Henry Louis Gates - It's not my story

I haven't read every word of "print" on the story and fallout of Henry Louis Gates, esteemed Harvard professor, who was arrested in his own home by a police officer who thought he was breaking in. Race is a topic I hesitate to write publicly about. As my Latino friend Rudy once said about chiming in on a debate about African Americans, "I'm not black, and I can't say how I'd feel."

So this is not going to take the perspective of "A Phantom Negro" who criticizes Gates for acting like he was in too high a position to be treated that way, or the Cambridge police chief who criticized President Obama for saying the Cambridge police acted "stupidly."

I just want to say a few things. First, I have long admired Henry Louis Gates, Jr., not because I know much about his scholarship, but because I have been proud that a black man rose to the heights of academic excellence and esteem. Second, I was outraged by the arrest, going to that place in my brain where all the stories of racial profiling have been stored. Third, I don't think President Obama was wrong to say the police acted stupidly. Apparently they did.

But maybe he shouldn't have said much about it at all. Maybe none of us should say much about what another person does. At age 53 - not old, not young - I've come to see and hear many, many stories. People stories. From afar, a person's actions might seem scandalous, unwise, downright stupid. But then they'll tell me their story, for an hour, and in just one hour I come to understand their story a little - enough to step down off my high horse of judgment and imagine their life.

Eckhart Tolle says that if you were born with the same genes and the same circumstances as any other human being, you would make the same choices they have. So far, I think he might be right. So I am going to withhold judgment of Gates, of Sgt. James Crowley who arrested him, and of President Obama for using that word about something he didn't know a lot about. It's a wilderness of unkown to assess any person's actions. I'm not talking about murder, or other heinous crimes, I think you know that.

How far will the 'Obama effect' go?

After a couple of weeks of restraint regarding Iran's post election protests (yesterday he did condemn the regime's violence), and the Republican outrage over said restraint (supporting those who might have been dead today if they had gotten their way last year to bomb the hell out of them), Chris Hedges reminds us who another violent perpetrator is and who the people are acting like citizens of a democratic republic.

"Where were we when our election was stolen from us in 2000 by Republican operatives and a Supreme Court that overturned all legal precedent to anoint George W. Bush president? Did tens of thousands of us fill the squares of our major cities and denounce the fraud? Did we mobilize day after day to restore transparency and accountability to our election process? Did we fight back with the same courage and tenacity as the citizens of Iran? Did Al Gore defy the power elite and, as opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has done, demand a recount at the risk of being killed?"

Read his whole excellent piece in Truthdig, a little reminder of Iran's history at the mercy of foreign powers.

How far will our President go, speaking about our country's failings? In Cairo he acknowledged our role in the 1953 violent coup in Iran. Does this go far enough to flip the Bush credo that Iran is one of the members of the Axis of Evil? Our government, in our name - WE are the ones who have incited, and continue to incite and impose, violence in the Middle East. I hope for a day when masses of U.S. citizens wake up to this fact and stop demonizing the Other (with plenty of evil deeds, granted) under our leadership as if we are God's anointed. Even if President Obama believes this, how far can and will he go to effect a shift in perspective and policy of what might be the most terrifying government in the world?

scary socialist health care and Richard Scott

The same man who drummed up the Swift Boat "scandal" against John Kerry's 2004 presidential bid is behind the "socialist" health care scares against President Obama's health care reform plans: Rick Scott. He himself has a shady past - the biggest health care settlement over fraud in U.S. history. Imagine slinging mud when you've got that kind of history? Politico broke the story about the launch of his group Conservatives for Patients' Rights, using his own money behind trying to bomb Obama's health care plans before they get launched. Scott claims that the more government is involved with health care, the worse it will be. You can read his own March 2009 entry at The Health Care Blog in which he outlines the four "pillars" of Patients rights: choice, competition, accountability, responsibility.

Nicolas Kristof's column in yesterday's NYTimes gave a great example of a Canadian who happens to have had some pretty good experiences with her medical care for $49 a month. Hmm, imagine going into an Emergency Room and no one is sticking a clipboard in your face to find out how you're going to pay for it? So all those terrible stories you hear about Canadian health care, don't assume those are the only ones.

I just had lunch with a friend who spent seven hours in Emergency Room waiting last week here in Michigan.

So it's time to weed out the scary stories from the true ones - both here at home and in that terrible country to our north (and across the pond) - while the Obama administration forges ahead with health care reform. Come on, something has to give with the cost of every little - and big - item related to medicine, and when someone desperately needs medical attention but can't go to the ER because they don't have insurance. It's lovely to want each of us to be in charge of our own health care, but when at least 46 million - 18% - of Americans don't have health care coverage (in 2007 according to this site), what is in their control besides the choice not to go to the doctor and suffer?

The High Line

Have you ever walked along abandoned railroad tracks? There's something about the weeds, the fields around you, the sense of destiny.

How wonderful that a lot of rich NYC residents poured money into a new park that took the brownfield-ish strip of abandoned elevated tracks to an innovation of delight. With its wildflowers and prairie grasses, you can walk along it while looking down on the meatpacking district just 3 floors below. The sidewalk even runs through an old brick commercial building.

Read the NYTimes piece here. See the slideshow here. The High Line's home page is here. Maybe you can make it to their opening benefit event Monday, June 15: It's only $1,000 a ticket.

green movies

I'm going to have to start shifting my perspective on Wal-Mart, now that it is driving markets for antibiotic-free beef, and also pressing vendors to cut down carbon emissions in their packaging.

According to the NYT yesterday, Warner, Disney and Sony are altering DVD packaging to be lighter and use less plastic. Warner alone hopes to cut its carbon emissions by 31% by doing so. Part of the story is that they need to reduce costs. But apparently before the economic downturn, it was Wal-Mart that was holding vendors to the green fire.

Digital Digest also shows that DVD package sets will be smaller.

Dog Green Sector on Omaha Beach imagined