In a recent lecture, Will pointed to the constitutional nature of the speech President Barack Obama gave to the NAACP to mark their centennial convention. Obama marks the occasion as an opportunity to celebrate “not simply the journey the NAACP has traveled, but the journey that we have, as Americans, have traveled over the past [...]
Posts under ‘RED/People’
Ubuntu and the Birthplace of Cool
I’ve been recently reminded that my own activism has roots in the campaigns for Africa in the 80′s. I convinced my mother to make a donation so I could order a Live Aid t-shirt. I’m sure she hoped the purchase would buy her some quiet time but it wasn’t about the t-shirt for me. I [...]
What the King of Pop did with Politics
As a music fanatic, I am contemplating what pop music would be today without Michael Jackson. Cable news is busy retelling 1,000 sordid details of his tragic life, but I urge you to turn to MTV instead and consider what he contributed to the world of music. One of those contributions is harnessing the power [...]
Project Citizen
Having been briefly introduced to Project Citizen at the National Academy, I decided to try it out this year. It’s an ideal, outcome-based activity as much about the journey as the finish. And the great thing about the finish is that it’s really just the beginning, for students receive the tools to research and formulate [...]
It's America and We are One
Did you see the We are One celebration yesterday? It was a powerful combination of our best words, music, and ideas. From the MLK and JFK quotes you’d expect to Reagan quotes you wouldn’t. I wouldn’t call myself a fan of Mary J. Blige or Jon Bon Jovi but they provided a moving performance with [...]
Who We Are
A new year and a new adminstration loom large on the horizon amongst even larger challenges. There are horrifying images from Gaza and hearstopping financial woes to worry many. In our last holiday post, Max pointed us to the Grinch and I think I felt a little like that green menace when I did my [...]
How the Hobbes Stole Christmas
Looking for a way to make Thomas Hobbes more to your students than life as “nasty, brutish, and short”? Today, I shared with my 4th-6th graders Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. You’ve no doubt seen the Chuck Jones animated version, but I’m going to visit the original text. As the story goes, the [...]
Is a Bailout of the Auto Companies Federalist in Nature?
The following thread is from a conversation conducted via email: –Hobbes21 ——————— Hey, Whole, I’m wondering what y’all think about the proposed automobile manufacturers’ bailout. Is it federalism at work, or diet socialism? Are the Big Three the last, best vestiges of a strong middle class, or simply lumbering dinosaurs? What is the price to our [...]
Executive Order: Masking Good Intentions or Truly Frightening?
Executive order, much like judicial review, is a power that was seized early on by the presidency; George Washington is credited with eight such uses. The official list of e.o’s has been numbered retrospectively to Abraham Lincoln, when he used his position to establish military courts in Louisiana after its re-capture. One wonders what the [...]
The Ballad of Detroit
In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jerod Diamond makes an interesting observation about peninsulas: the landform, much like an island, isolates a people. Peninsulas act as a force multiplier, granting a space easier defense, so that a polity might survive invasion by a much more powerful culture. (Think: Hot Gates and Isthmus of Corinth.) Conversely, a spit can bring the closed-culture [...]
