I, however, find all the posturing over Medicare depressing. When the Democrats respond with their own scare tactics, they just become Tweedledee to the Republicans’ Tweedledum.
Monthly Archives: May 2011
Tweedledum, Tweedledee, and Medi(s)care
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Tweedledum and Tweedledee", "Walrus and the Carpenter", Alice through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll, Medicare, politics Comments closed
Weep, For You May Touch Them Not
In his poem “Greater Love,” Owen describes two deaths. One is the physical death of soldiers, which is tragic enough. But the other death is also heartbreaking: the death of innocence that occurs when people become intimately acquainted with war.
Each Enclosed Spirit Is a Singing Bird
I awoke this beautiful spring morning to hear the birds at full throttle, giving me an excuse to post a wonderful bird poem by Henry Vaughan, the 17th century metaphysical poet.
Goodbye, Lenin. Goodbye, Wall.
Unlike the other “Films about Fences” I showed, Goodbye Lenin involves the trauma of a fence coming down. The fence in this case is the Berlin Wall and the trauma is the shock to East German sensibilities when they have to negotiate the chaotic complexities of life under capitalism.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Berlin Wall, Capitalism, Communism, Film, Goodbye Lenin Comments closed
New Orleans, Kind to Strangers
For me as a tourist, New Orleans was a study in contrasts: the best live music I have ever heard performed in seedy bars, old world charm a block away from Bourbon Street decadence, the elegance of the Garden District mansions clashing with the boarded-up Katrina-ravaged houses of the Ninth Ward. There is a similar study of contrasts in the most famous literary work connected with the city.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged New Orleans, Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams, Travel Comments closed
Believing 6 Impossibilities before Breakfast
Slate Magazine recently had a Jacob Weisberg column that invoked Alice through the Looking Glass in talking about the current Republican Party. Lewis Carroll’s Alice books seem indeed to be works for our times.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Alice in Wonderland, Alice through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll, politics Comments closed
Remembering the Freedom Riders
King’s speech, not surprisingly, was the most memorable part of the weekend. At the time, he was upset at the violent race riots underway in Newark and Detroit. I remember him thundering, “Therefore I tell you, not ‘burn, baby, burn’ but ‘build, baby, build!’” and I carried those words with me into college.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Freedom Rider:Washout", Civll Rights Movement, James Emmanuel, Martin Luther King, racism Comments closed
