The Nation explains that Ned Lamont was successful tonight because he was much more than an anti-war candidate. Lamont continually pointed to the domestic losses caused by the diversion of big money to finance the Iraq occupation: How did Lamont succeed where others – including 2004 presidential contender and current Democratic…
[Note: I wrote this piece in 2003, shortly before the U.S. invaded Iraq].
The trouble with writing these opinion pieces is they require such intense emotional energy to write. It’s a very exhausting business. But then, so is life these days. We all go about our lives quite admirably, but the low hum of threat, the “war and rumors of war” is wearing on us all.
The intense emotion that I’m experiencing these days is sadness, produced by the news, produced by the innocence of so many of our students who are willing to fling themselves into the fray in the name of God, president and country. It’s all too reminiscent of those equally innocent boys who threw themselves, during my parents’ lifetimes, into the defense of God, king and country. One way or another, those boys were not innocent for long.
What amazes me is how surprised some of us are by all this, and I’m including myself in the “us.” I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, my parents survived two world wars in Great Britain and described the horrors of the second in vivid detail. I think, though, it’s only been since September 11, 2001, I’ve truly understood what my parents experienced. The stories they told me when I was a child enthralled me, kept me spellbound as they recounted them to me. But I, too, was innocent. The stories were family saga, not reality, shrouded in the mists of mythology for me.
My parents described the adventure …
The Associated Press reports this recent development in the American military's effort to keep America safe. A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, though he says he never told his superiors he was gay and his accuser…
9/11 has been a winning card for Bush, so it shouldn't be surprising that he's pulled it out once again: Monday's speech was the one where the president tied Israel's fight against the armed Lebanese group Hizbullah to the events of September 11. The president said: "The current crisis is part…
The following is from Bill Moyer's interview with Rev. Joseph C. Hough on October 24th, 2003. Rev. Hough, is President of the Faculty and a Professor of Social Ethics at the Union Theological Seminary: HOUGH: . . . anybody who claims in the name of God they're gonna run over…