Sunday, March 27, 2005

Jeff Jarvis: "Jumping the shark for Jesus." "The religious right is separating itself from the rest of America. The theocrats may have finally gone too far too often." He also knocks David Brooks for claiming exclusive title to the moral high ground. "We need to see a renewed defense and appreciation of the First Amendment: of free speech and separation of church and state. This is not about one true religion ruling the day; that is what our ancestors left so many years ago." Well said, Jeff. 11:42:21 PM    comment []

Michael Christopher on the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, and his adopted hometown of Greensboro: "No mention of the riot was made in history books, even in Tulsa, until the 1990's. When I moved to the city in 1990, many native Tulsans had never heard of the riots, even though it had destroyed a major part of their city and still contributed to ongoing racial tensions...The parallels to Greensboro are easy to draw." I don't think a serious TRC report will prove especially kind to the organizers of that fatal march. I do think the issues that led them to act, that allowed the Klan to exist, and that cause to this day so much bitterness and denial -- all of those should be aired and understood. 8:58:18 PM    comment []

Rockingham County Commissioner Bert Jones is blogging (via Joe Guarino). 7:21:14 PM    comment []

NY Times runs an AP article on blogging at the N&R: "At the News & Record, a 93,000-daily circulation newspaper in Greensboro, reporters and editors are asking tough questions about the paper itself. The biggest questions: If the paper needs to change to survive, what changes should be made? What can it do, especially online, to make itself the electronic equivalent of a town square?" Not a bad article, although it completely misses the interplay with local independent blogs -- one of the things that makes the N&R so cool. The other day they posted a note at the end of a letter to the editor referring readers to City Councilwoman Sandy Carmany's blog. They get it in ways this story doesn't quite show. 5:20:38 PM    comment []

C--A--R--O--L-I-N-A 5:12:00 PM    comment []

Maybe Greensboro should consider the second part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's name before we start proclaiming on the first. My newspaper column this Easter morning is about the real ends of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and why we should not be quick to dismiss it. Read the whole thing. Some background. 10:08:11 AM    comment []