American Voices

Monday, February 20, 2012

Posted to Melissa Harris Perry MSNBC Blog

OK I admit it. I am totally enamored with MHP - as is my wife luckily - so it would take a lot to turn me away from watching on Saturday Morning. It is a moment of shear pleasure as I spend my only quality time of the week on my art and listen and watch MHP. But I have to say that either MHP was completely broadsided by Richard Nixon’s son-in-law or she made a novice’s mistake of inviting a piker to a gathering of wonks. Someone had to have thought that this guy had the intellectual juice to discuss a very serious issue - I had a feeling that MHP was mortified to then have him waste everyone’s time regurgitating the GOP talking points. He should have been dismissed after the first break and when MHP came back on she should have explained that on her show there was an expectation that guests use their brains and not just repeat someone else’s weekly talking points. Furthermore, the first time a Democrat does the same thing he/she too should be banished.

I come from Republican stock, though I am an independent Democrat who almost always splits his ticket on election day. MHP had scheduled a very worthwhile discussion about what has happened to the Republican party. How did it go from the party of Lincoln to the party of Stink’n. That kind of discussion requires serious minded people who aren’t going to give a pass to idiots and ideologues.

As someone who watches news during most of my brief television time I had really hoped that when Jon Stewart took down Firing Line that at least some of the political commentators would give some thought to programming that would enlighten us by sharing nuance and intellect. Unfortunately not many folks have been able to do that. MSNBC at least has a majority of the good ones and to me the Gold standard for MHP has to be the fellow who comes on just before her. Chris Hayes doesn’t hide his own opinions, he doesn’t have to, but what he does is to give respect to the opposition and invite the discussion of deeper meaning, philosophy and- above all - nuance. Most of us would rather watch a professor or an historian than a politician anyway but still I have to believe that there are plenty of politicians who will rise to the occasion if they know that an honest discussion will not put them at a disadvantage to some ideologue who came into the studio dragging his or her knuckles across the floor. (no insult intended to chimps or monkeys who can’t help it.)

I’ll love you no matter what MHP but please have a sit down with your schedulers and staff. Tell them that all they need to do is ask themselves if the “considered guest” deserves to rub elbows with a woman of your intellect. If the answer is no then let them go somewhere else. Give us brain food - people of all persuasions who haven’t read a talking points memo and would laugh (or scoff) if they did. I promise you, if people watch your show and come away with ideas for moving the country forward - for bridging the ideological divide - you will begin to create a currency for honorable dialog, agreement and disagreement that will pay huge dividends in the long run for you and our beloved country. March on Sister! Wayne King Former NH Senator and 1994 Dem nominee for Gov in NH.

http://truth-passion-hope-dreams.tumblr.com

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement

A moving tribute to some of the great leaders of the Civil rights movement by the New Yorker Magazine

Introduction by David Remick

Interactive Portraits

Thursday, July 15, 2010

The Last Lynching - Ted Koppel

Veteran broadcast journalist Ted Koppel focuses on a 1981 lynching in Alabama to tell how acts of hatred and racism have affected the lives of three Americans:

Congressman Robert Filner who, as an 18-year-old Freedom Rider, was thrown into Mississippi's Parchman Prison (currently representing Calfornia's 51st congressional district); Florida school teacher Lizzie Jenkins who recalls tales of her grandfather watching the lynching of five African-Americans in 1916; and Congressman Artur Davis, who as a law student worked to hold the Ku Klux Klan accountable for the lynching (currently representing Alabama's 7th congressional district).

This year they each played a role in Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) becoming the first African-American tapped to be a national party's nominee for president.

"The Last Lynching offers a look at how far we've come on the racial front, and how recent some of the worst days of racial violence really were," said Koppel.

It's a story about how 19-year-old Michael Donald was killed in 1981 in Mobile, Ala., by two members of the Ku Klux Klan.

"Lynchings are a form of terrorism. And the particular purpose was to say to African-Americans that you will never vote or be a part of the political process in this country. And if you think you will move in that direction there will be terrible consequences," Koppel told Tell Me More host Michel Martin.

The one-hour special on race in America airs tonight on Discovery Channel.

Listen

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Adam Smith

Adam Smith (5 June 1723 – 17 July 1790) is the father of modern economics, known in his era as Political Economics.

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, usually abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics.

Smith's views embrace a liberal view of economics that envisions free markets where the price of goods and services are driven, not by Government fiat but by the "invisible hand of the market" shaped by competition, supply and demand.

Smith believed that when an individual pursues his self-interest, he indirectly promotes the good of society: "by pursuing his own interest, the individual frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he intends to promote it.

The Wealth of Nations Book 1- Audio
The Wealth of Nations, Book 2 - Audio

The Wealth of Nations - Podcast Excerpts

An introduction to Adam Smith - University of Wisconsin professor Charles Anderson
Adam Smith, Part 2 - University of Wisconsin professor Charles Anderson

Henry Ford and Frederick Taylor

Ford and Taylor's Scientific Management

Frederick Winslow Taylor (20 March 1856 - 21 March 1915), widely known as F. W. Taylor, was an American mechanical engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency. He is regarded as the father of scientific management, and was one of the first management consultants.