And now, time for some plugs....
My current favorite website is DailyKos. It's political commentary, with a mix of irreverence, humor, and thoughtful analysis that has me comin' back.
My favorite band remains They Might Be Giants. They kick the crap out of your favorite band.
My favorite current TV show is... well, I don't have one. They all suck, except Seinfeld reruns. I didn't see this one coming, but I just realized I don't care if I ever see a Friends episode ever again. Yes, I used to watch it and laugh at it, but now it's thoroughly played. Kind of like when you were in fourth grade and thought My Little Ponies were Totally Cool and you bought one every time you could scrape enough money together, but then in fifth grade you realized plastic Smurf figurines were so much better and you rued all that money you blew on those stupid ponies. 

I got this forward today. I wonder who leaked this "memo"? Ha.

Leave One Child Behind

Dear Mr. and Mrs. G.H.W. Bush,

Once again, it is that time of year when we update the parents of our students on their child's progress, and we regret to inform you that your son, Georgie, is not doing as well as we'd hoped and expected when he embarked on his four-year program at our school.

As you are well aware, Georgie was installed as class president at the start of the school year, despite the fact that the majority of his fellow students did not vote for him. We foresaw problems immediately, but were assured by several school board members (who, as we understand it, are friends of your family) that this would not result in any real difficulty. Unfortunately, they have been proven wrong.

In the area of scholastic achievement, despite our best efforts, Georgie is still reading and speaking at a grade level far below our usual standards. At this point, we are not sure if his failure to learn is due to laziness and a lack of ability to apply himself to his studies, or if he simply lacks the intellectual capacity to improve in these areas.

His oral presentations to the class are particularly troubling; it is apparent that Georgie has not read the necessary materials, and he often simply fabricates facts to hide this shortcoming. In oral exams, he tends to repeat the same answers over and over, e.g. "The economy is good; jobs are on their way," indicating a profound failure to keep up with the Current Events portion of the curriculum.

Georgie also tends to fabricate elaborate stories about himself - which, admittedly, can sometimes be very amusing. During a school celebration last May, he delighted his fellow students by coming to class in a little "flight suit" (just like the grown-ups wear!), and had everyone in stitches with his story about the family dog having eaten his report card from military pre-school!

On the whole, however, Georgie does not play well with other children. His "leadership" in the classroom continues to divide many students, one against the other. Other study groups, such as our French and German-language classes, are no longer willing to cooperate with Georgie's group, even though they have traditionally done so in the past.

Your son also displays a lack of taking responsibility for his failings, and seems unable to appreciate the consequences of his actions. Although he was provided with the best textbooks on the subjects of the Economy, Job Creation, The Environment, et cetera, these books were damaged or completely destroyed within a matter of months. Georgie insists that he "inherited" these books in poor condition, despite all evidence to the contrary. (In fact, these same textbooks were previously used by one of our very best students, who actually returned them in better condition than he found them!)

During his first few weeks with us, Georgie quickly became part of a group of other "problem students." Despite warnings, he has consistently befriended children whom we consider to be "bad elements," such as Little Kenny Lay and a foreign-exchange student named Chalabi. Both of these youngsters have been expelled from other schools due to their involvement in cheating other students out of their lunch money. We feel that these kinds of relationships can only lead to no good, and hope that you will advise your child accordingly.

Georgie often displays aggressive behaviour in the schoolyard, and recently assaulted a student in another school district, completely unprovoked. When asked about this incident, Georgie insisted that the other child was armed and dangerous. When investigation into the matter proved otherwise, Georgie changed his story several times: he was just trying "democratize" the other child, the other child's school was harboring gang members, and so on. Quite frankly, his story on this topic has so changed from week to week, we simply can't trust his word at all anymore.

Georgie's friends, while not great in number, are very loyal, but tend to be over-protective. If any of the other students point out Georgie's failing grades, these friends simply shout them down and tell them not to speak at all. When Georgie was summoned to the principal's office several weeks ago, he insisted that his "best friend" come with him. We feel that it is in Georgie's best interest to learn to stand up for himself; failure to do so could seriously damage his ability to handle a leadership role in his adult years.

As you are aware, final exams will be held in November, and Georgie's past performance leads us to conclude that he will not be able to achieve the grades necessary to continue on with another four-year term at our institution.

Yours Truly, Ms. J.Q. Public, Assistant Principal

Drudge bias story ... is biased.

So some right-wing friend sends me this link -- of course, from Drudge Report -- that claims to "prove" that the media is biased toward the left. Drudge's headline is UCLA/Stanford Study: Drudge Report is significantly closer to the center than all other media outlets.

