Reading the heavy Jonathan Kozol book, Amazing Grace.  The book takes place in the Bronx where Kozol profiles poverty, violence, dismal educational conditions, drugs, and AIDS yet with the underlying current that innocent children have hope and, of course, potential but it must nurtured before too late.   I note the copyright date and think about [...]

Growing up with a dad who  worked as a psychiatrist for the Veterans Administration, I had moments when I thought that potential patients would one day run out.  I knew the bulk of the veterans were from WW2 and the Korean and Vietnam wars. There was no large influx of new veterans for almost two [...]

Composting has been on my mind, partly because it’s in the green news.  My awareness of how much of my garbage is vegetable and fruit refuse–the nuts and bolts of compostables–has been heightened and so I wonder as a city dweller about how to not be lazy and messy and cart my stuff to the [...]

Last week, at a panel at VII in Dumbo featuring acclaimed photographer Ron Haviv and human rights activist John Prendergast, I learned that the atrocities happening in The Democratic Republic of Congo are perhaps to the world’s voracious appetite for electronic devices.  Our cell phones, computers, games, all of it, are derived from ores mined [...]

Every time I hear updated unemployment statistics, I bristle at the thought of all the missing numbers.  If all the freelancers and off the book people who are out of work or have less work this year were counted, that number would be numbingly higher.  I have some research to do.  I know some articles [...]

Last Sunday, we noticed a skunk in our backyard.  We have seen rabbits and a groundhog many a times, sometimes a cat, lots of birds, a snake but this was unusual.  It’s rare to see a skunk just hanging out.   I usually see them on the road, or sadly as roadkill on the side of [...]

It’s always tricky to discuss the issue of prison reform.  Criminals deserve to be punished and victims  and their families and the public deserve justice.  The prison system is so in need of restructure, however. Overcrowding, poor healthcare, conditions so bad that many inmates come out more hardened than when they entered, and uneven sentencing [...]

We don’t know the minutia of the details that went down in Cambridge between Prof. Gates and the officer but obviously it has been the impetus for “a teachable moment” and  debate over many elements from racial profiling and PR spins.  The public discourse will pass quickly, as this week’s news, tweets, and blog updates [...]

The Supreme Court ruled today against convicts’ rights to DNA testing.  As I read coverage of these kinds of rulings, I am always struck by the lack of focus. So the “people” do not want to help who was proven guilty go free, but IF a person is indeed innocent, there is a criminal running [...]

The ruling just came down on the Wal-Mart holiday madness that killed one employee.  Wal-Mart, a place I never shop, so the fact that I’m defending it is a big deal, shouldn’t have been the only ones to blame.  They will be paying unspecified damages to the family but the people at fault here were [...]