Gotham City Soul

For most of us the name Sleepy Hollow brings forth images from Washington Irving’s 1819 legend of the hapless schoolteacher Ichabod Crane, who is chased one night by a terrifying headless horseman and mysteriously disappears, never to be heard from again. But there is another picture of the Dutch enclave Irving lovingly paints, one of a bucolic place where life moves slowly and tradition holds sway: “I mention this peaceful spot with all possible laud,” writes Irving early in the story, “for it is in such little retired Dutch valleys, found here and there embosomed in the great State of New-York, that population, manners, and customs, remain fixed; while the great torrent of migration and improvement, which is making such incessant changes in other parts of this restless country, sweeps by them unobserved.” Situated on the east bank of the Hudson River about 25 miles north of New York City, today’s Sleepy Hollow has preserved, in the tradition of Irving’s embosomed hamlets, what...

In the wake of the Boko Haram atrocities, I returned to this blog entry, one of a few I've written about nations in Africa and their people. It was worth looking at it again, because I think that recognizing how we are more alike than different is a way to giving a damn. I also think we need to see good and positive and downright wonderful things about the 47 plus 6 island nations and its people. And I needed to remind myself not to wait until a movie is made or a memoir written to pay attention. This was written eight years ago, but I still resonates with me. In January of last year [2007] I caught a cab home from work. As we drove along I listened to the talk show the cab driver had tuned into on the radio, it was one of those call-in shows, and the subject was homeland security. I don't remember exactly what was said, because I really wasn't listening too hard. But the driver was. After a few minutes of the men on the radio prattling on about whether our governme...