Here's the link to the HTML version of the doc:

http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:tCEKSNVW-OYJ:mason.gmu.edu/~atabarro/MediaBias.doc+drudge%3F&hl=en

and the Word doc:
http://mason.gmu.edu/~atabarro/MediaBias.doc

Except the problem is, the study is faulty. Here for your reading pleasure is what I wrote my friend....

Cute, but the study compares the news outlet "bias" to the opinions expressed by the average member of Congress. That's an extremely important factor to note.

"Our results show a very significant liberal bias. All of the news outlets except Fox News' Special Report received a score to the left of the average member of Congress."

Congress is NOT a statistical nor a representative sampling of the United States population. Members of the House and Senate are predominantly male, white, middle-aged, Protestant lawyers. That is not a mere observation; it's a statistical fact. It is also a statistical fact that most Americans are not middle-aged, white, Protestant male lawyers. In point of fact, there are approximately 37 lawyers per 1000 people in America.

Moreover, less than half of Americans vote, meaning Congressional representatives are chosen by and large by less than 1/3 of their constituents -- and that's if they win by about a 60% majority of those who bother to vote. They've got the money, the education, and the clout to conduct and win a campaign, which sets them apart from most of the people who elect them.

So the study proves nothing except that much of the media may be reporting news that seems left-wing to the average Congress member. Considering some of the religious blowhard nutcases that have made it to Washington, that is GOOD NEWS.

And now, for something completely girly.

I have this fabulous medium navy-colored nail polish I got several years ago in London. I have gotten several compliments on it, and recently I discovered that when I paint deep bordeaux polish OVER it, it turns a very attractive brown-black color. Black enough to wear with black sandals, and brown enough to wear with brown ones. How odd.

I find it likely that no one will care a whit about this web post, but even I get tired of just thinking about politics and the fate of the world all the time and sometimes, I am just a girly girly girl.

"Dean, Dean, Dean, Dean, Dean." Today I'm missing Howard Dean's campaign, really badly. Last night I collected all of my Dean stuff in a box, and this morning I realized what I miss most: the positivity.

Seriously. I made so many friends, and I still have the friends, and we're still working on politics. But it doesn't match the fire we had before. It's more negative -- as in, we honestly hate Bush and we hate what he's doing to the country. We aren't excited, we're just determined. Big shift.

Dean represented some things that we believe in -- a new direction. Healthcare for everyone. Fiscal moderation. Planning, for god's sake. "Something good," not just "not something bad." It just sucks that the other Democrats went after him with such a vengeance.

During the critical days right before the primary, rumors surfaced that "someone" was robo-calling Iowa voters, some pretending to be from the Dean campaign in the middle of the night, some suggesting Dean wasn't Christian because his wife is Jewish. All that somehow just went away, like no one cared, like it's OK. Everyone suspected it was Kerry's camp. And now that's the guy we've got to work with. Skull and bones, indeed.

A photo posted on, I think it was Daily Kos, showed two giant campaign signs nestled next to each other. One said something like - DEAN: The politics of hope. The other said - Doubts about Dean? Vote for KERRY. To me, that just sums up the whole damn primary.

Even the military hates Bush these days

I swear, Bush just has something to goad everyone, even the Republicans. For the fiscal conservatives, there's that ballooning budget and deficit. For Christian conservatives, Bush isn't right-wing enough because abortion is still legal. And now, he's ticking off the military by depleting their resources on this misguided war in Iraq. (Not to mention cutting veteran benefits.)

Some are formally criticizing him:

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/2004/la-na-diplo13jun13,1,1142936.story

And ... another bullet in the gun the military's loading for Bush:

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_8659.shtml

There's a pointed quote from a Republican defense industry bigwig about why he won't vote for Bush again in this one. In a word: Nine-Eleven.

With his base of support thus eroding, Bush might as well just go back to losing money in the oil business. At least he was GOOD at that.

I can only quote my friend Blake on this one:

http://www.emogame.com/bushgame.html

"Best. Game. Ever."

Warning, not for children or grownups who don't understand grownup stuff.

Eric Idle

A sweet paean to the FCC, Bush, et al. by the inimitable Eric Idle.

http://www.pythonline.com/plugs/idle/index.shtml

12 x 12

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/DeanDozen/

Howard Dean's group "Democracy for America" is promoting 12 candidates at a time for political office. I am behind this movement 100%.

Here, in case you missed them, are the first Dean Dozen.

