It started with three sites. Now there are three dozen more places where auto workers have gone on strike, seeking a better contract. They follow by months the many writers and actors striking the entertainment industry for similar reasons. Changing technologies are putting all their jobs and futures at risk. Meanwhile, workers see the executives …
Continue reading Auto workers deserve more, not just in money
Facing 2024 elections, GOP strategists have come to understand the widespread anger spurred by their opposition to letting women control their own bodies. The issue is galvanizing voters, so Republicans want to seek a new name for the pro-life movement. Democrats, if they are wise, won't let them get away with it. A rose by …
Yes, it's past Labor Day, but it's still summer weather. And, while the calendar is getting more cluttered, it's still easy to cling to the image of long walks in the sunshine, leisurely reading and cold soups for dinner. Here are five works of fiction that will give also you pleasure. Tom Lake by Ann …
He wasn't there in person, but Donald Trump was the big winner at the GOP's 2024 primary debate. In a display of cowardice and moral corruption, six of the eight candidates said that they would vote for Trump even if the former President were convicted of the crimes for which he has been charged. Just …
Continue reading GOP debate: the elephant was in the room and outside too
Going Back to T-Town: The Ernie Fields Territory Big Band by Boston journalist Carmen Fields is a memoir of her father, trombonist, pianist, music arranger and band leader of the Ernie Fields Big Band. The saga covers many of the swing bands and jazz groups that enlivened the American music scene in the middle of …
I met Benjamin Netanyahu some 40 years ago at a small dinner at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. I saw him again at a larger event, an impassioned speech on terrorism. It was just after he founded an anti-terrorism institute named for his brother, killed in Operation Antebbe. He was handsome, suave, articulate and charismatic. …
Continue reading Netanyahu – the new face of authoritarianism
The Nazi’s Granddaughter: How I Discovered My Grandfather was a War Criminal by Sylvia Foti was the fulfillment of a pledge Foti made to her dying mother to write a memoir of the author’s highly esteemed grandfather, Lithuanian general and national hero Jonas Noreika. Foti grew up in the Lithuanian community of Chicago, sustained by …
Continue reading Autobiography and memoir for intimate summer reading
This week marks the 50th anniversary of hip hop music, and many platforms, including National Public Radio and the New York Times, are celebrating the phenomenon. For those of us immersed in or more comfortable with Beethoven, the Beatles, Mahalia Jackson or Peter, Paul and Mary, the wonderment should not be underestimated. In fact, I …
Continue reading The birth of hip hop, and how it grew and grew and grew
Trump and his acolytes are whining across media platforms that Tuesday's grand jury indictment of Donald Trump is a violation of his First Amendment rights. The villains, they complain, are the weaponization of the Department of Justice and the criminalization of ordinary political speech. Nothing could be further from the truth. Before anyone joins the …
Continue reading Assigned reading for civics class: Trump Indictment
Reading books year-round is life-enhancing, but reading in summertime seems especially to be savored. Here are some non-fiction selections. The First Kennedys: The Humble Roots of an American Dynasty by Neal Thompson will fascinate anyone intrigued by the immigrant experience, Irish roots, old-time urban ward bosses and Boston politics in the late 19th-early 20th centuries. …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 