A new day
The road a country takes to decency and respect for the rule of law is long.
All posts filed under: The Times We Live In
Addressing the challenges of our polarized times
Let’s dream again
Moving towards a place and time where belief in our abilities to achieve a noble common purpose defeats the fears that turn hate into loathing.
The information crisis
Steve Almond’s “Bad Stories” is a good book to revisit when considering our ongoing information crisis.
In praise of public libraries
In “Our Towns”, James and Deb Fellows found a surprisingly relevant bellwether institution: the public library.
Democracy is never permanent…and the work to keep it never ends
My series of observations on the lessons of history in the fight for democracy.
Paradise lost
Music is a language that helps us process loss. We have needed that language too often in 2020.
Disinformation and the threat to democracy
History tells us that fake news and disinformation are long-standing American traditions. They remain a threat to democracy.
Journeys that move us toward justice never end
Yesterday we took a walk through Brookside Gardens. It was a beautiful fall day, the colors were vibrant, and the air was clean. Along the path were small signs of “Garden Mindfulness” with reminders to “feel the air moving across your skin” and to “bring awareness to those parts of the body where you could feel the wind.” After a while we came upon a labyrinth placed in a tranquil meadow setting. As I slowly walked the curving stone path, I recalled the rules and morals of the practice from my reading of Rebecca Solnit’s delightful book Wanderlust: A History of Walking. “…sometimes you have to turn your back on your goal to get there, sometimes you’re farthest away when you’re closest, sometimes the only way is the long one. After the careful walking and looking down, the stillness of arrival was deeply moving.” In these troubled times, we are all on a difficult journey. It is important to recall that sometimes the only way is the long one. Work that is meaningful takes time …
Be a good boy…and follow your mother’s advice
The story of the ratification of the 19th amendment – giving women the right to vote – has connections to Tennessee and a historic hotel in Nashville.
Recovered songs, recovered stories
Folk songs often bring us to the intersection of place, history, and memory. In certain cases, digging into those songs gives us a chance to recover the true stories, long-hidden, from our past, bringing a reckoning with the history that did happen and a reimagining for our collective future. Recently, The Bitter Southerner posted a thoughtful article which examines how the popular folk tune Swannanoa Tunnel was taken from the wrongfully convicted black community in Western North Carolina. Forced to build the railroad tunnel as convict labor during the Jim Crow era, those convicts originally wrote the tune in the “hammer song” tradition of John Henry. Somebody Died, Babe: A Musical Cover-up of Racism, Violence, and Greed shows how the song was reshaped and romanticized into an English-based folk tune in the 1920s – 1960s to appeal to white audiences. As the site notes, “Beneath the popular folk song…and beneath the railroad tracks that run through Western North Carolina, is a story of blood, greed, and obfuscation. As our nation reckons with systematic racial violence, …
MORE TO COME... 