Mary Ann Andreas for State Assembly in California. The 80th Assembly District has some of the highest unemployment rates in California, so it's all about jobs for Mary Ann in her race against the Republican incumbent.
www.andreasforassembly.com

Ken Campbell for South Carolina State House. A Dean inspired candidate! Oconee County has a chance to put a real community activist and small business owner to work with Ken Campbell. www.takebackoconee.com

Maria Chappelle-Nadal for Missouri State House. Maria has won the support of the grassroots in this race. Democracy for America is behind her in her campaign to take back the State House for Democrats. www.maria2004.com

Scott Clark, Mark Manoil & Nina Trasoff for the Arizona Corporation Commission. The Corporation Commission is a watchdog agency protecting consumers from fraud and corporate abuse. Clark, Manoil & Trasoff became politically active on the Dean campaign and are running as a ticket for the commission.

Kim Hynes for State Representative in Connecticut. 28 Republican state representatives in Connecticut ran unopposed in the last election. We won't take our country back if we don't compete. Kim is doing her part. You too can get involved. http://kimhynes.smartcampaigns.com

Richard Morrison for United States House of Representatives from Texas. Want to get rid of Tom DeLay? Here's your chance. Morrison is hitting back at "The Hammer" by competing against him in the Texas 22nd. Join Howard Dean and get involved in the fight today. www.richardmorrisonfordistrict22.com

Barack Obama for United States Senate from Illinois. In the race to regain control of the U.S. Senate, Democrats have few better chances to pick up a seat than in Illinois. DFA volunteers all over Illinois helped Obama win his primary, now it's time to help him win the general. Stay tuned: Governor Dean will be on the trail with Barack soon. www.obamaforillinois.com

Rob MacKenna for Hillsborough County (Florida) Supervisor of Elections. Rob is a computer programmer and is fighting to add a voter-verifiable paper trail to the touch-screen voting machines in largest swing county in the all-important state of Florida! www.rob2004.com

Monica Palacios-Boyce for Massachusetts State Representative. Inspired by Governor Dean's race for the White House, Monica launched her campaign for state representative when she learned that the Republican incumbent had faced no opposition in his last two elections. www.monicaforstaterep.com

Lori Saldaña for State Assembly in California. After an upset victory in the primary, grassroots activists want Lori to win in her race for the environment, education, economy and community of San Diego. www.lorisaldaña.com

Jeff Smith for United States House of Representatives from Missouri.
Campaigning in a 10-way primary for the opportunity to fill retiring Representative Richard Gephardt's seat in Congress, Jeff is an articulate young progressive running an energetic grassroots field campaign that - with your help - could surprise the pundits. www.jeffsmith2004.com

Donna Red Wing for Colorado House District #25. After serving as the GLBT Field Advisor for the Dean for America campaign, Donna has returned to the mountains of Colorado to mobilize progressive activists in communities across her district. www.donnaredwing.com

Now that our five-year anniversary is coming up (yeah, in November) I've decided to finally attempt to assemble a proper wedding album. Not some lacy behemoth nor something too trendy for its own good. I also don't want to struggle with paper corners, mucilage and scraps of pastel paper and end up with something looking like an 11th grade cheerleader created it to commemorate Homecoming.

Gotta find an album that fits me, that fits us. OK, that fits me. No lace, white leather or gold engraving will do -- it's got to be special. Handmade?

First step, I suppose, would be to go ahead and get prints of some of the fabulous black-and-white photos that Chris took. He only printed out a few of them in 8x10. The rest exist as negatives and 2x3 proof prints. I also have a set of color ones that Devin took, but I think it will look weird to mix the two sets -- I'll have to see. Maybe I'll end up creating TWO albums. Hm. Good thing I'm starting early.

You've heard of Dr. Dobson, right? Writer of Christian books on how to raise family, teaching kids healthy sexuality and all that? My mom actually used one of his sex education series to teach me (and some neighbor kids, with their parents' permission) about menstruation, sex, etc. AndrewSullivan.com has an excerpt from Dobson's latest newsletter:

"Barring a miracle, the family as it has been known for more than five millennia will crumble, presaging the fall of Western civilization itself. This is a time for concerted prayer, divine wisdom and greater courage than we have ever been called upon to exercise. For more than 40 years, the homosexual activist movement has sought to implement a master plan that has had as its centerpiece the utter destruction of the family. The institution of marriage, along with an often weakened and impotent Church, is all that stands in the way of its achievement of every coveted aspiration. Those goals include universal acceptance of the gay lifestyle, discrediting of Scriptures that condemn homosexuality, muzzling of the clergy and Christian media, granting of special privileges and rights in the law, overturning laws prohibiting pedophilia, indoctrinating children and future generations through public education, and securing all the legal benefits of marriage for any two or more people who claim to have homosexual tendencies." - James Dobson.

