Monthly Archives: February 2015

Clifton Brings Black History Alive

By Robin Bates | Published: February 6, 2015

Lucille Clifton insists on the telling the historical truth, even if it makes whites uncomfortable.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "at the cemetery", "i am accused of tending to the past", "lucifer speaks in his own voice", African American history, Black History Month, Lucille Clifton, slavery | Comments closed

Pesticides vs. Sweetness and Wings

By Robin Bates | Published: February 5, 2015

Monarch butterflies and bees are in grave danger. Poems by Scott Bates and Mary Oliver remind us what we will lose if we don’t move to protect them.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "The Underside of Heaven's Gates" endangered species, bees, environmental devastation, happiness, hive collapse, Mary Oliver, monarch butterflies, Nature, Scott Bates | Comments closed

On Poe & the Paranoia of Anti-Vaxxers

By Robin Bates | Published: February 4, 2015

Edgar Allen Poe gives us insight into vaccine truthers. Rather than dispelling shadows, scientific insights are pushing some Americans into repression.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged disease, Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Edgar Allen Poe, measles, Murders of the Rue Morgue, Robert Louis Stevenson, vaccination, vaccine truthers | Comments closed

The Super Bowl, Comic & Tragic Versions

By Robin Bates | Published: February 3, 2015

The Patriots miraculously escaped a hanging, the Seahawks did not. It’s the difference between Gay’s “Beggars Opera” and Bierce’s “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Ambrose Bierce, Beggar's Opera, Football, John Gay, New England Patriots, NFL sports, Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks, Super Bowl, Tom Brady | Comments closed

Can Lit Make the Rich More Empathetic?

By Robin Bates | Published: February 2, 2015

With growing income disparity comes a decline in empathy. Literature can help rebuild our compassion.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Clansmen, empathy, Honoré de Balzac, Income inequality, Jonathan Swift, Thomas Dixon, Thomas Pinker, violence | Comments closed

The Golem, A.I., and God

By Robin Bates | Published: February 1, 2015

Stephen Hawking’s concerns about artificial intelligence and his belief there is no god is disputed by the Jewish legend of the golem of Prague.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged artificial intelligence, golem of Prague, Matrix, Rabbi Judah Loew, Shelley (Mary), Stephen Hawking, T, Terminator | Comments closed