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Re: “Sister who opposed Faubus dies”
Citizen1,
Rural electrification is exactly the opposite of self-help. No one self could do it. It was a massive undertaking, organizing literally millions of people to work together toward the common good with minimal profit to capital. And Orval Faubus understood, correctly, that program was socialism and that we are all the better for it.
And if my house, or my neighbor's house, were turned into rubble, why yes, I'd do the sensible thing and start searching immediately. That's kind of common sense. It's self-help when I do it to my own house. When it's my neighbor, it's human solidarity. And when the rescue crews show up, that's collective action.
Re: “Must read: Roy Reed's obituary on Orval Faubus' sister”
Roy Reed is pretty good with facts, but not so good when he tries to explain them, which I suppose is the difference between a journalist and a historian.
The Faubus family had, as we all know, a socialist upbringing which taught racial equality. This Faubus daughter then married a man who was not white. Why, then, does Reed attribute her "sensitivity to issues of race and ethnicity" to her marriage? Why not assume instead that sensitivity, as well as her willingness to marry outside her ethnicity, originated with her socialist upbringing? Reed's very sympathetic (maybe a little too sympathetic) biography of Faubus makes it clear that Faubus himself was not a raving racist like Fob James or Jim Johnson but, like George Wallace, an opportunist who abandoned core principles for political gain.
Possibly this is of a piece with his characterization of Commonwealth College as "a self-help school popular mainly with Socialists". Commonwealth was founded by socialists and spent its history working for the labor movement. Such collective action is precisely the opposite of self-help.
Reed does not tell an accurate story when it comes to the virtues of socialism.
Re: “Sister who opposed Faubus dies”
Roy Reed is pretty good with facts, but not so good when he tries to explain them, which I suppose is the difference between a journalist and a historian.
The Faubus family had, as we all know, a socialist upbringing which taught racial equality. This Faubus daughter then married a man who was not white. Why, then, does Reed attribute her "sensitivity to issues of race and ethnicity" to her marriage? Why not assume instead that sensitivity, as well as her willingness to marry outside her ethnicity, originated with her socialist upbringing? Reed's very sympathetic (maybe a little too sympathetic) biography of Faubus makes it clear that Faubus himself was not a raving racist like Fob James or Jim Johnson but, like George Wallace, an opportunist who abandoned core principles for political gain.
Possibly this is of a piece with his characterization of Commonwealth College as "a self-help school popular mainly with Socialists". Commonwealth was founded by socialists and spent its history working for the labor movement. Such collective action is precisely the opposite of self-help.
Reed does not tell an accurate story when it comes to the virtues of socialism.
Re: “Riverfest Eve open line: Democrats rip Tim Griffin; Arkansas Tech joins no-gun list”
For those of you who might be wondering about the cover picture on today's Times, it's a little old. That is not bassist Matt Patton with the long blonde hair, but Shonna Tucker, who left the Drive-By Truckers a year and a half ago. (By the way, her new band, Eye Candy, is pretty good.)
I sure wish I could be at that show, but the annual Buffalo River float with the daughter comes first. And despite the Truckers being very much taper-friendly, Riverfest's policy against detachable microphones means I probably won't hear any of it. Well, okay. That's life. Dammit.
Re: “Morning report: ExxonMobil caught; city directors get big pay raise; the return of Ken Starr”
I didn't realize Gene Lyons was irony-impaired.
Okay, after reading the link, I take that back. Bill Keller is out of his mind. Pardon me for having assumed any reference to Kenneth Starr was a joke.
Re: “Sunday morning: IRS, Kochs and movies”
Dave Rickard's memorial service yesterday was nice. The place was packed, of course, and there were a lot of wonderful people there. One of the ironies of death is that at the memorial service you get a powerful reminder of just how good a person was, seeing how much goodness gathers to say farewell to one of its own.
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Re: “Must read: Roy Reed's obituary on Orval Faubus' sister”
No, plainjim, Arkansas' greatest journalist would be John Harold Johnson. (Some might say Helen Gurley Brown, but I'd go with Johnson.)
But that's really beside the point, isn't it? Roy Reed's shit stinks just like anyone else's, and when his reporting is deficient, it's worth noting and discussing.