Gotham City Soul

I've mostly been quiet on this blog (for me) about the Presidential race, not because I don't have some very strong opinions, but because I was trying not to add to the deafening chatter. Also, this blog is supposed to provide an antidote to the insanity of humans at their worst. It's no small effort to get up in the morning to the news of the world and not just throw up my hands and say the hell with it—why bother writing my small thing in the face of so much that is truly awful? I have no answer beyond because . Because if one person finds relief or inspiration then I've done my job. The Quran (yes, that Quran!) says "If you kill one person, it's as if you kill all of humanity." I'm going to take comfort in the idea that if I help one person, then it's as if I helped all of humanity. Not because I have delusions of grandeur, but because I am such a puny thing in the face of this world, the universe, and beyond. From time to time, though, I will

"Brutal subordination of the slaves was also a central tactic in controlling low-status whites who, if not thrown the bone of white supremacy, might have questioned the vastly unequal distribution of wealth and power among whites, which Southern grandees enjoyed and protected with guile and force." " . . . if threats, economic oppression, and political neutering didn't work, denial of education and brute force had to be used to reassure lower-class whites that their central psychological prop in a hardscrabble world—their superiority over black people in all realms of life—would be protected at all costs." Diane McWhorter in the foreward to Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Freedom Riders by Eric Etheridge

It's not about whose team wins any more: www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/opinion/04friedman.html