Dryden’s “beware the fury of a patient man” applies to the speech that Obama gave last week at the Democratic National Convention.
Tag Archives: Donald Trump
Wanted: A Pragmatic Idealism
In Ghosh’s first novel “Circle of Reason,” extreme rationality is shown to be blinkered and vulnerable. In the end, it must be blended with pragmatism, a good lesson for today’s politics.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Amitav Ghosh, Circle of Reason, Democratic Party, Idealism Comments closed
Trump as Aesop’s Frog
Aesop’s fable of the frog and the ox, versified by La Fontaine and Scott Bates, applies only too well to Donald Trump.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "F Is the Fable of the Frog and the Ox", "The Frog that Wished to Be as Big as an Ox", Aesop, Jean de la Fontaine, Scott Bates Comments closed
Wanted: Teachers, Not Martyrs
Some say teachers should, like soldiers, should put their lives on the line. This A.E. Housman poem brings up the question of whether even soldiers should do so when there sacrifice will be meaningless.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Charge of the Light Brigade", "Here Dead We Lie", "I Have a Rendezvous with Death", "Soldier", "Strange Meeting", A. E. Housman, Alan Seeger, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Bertolt Brecht, COVID-19, Galileo, Rupert Brooke, school reopening, teachers, Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien, Wilfred Owen Comments closed
Memo to Teachers: Put Lives on Line
Trumpian disrespect for school personnel–no special emphasis on safe reopening–brings to mind Kipling’s “Tommy.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Tommy", Betsy DeVos, COVID-19, Rudyard Kipling, school reopening Comments closed
Pratchett Responds to Racist Politics
Terry Pratchett’s “Feet of Clay” argues humorously for diversity, immigration, and responsible governance.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Feet of Clay, global institutions, Immigration, Pax Americana, racism, Terry Pratchett Comments closed
Hang Together or Go Under
A James Baldwin prose poem alerts u to resources we have to resist the darkness that threatens us.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Nothing Is Fixed", complacency, James Baldwin, Nothing Personal Comments closed
Trump-Graham as Dracula-Renfield
South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham is to Trump what Renfield is to Dracula–and could suffer a similar fate.
