Written during the early days of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, James Baldwin’s biographical essays teach Americans what it’s like to be a black man in our society as it emerged from Jim Crow. Even sixty years later, it still resonates with me as I seek to understand my African-American young mentee. Certainly, much progress has been made as reading these essays shows, but Baldwin shows even then what progress we can still…
My adopted home state of Tennessee has made itself a new front in the ongoing struggle for civil, human rights. Historically, like the weather that passes through, it’s been a home to many crosswinds. Slavery was legal in Tennessee. In the era of the Civil War, east Tennessee was significantly anti-slavery and pro-Union, and Tennessee was one of the first states to be reincorporated into the Union. Yet Tennessee was also the birthplace of Nathan…
In Charleston, South Carolina, history is everything. The city welcomes travelers from all over the world and sells its sometimes beautiful, sometimes tragic history to everyone. This is one of the oldest cities in the “New World.” It was the site of Revolutionary and Civil War battles. Indeed, Fort Sumter, guarding its harbor, was the starting point of the Civil War. My wife’s family arrived in Charleston in the 1600s. One of her ancestors signed…
There has been a lot of discussion in America recently on police brutality. Much of the rhetoric has centered around “structural racism” versus a “few bad apples.” As portrayed in political circles, the constructs behind these seem irresolvably opposed to each other. Structural racism contends that problems need to be solved through reforms in the system while others say that police officers should be filtered through means of enhancing personal responsibility. I do not have…
What do you do with your life now that you don’t have to travel to and from work? Do you exercise more? Do you read more? What do you do with the time vacated by your commute? I suggest that we can use this time to lay down our plows of effort, to nourish ourselves, and to become better people. Under our new circumstances, many of the things that have driven us towards market spending…
The art of good writing is dying in America. It seems that every fan of good language says that about their culture in their era. In our era, we face the challenge of the Internet, where media is changing how we communicate. The web facilitates quick interactions best and discourages deep thinking. It bursts forth a never-ending stream of alerts and posts. Its structure does not enhance our ability to reflect, dialogue, and develop linguistic…
Twenty years ago, I thought that the Internet would dramatically change – even enhance – the way we humans communicate. After all, this is how Gutenberg’s printing press revolutionized civilizations in the sixteenth century. Ten years ago, when Kindles, tablets, and smart phones hit the market, I thought digitized word would replace the written word. These early predictions have proved true in one sense but untrue in another. They have indeed changed the way humans…