Neighborhood barbecues, beach gatherings, blockbuster movies, Fenway Park. Well, that didn't happen. But the few remaining lazy, hazy, crazy days could still pluck summer from COVID and politics with the pleasures of well crafted novels. There's still time to pick up one of the following before the leaves turn color. FICTION News of the World …
Continue reading Not too late for end-of-summer reading, pt. 2 fiction
In what universe do Trump Republicans reside? The world embraced by their national convention is the kind of horror show I'd never pay to see, and couldn't sit through if it were free. Cue threatening music: the Democrats will bring carnage. They will kill the suburbs. They are the radical left and will create anarchy. …
What do Doris Kearns Goodwin, Sy Hersh, Mitch Zuckoff, and Steve Kinzer and other illustrious authors have in common? They're all high on "The Greek Connection: the Life of Elias Demetracopoulos and the Untold Story of Watergate." Goodwin calls it "a magnificent work..... "a sweeping biography of an absolutely captivating figure who captures our attention …
Continue reading The Greek Connection is available – finally!!!!
Tonight the Boston Red Sox return, in diminished form but a return nonetheless. And, I confess, I'm happy about that. The game against the Baltimore Orioles offers more than a departure from news about COVID-19, corrupt politics and Terrible Trump. Even without fans and with recorded cheering, even with strong hitters undermined by mediocre pitching, …
Throwing around the word fascist should be as heavy a lift as heaving a manhole cover like a discus. It can't be done lightly. But Donald Trump's love of authoritarian dictators, modeling their behavior, becomes more deeply troubling every day. His sending unrequested federal military personnel into crowds of protesters in Portland, Oregon, evokes images …
When the statue of Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003, it was easy to join the chorus of cheers. He was a repressive tyrant who killed an estimated 250,000 of his own people. Easy, too, was the destruction of statues of Communist dictator Joseph Stalin, responsible for the deaths of millions of Russians …
Continue reading Statues of limitations: which stay, which go
Politics isn't everything. On a holiday like July 4th, celebrating our nation's independence and its brilliant founding documents, it is tempting to recount the myriad ways that our President has trampled on the promises made therein. Unsparingly, he sucks the joy out of our lives, most recently yesterday at Mt. Rushmore standing before the greats …
When I found myself agreeing with President Trump that the media were making too much of his super-cautious walking down a ramp at West Point, I knew I needed a break from media coverage. Yes, he might well have been wearing shoes with smooth leather soles that didn't grip the slope the way rubber soles …
What's the real reason Congressman Joe Kennedy is challenging Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey this year? It may well be that he fears if he waited for an open race for the Senate, after Markey or Senator Elizabeth Warren, he might have to run against Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. Pressley spoke Friday to a virtual meeting of …
The peaceful protests continue amidst emerging proposals for policy change, but will they amount to anything? Longtime Boston leader and community activist Hubie Jones, in his unpublished book Black in Boston: A Lover's Quarrel, came to understand the dynamics of race demonstrations in the confrontations and riots of 1967 and 1978. Usually, he says, they …
Continue reading “Defunding” versus “reprioritizing” the police: language matters
Marjorie Arons-Barron 