Both President Obama and Mitt Romney insistently use the term "middle class." But what is the middle class? Is a lawyer or doctor who may earn six figures a member of the middle class?
War. Death. Despair. Oppression. Environmental ruin. Yup, when it comes to demoralizing literature, dystopian novels have it all! Yet many of us love this genre, and there are good reasons we do.
With the often-ridiculous U.S. presidential race in full swing, there's at least a 47 percent chance you'd like to forget about politicians for a few hours by immersing yourself in a novel. But be careful which novel you choose, because some of them feature ... politicians!
A large segment of the letters -- the first written when he was not quite 8 -- are juvenilia and could be the sentiments of any young whippersnapper. Yet there are occasional hints at what would become the acclaimed Hemingway mode of between-hard-covers expression.
I have always been interested in how literature and place intersect, especially in my adopted city of Washington, D.C.
One student called the session "revolutionizing" and almost all came up to me to tell me how much they had learned and how this new way of thinking about arts management was so helpful.
In its despair and confusion, a large segment of the American populace is prepared to believe anything it's told, in part because we are a country less and less educated in basic essential knowledge about America and the world.
Sarah Palin lacks optimism and humor, two of Reagan's strongest traits. If she runs, it'll be on a platform of grievance. And her speeches will drip with bilious sarcasm.
There is no "we" in the protester's view, no welcome for your tired, your poor, your huddled masses of fellow Americans, much less immigrants. There is only my family, my friends, my neighborhood, my church and my ethnic group,
The Palinistas are far less interested in electing McCain than they are in putting the Sarahnator one step away from the White House (and, they hope, in it soon).
Since some people will have more reading time in the days, weeks and months ahead, here are a few suggested reads. They have helped me during these past two years.
