Given the rap, playful or otherwise, that all Irish American s will fall out of the nation’s bars early Friday morning, one would think this time in March is all about partying. What is overlooked in the supposed mayhem and the build-up to St. Patrick’s Day is a time of more baleful significance: the […]
Archive for the ‘Social Issues’ Category
The Irish and the Ides: Not Much to Party About
March 15, 2011
Posted in Social Issues |
3 Comments »
What’s Love Got to Do with It?
February 15, 2011Think of Tina Turner’s hit song: “What’s love, what’s love, got-to-do, got-to-do with it…” Cometh Valentine’s Day, and storefronts are sick with every shade of red. Gosh, we’re a loving people. You can tell from our music, literature, rhetoric and scriptures. We sing and rhapodize about it, and look for it in all the wrong […]
Posted in Gays and Society, Race in America, Religion, Social Issues |
Tags: Arts, Isaiah, Jews, Love, Marriage, Poetry, Romance, Tina Turner, Transgender, Troubadours, Valentines Day
1 Comment »
Coming Down the Mountain
January 18, 2011These words were meant to be posted earlier but, well, shots rang out again, this time in Arizona. How ironic that we were only days away from commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr., himself a victim of gun violence. He had been to the mountain-top, a “peak experience” perhaps, but the trip down is often disappointing, […]
Posted in Race in America, Social Issues |
Tags: Atlanta, Baltimore, Martin Luther King, NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
1 Comment »
Re-Gifting Lady Liberty
December 29, 2010‘Twas the day for Giving. Now are days for re-gifting–passing unneeded or unwanted gifts on to others, or Return to Sender. Given our anti-immigrant rhetoric and legislation, it’s time to send the Statue of Liberty back to France. Call it a re-gifting of Lady Liberty. We don’t like immigrants. But did we ever? Killing the […]
Posted in Politics, Social Issues |
Tags: Bracero program, Christmas gifts, Eiffel Tower, France, Frank Sinatra, George W. Bush, Lucky Luciano, Mexican migrant labor, Mitch McConnell, Pres. Sarkozy, Statue of Liberty
5 Comments »
What “War Against Christmas”?
December 16, 2010For those who love wars, there’s always room for one more, and now it’s said that one’s been declared against Christmas by those who don’t believe in or celebrate it. I thought the latter were merely stating their own preferences, but Fox News, eager to push people into a fight, has made this a priority, […]
Posted in Politics, Pop Culture, Religion, Social Issues |
Tags: "New Athiests", Baby Jesus, Christmas, Hanukkah, Holiday greetings, Holidays, Kwanzaa, Oliver Cromwell, Opinions, Religion in America, Santa Claus, United States
6 Comments »
“Don’t Tell” the Marines
December 10, 2010The military and war are personal legacies, my father’s entire family having fought for the Mexican Revolution, a civil war three times as long as ours. There, the Rebels won. My maternal grandfather fought in our Civil War, but was a Rebel in a losing cause. Had that Yankee bullet at Shiloh been a bit […]
Posted in Gays and Society, Politics, Social Issues |
Tags: Army of Occupation, Civil War, don't ask don't tell, General Petraeus, John McCain, Mexican Revolution, U.S. Marines, World War II
4 Comments »
Beer, Or Prayers, with Obama?
October 22, 2010In this ridiculous political climate, attacks focus not only on the President, but his wife and his religion. First Ladies usually are immune from public criticism, unless they’re Democrats, of course. Hillary Clinton did nothing wrong but when her hubby was found to be a cad, somehow she was considered party to it. Michele Obama […]
Posted in Politics, Social Issues |
Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Maher, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jeremiah Wright, Oval Office, Pat Nixon, Ronald Reagan, United States
1 Comment »
The Controversy that Won’t Go Away
September 18, 2010Because some people don’t want it to. It’s the best wedge issue they’ve got now that Andrew Breitbart self-destructed and Sarah Palin may soon be right on his heels. Both have been darlings of the political right wing and seen early and often on Fox News till Andy crashed and burned with his slice-and-dice video […]
Posted in Politics, Social Issues |
Tags: Boston, Fox News, Fox News Channel, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, New York City, Republican, Sarah Palin
4 Comments »
Mosque-ing the Truth
September 9, 2010Anything Obama says or does will be criticized by the radical right, who are masquerading as “conservatives,” though not worthy of the name. It warmed my heart to see him give voice to religious freedom in regard to the mosque center–and he did not “back off” or “qualify” that stance the following day. Whoever can […]
Posted in Guns Control, Politics, Race in America, Religion, Social Issues |
Tags: FDR, Guns, JFK, Lincoln, Manhattan mosque center, Obama, Reagan, right wing, the Bushes
3 Comments »
Thank God for Arizona
July 12, 2010Were it not for the benighted legislators of that state we wouldn’t be having a long-overdue national discussion regarding immigration. If such people did not exist, we would have to create them. Before, there was no real “dialogue,” just one-sided, loud declamations by people with no knowledge of immigration history and other, always-present xenophobes who […]
Posted in Politics, Race in America, Social Issues, Uncategorized |
Tags: Arizona law, Bracero program, Immigration, Russell Pearce
4 Comments »
Ichabod's Kin 