Spring greetings!
OK, this isn't the spring we wanted.
The new healthcare law doesn't even have a non-robust public option.
Wall Street is soaring, but Main Street is sagging with unemployment.
Climate protection is stalled in Congress.
And war keeps escalating in Afghanistan.
But here's a positive note: This Wednesday (March 31) at 8 p.m., KQED TV Channel 9 will air a special one-hour report on Martin Luther King -- "A Call to Conscience" -- focusing on his profound decision to oppose the Vietnam War. As the war effort in Afghanistan intensifies, Dr. King is speaking to us.
President Obama's speech to troops in Afghanistan on Sunday kept me up all night. Yesterday, the Huffington Post and other websites published my article "A Bomber Jacket Doesn't Cover the Blood."
While we shouldn't succumb to what King called "the paralysis of analysis," the quest to understand the context of our warfare state is essential. I've tried to be helpful along that line with a couple of recent articles -- "War Politics: Numb and Number" and "War in a Box."
As a national co-chair of the Healthcare Not Warfare campaign, I often think about the grim effects of distorted budget priorities. As elsewhere, the figures are devastating in Marin County and Sonoma County.
Close to home, during the next couple of weeks, I'll be speaking on the radio and at events in Corte Madera, Berkeley and Oakland. For schedule details, please click here.
Last week, after Congress passed the healthcare bill, I stood under an archway at Union Station, near the Capitol, and did an interview with The Real News Network.
Later, I noticed some words chiseled into the marble overhead. The florid language was from a long-gone era, but the meaning could be summed up this way: The people of a nation should do unto others what they would like done unto them.
That's a pretty good summary of the progressive quest as we pursue the goals of healthcare for all, peace, gender equality, environmental protection, labor rights, humane immigration reform and so much more.
No matter how bad the news gets, we won't give up!
Best wishes,
Norman