Washington Post — September 2, 2022 How I ditched my poverty tells By Tracy Moore A study published in the journal Nature last month about something called “bridging social capital” elicited many no-duhs on social media. The study’s big takeaway was that when the poor get a chance to meet the wealthier among us, they … Continue reading Self-Reinvention or Self-Erasure? An Abiding American Dilemma
New York Times — September 2, 2022 I Was Onstage With Salman Rushdie That Day, and What I Saw Was Remarkable By Henry Reese Violence against writers was the topic I was about to interview the novelist Salman Rushdie about at the Chautauqua Institution on Aug. 12. We were being introduced onstage when out of … Continue reading A Network of Good Deeds: Providing Asylum to Threatened Writers
I thought everyone would have lost interest in this by now . . . Hey, wait — you forgot your Sunflowers, and Toto! My money’s on the one with the sword . . . Does this “Semi” label make my butt look fat??
[Note: Here’s my two cents on the student loan cancellation plan: I’m all for it. Shoulda been more. But will it survive the imminent rightwing legal assaults? Some further thoughts below.] From Religion Dispatches: BY PETER LAARMAN SEPTEMBER 1, 2022 EVANGELICALS CLUTCH THEIR PEARLS OVER STUDENT DEBT RELIEF: LORD HAVE MERCY! What with Ukraine, Mar-a-Lago, … Continue reading Student loan debt cancellation: good or bad?
We need to move beyond the binary thinking of ‘us and them’ politics By Jay Caspian Kang Opinion Writer New York Times — September 1, 2022 I am sad to announce that this will be the last edition of this newsletter. This decision was mine, and it was a difficult one to make because I’ve … Continue reading To Depolarize the USA, We Gotta Bust the Cultural/Educational Binaries