I don't remember Dobson's books being this nuts. All I really remember from our home sex ed course was Mom dropping a tampon into a bowl of water to demonstrate its absorbent properties, and all of us girls gasping in horror at the thought of having something the size of a Ho-Ho stuck up in there.

The idea that the clergy and Christian media are "muzzled" -- well, that just beats all. Everyone knows that the media nowadays is pay for play, and Christian dollars are as green as anyone else's.

Tax Day was just last week. It wasn't Tax Day for me, since we had already filed and gotten back our federal return by the time April 15 rolled up. I spent a little time learning about My Federal Tax Dollars, so that I might be a better-informed citizen.

Here's what I discovered: 2 cents of every federal tax dollar I pay goes toward protecting nature and the environment. 4 cents goes toward education (unfunded mandates, anyone?). And currently, 29 CENTS goes toward the military, with another 9 cents following for military debt.

Um.... 38 cents toward the military, and 4 cents toward education. Somebody's head is on backwards up there in Washington -- actually, a lot of somebodies. And all these Americans screaming for their taxes to get lowered because they think they pay so damn much... you all SHOULD start screaming for our military spending to get reined in, because we can't cut another penny off education or nature, or that'll be it. It'll all be in the states' hands. (Good luck, Louisiana and Mississippi, because we here in South Carolina are gonna race you to the bottom!)

But oh, who really gives a rip about trees and kids? They can take care of themselves.

I didn't think I would be all that interested in Air America Radio, but I was wrong. I couldn't believe it -- there is actually ONE liberal talk radio station amid the sea of bombastic conservative crap now. And it's funny, and it's fun and informative.

http://www.airamericaradio.com/

It also is a welcome contrast to NPR -- I mean all these people who say that NPR is "liberal talk radio" can now see what a real liberal talk radio station is like. NPR is more objective than most of the news sources out there. It just looked liberal because the right-wing sources were so slanted right.

Yuck. My conservative uncle sent me Zell "Zig Zag" Miller's statement about the 9/11 commission ...

http://miller.senate.gov/floor/03-30-04sept11com.html

At the risk of poisoning some future family gatherings, I responded to this crapola and CC'd my aunt. You see, my uncle will forward Newsmax and Drudge-type stories all day long, but he doesn't actually WRITE anything, so I guess he thinks it's OK. I on the other hand don't lean on fwd:s to share my own thoughts, so I probably come across to him as some liberal nut, whereas he is a good, conscientious patriot.

p.s. Miller DID NOT raise good points. I said that so he might read further.

My response:
Miller raises some good points. Every administration for a couple of decades shares some blame, and our troops do deserve respect and support. However, he's wrong on a couple of things.

He says "we did nothing" when the World Trade Center was attacked in 1993. That just isn't true. A month after the blast, four people were in custody, went on trial nine months later and all were sent to prison permanently. That's not nothing; that's pretty darn swift. The WTC was attacked not by a country but by individuals, and those individuals were all rounded up and tried.

He says we did "nothing" about the Khobar Towers. Wrong again: 13 Saudis and a Lebanese were indicted for murder and conspiracy. Those suspects were directed by Iranian government. Just because we didn't invade IRAN or SAUDI ARABIA doesn't mean we didn't do something about it.

See also: http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/khobar/ . The tragedy was reviewed carefully, problems were identified and targeted for fixing, and persons were held accountable. That's exactly what the 9/11 commission is doing.

Miller's statement about America being full of only "wimps" and "warriors" is simple namecalling. Just because you don't think a war is justified, or don't think your president is telling you the truth about that war, does not make you a wimp. If we're going to namecall, I would classify it not as "wimps" and "warriors," but "smart kids" and "bullies."

Also, this stuff about "our enemies are laughing because we are divided, so we should all stop arguing" is ridiculous. We are divided because of the we have divisive leadership that does just what it wants and ordinary people be damned, and because we are embroiled in a war with no sign of planning or forethought or exit strategy.

We spent 6 million dollars and hundreds of hours and impeachment proceedings investigating a blowjob. Talk about fingerpointing. Talk about bickering. Talk about partisan. The events since 9/11 have been far more grave and EVEN IF they weren't preventable, we need to at least examine them to find out how to better protect ourselves. That's the point of the commission. Just because the Bush Administration isn't coming out looking so heroic is no reason to quash the investigation.

The people who died in September 11 deserve at the very least apologies and answers about who was responsible, because they sure ain't gonna get justice the way that it's being handled. If one of my sisters had died in NYC, I would be in Washington demanding answers and apologies from our government too, not a crusade in Iraq. That's my take on the commission, anyway.
-- end of my diatribe --

I love this song, by the Charlotte band ISHI (now disbanded, I think).

