Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
So I came across this poetry contest Tuesday that paid out $100 to the winner of a four-line work in which the syllable count went 1-5-5-9. The entry fee is 10 bucks. I wrote my poem and then, before submitting, asked our resident expert J.J. Tindall if he thought I had a shot and/or if the whole thing was a scam.
First, my poem:
Death
is coming soonest
Sooner than you know
Today or tomorrow it is here
Posted on February 14, 2018
By The Uptown People’s Law Center
The Human Rights Defense Center, a non-profit organization based in Lake Worth, Florida, will file a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the Illinois Department of Corrections alleging constitutional violations related to censorship of HRDC’s publications mailed to Illinois state prisoners.
HRDC publishes Prison Legal News, a 72-page monthly publication that covers news and court rulings related to the criminal justice system. PLN has been published for more than 27 years and has received the First Amendment Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. HRDC also distributes around 50 self-help and legal books of interest to prisoners. More than 200 Illinois prisoners subscribe to PLN.
Posted on February 13, 2018
By Keisha N. Blain/The Conversation
Black History Month is an opportunity to reflect on the historical contributions of black people in the United States. Too often, however, this history focuses on black men, sidelining black women and diminishing their contributions.
This is true in mainstream narratives of black nationalist movements in the United States. These narratives almost always highlight the experiences of a handful of black nationalist men, including Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan.
Contrary to popular conceptions, women were also instrumental to the spread and articulation of black nationalism – the political view that people of African descent constitute a separate group on the basis of their distinct culture, shared history and experiences.
As I demonstrate in my new book, Set the World on Fire, black nationalist movements would have all but disappeared were it not for women. What’s more, these women laid the groundwork for the generation of black activists who came of age during the civil rights-black power era. In the 1960s, many black activists – including Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Robert F. Williams, Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael – drew on these women’s ideas and political strategies.
So, let’s use this Black History Month to begin to set the record straight.
Posted on February 5, 2018
By Stephanie Jo/Media Kitty
On behalf of Media Kitty member Harmon Leon, we are pleased to share with you his latest book in collaboration with political cartoonist Ted Rall. Meet the Deplorables: Infiltrating Trump America is a narrative stemming from Hillary Clinton’s use of the word “deplorables” during the 2016 campaign to describe the racist, sexist, homophobic, and xenophobic supporters of now-President Donald Trump.
Leon goes undercover deep into the heart of Trump America, and Rall adds an innovative extra dimension to the book with his own essays and full-color cartoons. The unique team brings readers on a journey of enlightenment for a firsthand account of the right-wing subcultures and those most adversely affected by Trump’s policies on immigration, healthcare reform and race relations.
Posted on February 1, 2018
By Leif Wenar/The Conversation
Donald Trump tweeted something true recently. Responding to the protests in Iran, the president stated that “The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered.” Trump’s point is correct: what Vice President Mike Pence called Iran’s “unelected dictators” really have been stealing oil that belongs to the people and spending the money for their own purposes, including (as Trump’s tweet also said) “to fund terrorism abroad.”
Though right about Iran, Trump’s tweets have been too selective. In neighboring Saudi Arabia, an ally of America’s, the elite spends public money gained from selling off the country’s oil, too. There, as in Iran and elsewhere, the people’s wealth is being “stolen and squandered” by the few who enrich themselves on its profits.
This is the biggest story that almost no one is reporting. In dozens of countries around the world, authoritarian regimes and armed groups are selling off the oil that belongs to the people, and using the money to fund repression, corruption, conflict and terrorism.
Oil is the world’s largest traded commodity by far, so the amounts going to these autocrats and militias are gigantic: hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Many of the crises in the headlines over the past few years – coming from Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Russia and more – have been powered by money from selling oil stolen from citizens.
Posted on January 29, 2018
By Steve Rhodes
Titles for the times, New Wave coffee shop, Logan Square, January 24, 2018.
Posted on January 24, 2018
By Joseph Soares/The Conversation
Back in the 1980s, Bates College and Bowdoin College were nearly the only liberal arts colleges not to require applicants to submit SAT or ACT test scores.
On Jan. 10, FairTest, a Boston-based organization that has been pushing back against America’s testing regime since 1985, announced that the number of colleges that are test-optional has now surpassed 1,000.
This milestone means that more than one-third of America’s four-year nonprofit colleges now reject the idea that a test score should strongly determine a student’s future. The ranks of test-optional institutions include hundreds of prestigious private institutions, such as George Washington, New York University, Wesleyan University and Wake Forest University. The list also includes hundreds of public universities, such as George Mason, San Francisco State and Old Dominion.
As noted in a book I edited, SAT Wars: The Case for Test-Optional Admissions, critics of the test-optional movement had claimed that test-optional colleges wouldn’t be able to select students of merit, standards would collapse and underachieving youths would run amok. The critics were wrong.
Posted on January 19, 2018
The Real Question Isn’t Why Americans Sue So Much, But Why Don’t We Sue More
“Why do Americans seem to sue at the slightest provocation?” the University of Chicago Press blog asks. “The answer may surprise you: we don’t!
“For every ‘Whiplash Charlie’ who sees a car accident as a chance to make millions, for every McDonald’s customer to pursue a claim over a too-hot cup of coffee, many more Americans suffer injuries but make no claims against those responsible or their insurance companies.
“The question is not why Americans sue but why we don’t sue more often, and the answer can be found in how we think about injury and personal responsibility.”
Posted on January 16, 2018
By SIU Press
Jean Baudrillard has been studied as sociologist, philosopher, cultural theorist, political commentator, and photographer. Brian Gogan establishes him as a rhetorician, demonstrating how the histories, traditions, and practices of rhetoric prove central to his use of language.
In addition to Baudrillard’s standard works, Gogan examines many of the scholar’s lesser-known writings that have never been analyzed by rhetoricians, and this more comprehensive approach presents fresh perspectives on Baudrillard’s work as a whole.
Posted on January 10, 2018
By Arise Chicago
Maria Escutia, 36, of Park City, Illinois, could not get out of bed to care for her two children after being injured on the job. Two years after her workplace injury, her back pain was so severe she was not able to sleep through the night. The pain pulsed and burned all day long and traveled down her leg, causing tingling and frequent numbness. “Every day I was in pain and more irritable. It made it difficult to do everyday things – like helping my kids with their homework. It was endlessly frustrating. My family suffered the consequences of my workplace injury, but my employer didn’t.”
Escutia was a supervisor at a fast food chain for more than 15 years and never thought she would get hurt on the job. Once she reported the injury to her supervisors, the insurance company tried to deny her claim by alleging the injury did not occur in the workplace.
Sadly, Escutia’s experience is not unique. As James Ellenberger notes in a 2012 report, “Introduced as a no-fault program to provide medical benefits and wage replacement in the place of the uncertainty of tort recovery, workers’ comp has seen massive efforts to shift both the blame and the burden of workplace injuries and illnesses to the backs of workers.”
Posted on December 21, 2017
