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Friday, July 22, 2005

Terrorist Profiling

Date: July 22, 2005
Sent to but not published in the Boston Globe

Mitt Romney is at it again, trying to pull the symbolic wool over the eyes of the public. His riding one stop, even if he had known the correct fare, would have done nothing to demonstrate that the subway is safe. What demonstrates its safety is the actions of thousands of commuters each day who ride the subway to work.
His symbolic silliness is of a piece with his actions as a candidate. Each week Mitt Romney worked for a day -- at least it was a day, not a five minute subway ride -- at a "regular "job. That "day at work program" by Mitt Romney provided for great photo opportunities, but it did not give time for the meaninglessness of much of that work to sink in – one is still in a learning mode. When I was a student, I only lasted a week on a donut assembly line: I could not get to sleep until I started up the line in my dreams. That is the reality of many assembly line jobs. The one day working at a menial job did not give Mitt Romney the insight into the reality of poor people's lives that he could have gained by reading Nickel and Dimed (Barbara Ehrenreich) or When Work Disappears (W. J. Wilson).
Once again for Mitt Romney, symbol trumps substance.

Romney Rides the Subway for one stop

Date: July 22, 2005
Sent to but not published in the Boston Globe

Mitt Romney is at it again, trying to pull the symbolic wool over the eyes of the public. His riding one stop, even if he had known the correct fare, would have done nothing to demonstrate that the subway is safe. What demonstrates its safety is the actions of thousands of commuters each day who ride the subway to work.
His symbolic silliness is of a piece with his actions as a candidate. Each week Mitt Romney worked for a day -- at least it was a day, not a five minute subway ride -- at a "regular "job. That "day at work program" by Mitt Romney provided for great photo opportunities, but it did not give time for the meaninglessness of much of that work to sink in – one is still in a learning mode. When I was a student, I only lasted a week on a donut assembly line: I could not get to sleep until I started up the line in my dreams. That is the reality of many assembly line jobs. The one day working at a menial job did not give Mitt Romney the insight into the reality of poor people's lives that he could have gained by reading Nickel and Dimed (Barbara Ehrenreich) or When Work Disappears (W. J. Wilson).
Once again for Mitt Romney, symbol trumps substance.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Senator Santorum

Date: July 17, 2005
Sent to but not published in the Philadelphia Inquirer

Senator Santorum has been getting a very bad press in the Boston newspapers. He has been described as being insensitive to the victims of priestly abuse and as being stupid for linking that abuse to the liberal culture of Massachusetts. I have a different perspective on his words.

I believe that we should be truly sorry for Senator Santorum. Here is a devout Catholic (or so we are told) who is struggling to reconcile his belief that the Church can do no wrong with his knowledge that Priests in his Church have engaged in the most horrendous of sins (harming little children) and that their acts were facilitated by their supervisor, Cardinal Bernard Law. In trying to deal with that dissonance, he is projecting blame on to the liberal culture of Boston.

Of course, it does not work: priestly abuse of children seems to have been universal in the Catholic church from Newfoundland to San Francisco. Cardinal Law, in my view the true villain, was no Massachusetts liberal. Cardinal Law's decision to turn a blind eye to the actions of the pedophiles came from his misguided sense of duty to the institutional Church rather than choosing to be a good shepherd to his flock. It had nothing to do with liberal Massachusetts.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Loyalty to Karl Rove

Date: July 13th., 2005
Sent to but not published in the New York Times

Unlike Morgan Forster, the President of the United States does not have the luxury of "having the courage to betray his country." The President has a higher loyalty to the country. The President swore to uphold the constitution; The President promised us that he would fire anyone involved in outing Ms Plame. The President must act to fire Karl Rove now.
If Karl Rove had any loyalty to the country and to the President, he would have admitted his fault a year ago and resigned; thereby saving the expense of a complicated Grand Jury investigation.

Monday, July 11, 2005

They Came for Me -- Updated

Date: July 11th., 2005
Sent to but not published in the New York Times

In 1946, Martin Niemöller is said to have written the following poem:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me.

With the erosion of civil liberties over the last few years, the poem needs to be updated to reflect our era. Unhappily all the groups mentioned are in danger of being deprived of their civil liberties; happily, for the rest of us, only members of the first group are in prison.

First they came for the enemy combatants, and I did not speak out -- because I was neither an enemy nor a combatant;
Then they came for those seeking or providing abortions, and I did not speak out -- because I neither sought nor provided abortions;
Then they came for the Muslims, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Muslim;
Then they came for the gays and lesbians, and I did not speak out -- because I was neither a gay nor a lesbian;
Then they came for the buyers and borrowers of books, and I did not speak out - because I neither bought nor borrowed a book;
Then they came for the remaining non-Christians; and I did not speak out because I was not a non-Christian;
Then they came for the non-Evangelicals, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a non-Evangelical;
Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak out for me.

It is time for all of us to recognize that civil liberties are indivisible. The attack on one group is a threat to all of us. The terrible attacks in London last week are going to make it more difficult to restrain the heavy hand of the Bush Administration and its proposals for the renewal of the Patriot Act, but resist we must.

Friday, July 1, 2005

Date: July 2005
Sent to Boston Globe

Who does Gillette think it is fooling in todays advertisement in the business section?
They boast about giving just under $2 million to Boston charities. That amount pales in comparison with the amount James Kilts will walk away with: $165 million. Kilts' bonanza is the equivalent to the salaries of 3,421 average persons in Boston (where the average pay packet is $48,000). That is the kind of purchasing power that is being taken out of the local economy by the largess thrown to Mr Kilts.
If the $2 million figure for charity and the $165 million figure for Kilts were reversed then Gillette might have something to boast about.