Monthly Archives: December 2015

When the Police Target Black Women

By Robin Bates | Published: December 21, 2015

If 2014 saw police victimization of black men, 2015 revealed some police victimization of black women. Alice Walker’s “Color Purple” warned us about this decades ago.

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Trump as Yeats’s Rough Beast

By Robin Bates | Published: December 20, 2015

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar accuses Donald Trump of being the actual terrorist and compares him to Yeats’s “rough beast” in “The Second Coming.”

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The Stable Is Our Heart

By Robin Bates | Published: December 19, 2015

Madeleine L’Engle alludes to “The Second Coming” in this Advent poem, which promises stability in the face of fear and lust for power.

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The Utterly Amazing William Blake

By Robin Bates | Published: December 17, 2015

William Blake spoke to protesters in the 1960s but that is far from his only audience. A recent “New York Review of Books” articles surveys his greatness.

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Star Wars & Thousand-Faced Heroes

By Robin Bates | Published: December 16, 2015

A poem by Katy Giebenhain about “Star Wars” shows the flaws of its Joseph Campbell roots. She notes that “the hero doesn’t get/through anything alone.”

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The Odyssey Speaks to Today’s Refugees

By Robin Bates | Published: December 15, 2015

“The Odyssey” looked different to a literature teacher after he taught it to a class of Syrian, Iraqi and Palestinian refugees. Homer’s poem challenges us to open our own hearts to those fleeing persecution and war.

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Gaskell Novel Explains Trump’s Appeal

By Robin Bates | Published: December 14, 2015

The anger of John Barton in Elizabeth Gaskell’s 1848 novel “Mary Barton” resembles the anger of many Trump supporters.

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Is Freedom More Powerful than Fear?

By Robin Bates | Published: December 13, 2015

Obama in his Oval Office speech on terrorism said that “freedom is more powerful than fear.” Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor would beg to differ.

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Climate Hope Shines in Dark Times

By Robin Bates | Published: December 12, 2015

Madeleine L’Engle’s 1971 Advent poem anticipates the gloom we feel today about climate change. Yesterday’s international accord, however–miraculously signed by 195 countries–gives us some glimmer of Christmas hope.

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