Wednesday, September 28, 2005

More Blake: from Holy Thursday   Is this a holy thing to see  In a rich and fruitful land, Babes reduc'd to misery Fed with cold and usurous hand? 2:13:48 PM   permalink   comment []

The Garden of Love by William Blake I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A Chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green. And the gates of this Chapel were shut, And "Thou shalt not" writ over the door; So I turn'd to the Garden of Love, That so many sweet flowers bore, And I saw it was filled with graves, And tomb-stones where flowers should be: And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & desires. 2:10:42 PM   permalink   comment []

I have some questions about the N&R's coverage of the Truth & Reconciliation process, but I don't have access to the N&R archives -- maybe somebody in the building can help me out here. How many different reporters have been used to cover the hearings, and the process in general? Is it true that one of the hearings was covered by an intern? Has any article appeared that profiled in any depth the seven commissioners on the panel, or any member of the Commission staff? Has a serious explanation of the process, from the selection of panelists to the publication of the report, been published? Thanks for any comments or email in answer to these queries. 1:59:14 PM   permalink   comment []

DeLay indicted, steps down. As we say in the news biz: wow. 1:44:49 PM   permalink   comment []

ConvergeSouth volunteers needed. 11:34:54 AM   permalink   comment []

ConvergeSouth music schedule. 11:33:47 AM   permalink   comment []

Dean Esmay: "(W)hy did we all believe this racist bulls**t about the darkies down in New Orleans?" 9:27:28 AM   permalink   comment []

Hidden Friedman: "The Endgame in Iraq" "The coming Iraqi votes, in October over the new constitution and in December over a new Parliament, are going to tell America whether it is worth staying here or not for much longer." He says the Shiites and Kurds, who make up 80% of the population between them, are game for a decentralized Iraq, and they have "made it clear that they have no interest in telling the Sunnis how to live, and will cut them a slice of Iraq's oil revenue and maintain Iraq's basic Arab identity." The remaining question, he says, "is what kind of minority the Iraqi Sunnis want to be. Do they want to be the Palestinians and spend the next 100 years trying to mobilize the Arab-Muslim world to reverse history...Or do they want to embrace the future?" Most interesting point: "Iraqi Arab Shiites here are obsessed with not being dominated by Iran." Kicker: "So, folks, we are faltering in Iraq today in part because of the Bush team's incompetence, but also because of the moral vacuum in the Sunni Arab world...If they come around, a decent outcome in Iraq is still possible, and we should stay to help build it. If they won't, then we are wasting our time. We should arm the Shiites and Kurds and leave the Sunnis of Iraq to reap the wind. We must not throw more good American lives after good American lives for people who hate others more than they love their own children." Hidden Dowd: She mocks the oilmen-in-chief for their belated call for conservation, and knocks Karen Hughes, "the Bush nanny who knows nothing about the Muslim world and yet is charged with selling the U.S. to it," for wasting fuel on a political trip to Saudi Arabia. Kicker: "W. doesn't really need to worry about turning down the lights in the White House. The place is already totally in the dark." 9:15:39 AM   permalink   comment []

Atrios runs an op-ed by Rick Perlstein that was reportedly rejected by major papers. 8:51:51 AM   permalink   comment []

Blogger-bred candidate forum a success. Allen Johnson: "Tuesday night's at-large forum at UNCG's Weatherspoon Art Gallery was about as engaging and informative as they come...planned and staged by local bloggers and moderated by one of their own, Michael Christopher, [it] was clever and creative." No N&R news coverage of the event that I could find. Hoggard's quick notes. Hardy is summarizing his encounters with candidates. Anybody got a full or partial transcript? 8:39:49 AM   permalink   comment []

"Testimony Lacks New Information." That's the A-1, above-the-fold headline in this morning's N&R about the Truth & Reconciliation hearings. Is it factually correct? Yes, it is. The hearings have not unearthed information unknown to people with a comprehensive and detailed knowledge of the November 3, 1979 Klan-Nazi killings in Greensboro. Is it an accurate distillation of the hours of public hearings, and a relevant comment on the purposes of the project? I don't think so. I think it looks like an unsubtle effort by a newspaper that has tried its best to ignore and belittle this project to tell its readers that they don't need to pay attention. Given the lack of serious coverage the N&R has provided in its news pages, the packaging of today's article is nothing short of shameful. The paper can't bother itself to run a detailed explanation of the process, or do an in-depth article on the seven panelists and the Commission staff. It manages to report the most sensational highlights from each hearing, but does no leg-work along the way. If you know the impressive credentials brought to the project by executive director Jill Williams and research director Emily Harwell, to choose one example, you didn't learn them in the N&R. Now this. Shameful. The worst of it, worse even than the dismissive headline, may be this: "A News & Record analysis of the testimony has discovered...little sense the hearings have mended old divisions. "There have been no tearful apologies. No startling revelations. No acceptance of responsibility." Nelson Johnson's apology to Jim Melvin, made in public at the second round of hearings, remains unreported by the News & Record. It's a false set-up anyhow, this idea that reconciliation means making the Communists and the Klans be friends. This process is meant to bring reconciliation to the community, not miraculously change decades of personal belief, grief, and anger on the part of the participants. Equally false is the idea that the value of the project hinges on fresh revelations. Obviously a history project has that as one goal. But context, timing, and authorship are vitally important, too. A comprehensive oral history of the Klan-Nazi killings is of value in and of itself. If this project, spun by its opponents as the work of CWP sympathizers, instead offers a balanced history that rounds up the facts and feelings in one place, that document would seem valuable to me. Just not to the local paper. Previous links here. 8:06:43 AM   permalink   comment []