Author: Carma Henry

     Unfortunately, the first two decades of the current century have been discouraging, to say the least. The events of September 11, 2001 proved that the liberal “End of History” predicted by Francis Fukuyama faced more than just a few dead-enders. The U.S. invasion of Iraq, in direct defiance of the UN, indicated that a new global hegemon was less interested in cooperation than in subjugation. The Arab Spring blazed quickly then burned out. A backlash against the center-left policies of the EU (and later, of the U.S. under Barack Obama) led to the first secession from the European Union — of one of its founding states, no less — as right populism emerged as a force not just in Europe and North America but in India, the Philippines, Turkey, and elsewhere.

     There is a term that was developed in the academic field of peace research, and it deserves far more currency in political discourse and everyday language than it currently receives.  It is called “structural,” or indirect, violence, and, as the name implies, it refers to violence that is embedded in social structures or institutions.  You can’t name a specific perpetrator as you would when an individual shoots, stabs, or suffocates another person.  But structural violence inflicts no less harm than its direct counterpart.

     “Climate change” is over. No, not the relentless, catastrophic environmental crisis that is spreading like, well, wildfire around the world. That is definitely real and definitely far from over. What I am talking about is the anemic, wishy-washy term “climate change,” which does such a poor job of communicating the existential threat to the planet. 

      It may be small comfort as we watch Donald Trump try to cheat and bully his way to a second term, but a recent study of his demagogic predecessor, Senator Joseph McCarthy, offers one. In Louis Menand’s review of the book by Larry Tye, appropriately titled Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy, Menand points up elements of McCarthy’s behavior that describes Trump’s as well: the constant lying, the disdain for opponents, the “lazy, ignorant, and unprepared” approach to politics, the bombast and conspiracy mongering.

     Stanley Crouch, the lauded and fiery jazz critic, has died. According to an announcement by his wife, Gloria Nixon-Crouch, Stanley Crouch died at the Calvary Hospital in New York on Wednesday, following nearly a decade of serious health issues.

BROWN Funeral services for the late Samuel Brown, Jr. – 88 were held September 16 at James C. Boyd’s Memorial Chapel with Pastor Kevin W. Brown…

COVIN Funeral services for the late Cora Belle Covin – 89 were held September 18 at McWhite’s Funeral Home Chapel. JOHNSON Funeral services for the late…

ETHRIDGE Funeral services for the late Virginia Carol Jackson Ethridge – 77  were held September 19 at Roy Mizell & Kurtz Worship Center with Dr. W.F.…

Everyone is special in some way and everyone has a special place. There will be those who bring you joy. Some will challenge you. Others will hurt you. Still, others will make you wonder how you keep from going under or ask WTH. Brother Hashim made me a better person

Coping with the day-to-day realities of a year like no other, Cassandra Welchlin, a community organizer, has worked to get single mothers the childcare they need, assisted foster care youths in accessing free Lyft rides and aided seniors with free food deliveries. With the presidential election around the corner, Welchlin’s work is focused on local and systemic change. “We don’t want anyone in office leading us that demeans our people,” she said. “A change has to come.”