From the bookshelf
One nonfiction and one fiction book consider how to respond when the world’s landscape shifts.
All posts tagged: Barack Obama
Nothing Can be Changed Until it is Faced
Last week, President Obama named the A.G. Gaston Motel (a National Trust National Treasure), the 16th Street Baptist Church (site of a bomb attack in 1963 that killed four young girls), and other places near them as part of the new Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument. Made on the eve of celebrating the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, the president’s designation was a good reminder of the importance of why we protect places that tell difficult stories from our past. A few weeks ago I finished reading a powerful book that harkened back to the work and writings of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a work that demands a response from the reader and is not easily dismissed. In the book’s foreword, Cornel West alludes to the link between Alexander’s work and Dr. King’s core beliefs. King called for us to be “lovestruck with each other, not colorblind toward each other. To be lovestruck is to care, to have …
No Obama First Pitch for the Nats
It appears that George, Tom, Abe, and Teddy will be the only presidents to appear at Nationals Park tomorrow for opening day. The current resident of the White House, President Obama, has turned down an invitation from the Washington Nationals to throw out the first pitch for the home opener tomorrow against the Philadelphia Phillies. Perhaps Obama has watched the Nats lose their first two series of the season, to begin a rousing 0-6 – MLB’s only team still without a win. Or perhaps he has enough problems to deal with without having to take time out to watch a team that’s still not ready for prime time. Let’s hope a change in scenery and coming home will help the Nats get that elusive first win. And we can dream about the time that Washington has a baseball team that even a basketball-loving president would want to see. More to come… DJB
President Obama Mocks DC Residents’ Response to Winter
The blog DCist has a great post today with a video of President Obama mocking the people of Washington about their response to the weather. His girls couldn’t believe that school was closed today (which was true for Andrew and Claire’s schools, which are just down the street from Sidwell). One of the girl’s said that in Chicago they would have gone out for recess in this weather. The DCist response is perfect: President Barack Obama basically called District residents a bunch of wusses when it comes to dealing with snow and ice. We’d be offended if he wasn’t, you know, totally, absolutely correct. Sad but true. Watch the video…it is funny. More to come… DJB
Views of the Inauguration
January 20, 2009 was a great day to be an American. It was also a wonderful day to be in Washington. And although I’m writing this from Santa Monica, California – I didn’t leave Washington until we had a new president. Claire was on the mall with friends and she took several pictures of the inauguration – including the one at the top of the post. She reports that it was very festive, and this picture captures that spirit. Because I had to fly to California later in the day, and Candice was coming back from a long weekend in Florida, Andrew and I opted to go to Politics and Prose – the wonderfully independent and progressive neighborhood bookstore – to watch the inauguration with like-minded friends and patrons. It was great. The staff provided free popcorn, the coffee shop was hopping turning out the hot chocolate and lattes, and everyone was in a very good mood. Andrew had on his Obama ’08 cap and we enjoyed the view and the company. There were three different …
Fired Up and Ready to Go
A friend recently pointed me to a blog posting entitled In Defense of Raising Money: A Manifesto for NonProfit CEOs written by a man by the name of Sasha Dichter. Now you may think that sounds like a very boring topic, but if you care about any cause – be it eradicating poverty, health care reform, the arts, AIDS, historic preservation, you name it – read this manifesto. It is a powerful piece that talks about how your dream and passion has to be bigger than your ego. Just a sampling… Spending your time talking to powerful, influential people about the change you hope to see in the world is a pretty far cry from having fundraising as a “necessary evil.” Do you really believe that the “real work” is JUST the “programs” you operate? (the school you run; the meals you serve; the vaccines you develop; the patients you treat?) Do you really believe that it ends there? Do you really believe that in today’s world, where change can come from anyone and anywhere, that convincing people …
What a strange, wonderful Election Day it has been
Greetings from Bratislava, Slovakia! Not your normal post-election day dateline for the More to Come…blog. Let me tell you how I ended up hearing about the presidential election results while flying over the Atlantic. I woke up at home on November 4th and after the normal morning chores, I headed down to the library to vote. Well, I wasn’t really surprised to find that the line ran around the edges of BOTH parking lots and extended almost to the street. Historic election indeed! It was great, even if I did stand in line for 2 hours and 10 minutes before casting my vote. But it felt good to be part of something so special and it felt REALLY good to vote with a positive feeling about a candidate (instead of the usual voting to play defense). The local high school had some kids out selling coffee and pastries to help with relief efforts in Africa. They did well, but they could have done gangbusters if they’d had chairs to rent or would have been able to …
Summer Reading
An email from the husband of a friend who shall remain nameless showed up in my home email in-box recently with a list of books on his table ready for his summer reading. There were a lot of very serious titles—some of which I’ve read and many of which I’ve missed—but the one that caught my eye was War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges. Now I’ve read that book, and I don’t consider it light reading. In fact, it is pretty depressing. For while Hedges calls for humility, love, and compassion as the only chance for the human race, he writes of the addiction of war and its unifying force. When you read this, our chances seem pretty slim. But that’s NOT why I’m writing about Summer Reading Lists. There are 9 other months of the year to read books like War is a Force… Summer reading is different. Here are three books (two on baseball; one only tangentially on architecture but really on love) I think are great for …
MORE TO COME... 