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Jonathan Franzen Goes to Jail (for a Book Talk)
Tweet Share on Facebook February 22, 2011 Comment (4)The author of The Corrections and Freedom went to jail in Washington. He left impressed with the "seriousness" level of conversation, compared to meeting with young people on the other side of the tracks.
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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Unfairly Demonizes Teachers
Tweet Share on Facebook February 18, 2011 Comment (54)Madison, the state capital of Wisconsin, is also known as "Mad City"--not for nothing this week. My hometown's uprising on the shores of Lake Monona, in and around the state capitol, made the front page of the New York Times in the nation's most riveting political drama: a showdown between a new Republican governor and public union workers protesting the pain of big budget cuts at their expense. Wisconsin is first to yelp in protest, but may not be last.
Skating on thin ice, Gov. Scott Walker has evinced not a shred of human sympathy as he calmly goes about his business, which is to demonize and demoralize state workers. It's all part of a larger pattern. First it was public school teachers that got the broadsides, snide suggestions they aren't up to snuff. Now it's state public workers, with their pensions and healthcare as fair game. These people are public servants who should not be shrugged off so lightly and rudely. Attention must be paid to them, too, not just the military--which is the mighty whale (or sacred cow) of our federal budget woes, hands down.
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Abraham Lincoln's Farewell Address Revealed His 'Tragic Optimism'
Tweet Share on Facebook February 14, 2011 Comment (2)The tall man took off his hat to say a few words in the early morning rain. At the sound of his voice, tears started falling at the Springfield, Ill., train station. A thousand townspeople had gathered there to say good-bye to the man from Illinois, already on the passenger car platform of the train bound for Washington. Clouds were gathering for a grave civil war—not yet the Civil War indelibly etched in national memory. The date was February 11, 1861, and Abraham Lincoln was one day short of his 52nd birthday.
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Obama Should Show 'Exceptionalism' in Egypt Crisis
Tweet Share on Facebook February 7, 2011 Comment (7)Just how "exceptional" is America in the global grand scheme of things?
If it is still so, that we are special on the world stage, now is the time to prove it by muscular diplomatic engagement with Egypt to further democracy and peace in the Middle East. We have a lot to make up for in that department, if you know what I mean. [See photos of the Egypt protests.]
