathe the same air. And these were some of the best musicians of their generation, sort of by luck and happenstance jammed into this beautiful, leafy, little neighborhood." Read more about Laurel Canyon at Wikipedia.

Musings

• This piece is based on the assumption of the mythic status of the times and musicians--a time when everything seems to have been larger than life. How much of this feeling is still present in today's youth?
  
  
• One memorable aspect of counter-culture during the time of Laurel Canyon was its anti-war stance. Can one find a similar anti-war culture today? Where? If not, what? What's the difference between then, when we were at war in Vietnam, and now, when we are at war in Iraq and Afghanistan?

The Wacky World of John Hodgman

Thanks to a new series of TV commercials for Apple computers, John Hodgman has become a household face, if not a name. He's the nerd who represents the clunky PC, as compared to the hip guy playing a Mac. It turns out that, once again, art is imitating life, and that Hodgman really is something of a professional nerd and all-around oddball. Here in this interview with Robert Siegel (9/5/06 - 8:15) we learn that Hodgman is also a master humorist.

Classroom thoughts

• Slate magazine's media critic Seth Stevenson takes a look at the new Mac ads (6/21/06 - 4:03). You can view the original ads at the Apple site. Most of us are not used to such focused ad criticism--what do you think of Stevenson's remarks.
  
  
• Apple is clearly trying to sell its computers because they hip, cool, or generally sexy in a special kind of male way. Exactly what is it that the Mac guy has that the PC guy doesn't? Who or what else is society is like the Mac guy, the PC guy?
  
  
• Hodgman's humor is best described as deadpan, described this way by Mark Twain: "The humorous story is told gravely; the teller does his best to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects that there is anything funny about it." (Read more at Wikipedia.com.) Discuss your experience with deadpan wits.
  

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld

In this piece, NPR's legal correspondent, Nina Totenberg, presents a detailed analysis of the Supreme Court's June 2006 ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (9/5/06 - 9:19). Hamdan's main crime is having served as Osama bin Laden's driver in Afghanistan, although, as one commentator noted, after World War II we interviewed Hitler's driver but neither arrested nor otherwise prosecuted him.

In any case, in the Hamdan decision the high court (in a 5-3 decision) ruled against the system set up by President Bush to try accused war criminals at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Experts are calling this the "most important ruling on executive power in decades, or perhaps ever." Read more at Wikipedia.com.

Classroom thoughts

• There are lots of legal peculiarities in this or any court ruling, but the key issue here is clear: What are the limits, if any, on the executive power of the President in the one area where everyone acknowledges the President has the greatest power, that is, in the area of protecting the national security? In other words, are there conditions regarding national security that empowers the President to act contrary to, or without regard for, existing U.S. laws?
  
  
• A related issue here is what to make of exceptions. In other words, even if one concedes that under extraordinary circumstances, the President should be able to act without regard to existing laws, the question becomes what a circumstance truly extraordinary? More specifically, is the "war on terror," which has been going on for at least five years and has no clear end in sight, such a circumstance? Is the age in which we are now living really all that exceptional?
  
  
• The NPR piece focuses on the efforts of attorney Neal Katyal as the David in this David-and-Goliath story. Why do "Davids" make such appealing heroes, and do you think Katyal is one?
  

A Better Breakfast

In this Morning Edition segment, A Better Breakfast Can Boost a Child's Brainpower (8/31/06 - 4:53), Allison Aubrey reviews current thinking on an old topic, one all of us, at one time or another, have been instructed on, usually by our mothers: namely, the benefits of eating a good breakfast. One study reviewed in the piece compared students who ate sweetened oatmeal with those who had Cap'n Crunch; then both groups had theor short-term memories tested. No surprise: The oatmeal eaters did 20 percent better than the Crunch-ers.

On the same page, check out the article, "Breakfast of Scholars: What Eggs-perts Suggest," by Roseanne Pereira and Marc Silver. This earlier short piece, Breakfast Survey (5/31/2000 - 2:15) look at what people in Atlanta, Washington D.C. and Boston had for breakfast.

Classroom thoughts

• Might as well start with the obvious: what the class had for breakfast. Here's a good chance to build class-based knowledge set, and then have class do some qualitatively analysis and case studies.
  
  
• What is it with Cap'n Crunch? Why does everyone make fun of this stuff? There's even a Wikipedia entry.
  

Dixie Chicks' Summer Tour

The country music group, the Dixie Chicks, raises a number of important issues about contemporary American values, mostly related to "the incident": the remark made by Natalie Maines to a London audience some three years, at the start of current Iraq War, that she was "ashamed" President Bush was from the group's home state of Texas. Craig Havighurst's piece, Dixie Chicks Summer Tour Not All Smooth Sailing (8/31/06 - 7:18) brings the story up to date by focusing on how the continuing repercussions are affecting their current tour, including response to their new album's lead song, "Not Ready to Make Nice."

Last May, Melissa Block did this feature on their current album, Taking the Long Way (5/23/06 - 8:54). You can read more about the Dixie Chicks at Wikipedia.

Classroom thoughts

• What are your thoughts on "the incident" -- a performer's public criticism of the President, and the response it produced? What does it say about the nature of dissent and the power of consensus in the U.S.?
  
  
• While dissent may have been more widespread during the Vietnam War, in large measure because of the military draft that made young people opposed to the war subject to having to fight it, it is unclear if dissent was any more popular. The actress Jane Fonda became immensely unpopular at the time, as was the now widely admired ex-heavyweight champ, Muhammad Ali, who has largely remade his image. Check and see what people had to say at the time when he refused to allow himself to be drafted into the U.S. Army.
  
  
• Havighurst's piece refers to the 200+ country stations owned by a single company, Clear Channel Communications (@ Wikipedia). What advantages or disadvantages do you see in one company having such control?