Monthly Archives: July 2016

Dem Convention 2

BY RICH GALEN
JUL 28 | Reprinted from Mullings.com

I was wrong. I thought that Michelle Obama’s speech on Monday night would retire the trophy as best speech of this, or any other, year.

Then came Joe Biden. First of all, he called the First Lady of the United States “kid” and got away with it. Then he called the President of the United States “Barack” which, as it happens is his name, but it was jarring to hear the Veep call his boss by his first name.

Biden got off the best line of the night – not a gigantic cheer line, but an important one: “When the middle class does well, the rich do very well and the poor have hope; they have a way out.” Continue reading

Fast From Presidential Politics: Let Mikey Do It

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JUL 19

I find it very uncomfortable writing in the first person and reading the work of those who do.  After the sixth or seventh personal pronoun, I often just quit reading.

This, on the other hand, is all about me so I just can’t avoid talking about me.

This week it will have been a month since I suggested to the half dozen or so good friends who read my stuff that I feared the entire country was hyperventilating over presidential politics and that we should take a month off from Don and Hil, breathe into a brown paper bag, and adjust our attitudes and our behavior.

My editor said I ought to take my own advice, so I did. So here is my report. Continue reading

The Conflicts of Race, Reality, and Resolution: Part 1

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JUL 18

John Korsmo, Lincoln NE, said it pretty well on Facebook after the killing of police in Dallas:

“There isn’t enough room on people’s timelines to address all of the ridiculous things people are doing. I may be wrong but it seems like there is more unrest than I can ever remember in my lifetime. May just be how prevalent social media is too but just this last couple months has been very disheartening.”

I don’t know John. I don’t know if he can be called “an average American” but he expresses a bewilderment and frustration that most Americans must feel about events and behavior over which we have no control but have a profound effect on our lives. Continue reading

The Conflicts of Race, Reality, and Resolution: Part 2

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JUL 18

A year ago, after the Charleston killings, I wrote:

“I don’t know how we ever get to that national conversation about race that for some reason is the ultimate, if unachievable goal of so many. My friend, the late Bill Gavin, told me years ago that there is no good outcome from a conversation in which two sides do not trust the motivation of the other. And regrettably, those individuals usually thought to be the best to conduct a conversation about race—activists, politicians, academics—are those who seem to question each others’ motivation the most often. They usually cannot extract the politics and prejudice, the suspicion and ulterior motives from their own discourse.”

I write about much that does not stand the test of time, but this does. One year later, we are no closer to honest discourse. Continue reading

The Conflicts of Race, Reality, and Resolution: Part 3

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JUL 18

Much of the racial conflict in America cannot be resolved by politicians or in a political arena, especially a presidential campaign, already awash in racial hypocrisy. Voters should not tolerate the exploitation of race and class warfare in any campaign. Something has to change as well in the formulation of public policy.

When it comes to race there is some serious sorting out required, starting with the distinction between civil rights and human rights.

Many of the gross inequities in our system of criminal justice, public education, in our economy, and in the distribution of health care, even in transportation, can be traced to the imprisoning effects of poverty, not racism. Continue reading