"cafe america"
there must be a corner café somewhere along the way,
most every place we stay
there must be a Main & Broadway in every town we play our music every day.
there are brazen similarities in America,
the scarcity of a single stretch of highway minus signs;
and yet with all their advertising ill-advising me
there's no direction I can see that I could buy.
why my mind is drifting back to you in your city far away
I truly cannot say
whatever I could find there could not possibly reward me
as does my solitude this day.

yeah, right - that's what I tell myself
tumbling & laughing through moments of gold
yeah, right - why should I put up a fight when darkness overtakes me,
chains me down and breaks me...

there must be a corner café in that city where you stay,
that seems so far away
there must be a Main & Broadway in your city of L.A.,
where the sun shines every day.
and there are brazen similarities, the scarcity of those who see
integrity as a thing that has to be;
but I had to believe that someday you would leave -
thought "you're a lot like me," sure that we agreed.
why my mind was drifting back to you in your city far away
I truly cannot say whatever I did find there could not possibly reward me
as does my solitude this day.
freedom these days slips away easy-like
it's not as if there are people dying in a foreign war.
it's not as if we've been burdened by the weight of the state of this world before

"Women make up 72 percent of Wal-Mart's sales work force but only 33 percent of its managers. A study conducted for the Dukes plaintiffs by economist Marc Bendick found such discrepancies to be far less pronounced among Wal-Mart's competitors, which could boast of more than 50 percent female management. Even more striking, comparing Wal-Mart stores to competitors in the same location, Bendick's study found little geographic variation in these ratios, and little change over time. In fact, the percentage of women among Wal-Mart's 1999 management lagged behind that of its competitors in 1975."
Source: http://thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20021216&c=1&s=featherstone

Page 127 of the Oct. 20, 2003 edition of BusinessWeek. It quotes my husband Charlie. We talked to this reporter for ten minutes, and she chose a quote that makes SC look skeptical of Dean -- how frustrating. So be careful what you say to reporters, 'cause they'll print it!

Dean's smiling picture in A.J.'s bar is on the front page of the article, which is entitled "South Carolina Shakeout."

Here is the quote. It comes at the end of essentially a 2-page article ALL ABOUT SC POLITICS on page 129 of BusinessWeek:

In Charleston and at the church, he [Dean] delivered a toned-down version of that line. "South Carolina has voted Republican for 30 years," he shouted. "Tell me what you have to show for it."

Even some of Dean's ardent supporters were skeptical about how that would fly with most South Carolinians. "I don't know if they'll take too kindly to it," chortled Charlie Gaddy of Rock Hill, who with his wife drove three hours to see Dean. "But the economy is so bad that maybe people will at least listen."

True, says Emory University political scientist Merle Black, they may listen, but South Carolina voters are unlikely to flock to Dean. "If [he] wins Iowa and New Hampshire, I think South Carolina could be a place for another candidate to emerge," says Black. Naturally, almost all of Dean's rivals are spinning fantasies about who that person might be.

- article by Alexandra Starr

I got this story from a friend who works for a Peace & Justice group in NC.
1 in 7 North Carolinians lives below the poverty line.

It's hard facts like this that make me so annoyed when people insist to me that everyone in America is equal and/or has an equal chance at succeeding in life. They say this because everyone they know, everyone they associate with, has done so. The ones who don't, they figure, must be lazy... too bad for them.

Can you imagine life on $18,500 a year -- let alone raising kids and having a car and health insurance? Would you live at that level if you had an alternative? I made about $16,000 (ten years ago) at my first full-time job (kinko's). I had a college degree, all paid for by my parents, and a good healthcare plan from kinko's, and I knew I would make a lot more at my next job. Meanwhile, some people can afford to pay $18,000 a year for their kids' private college tuition -- some even without taking out loans. It's just unbelievable, the gap between have and have not.

And the majority of us middle class people are of course in the middle, torn between aspiring to keep our money to improve our own status and save for unforeseen future disaster, or helping those who have less.


Friday, October 3, 2003 12:00AM EDT
POINT OF VIEW
  _____  

Looking right past the poor
 
By GENE R. NICHOL
CHAPEL HILL -- Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau released its most recent study of income and poverty. For the "second consecutive year, the poverty rate and the number living in poverty rose." Almost 35 million Americans (12.1 percent) made less last year than the extraordinarily modest federal poverty threshold of $18,500 for a family of four. About 17 percent of the nation's children are poor. The numbers are even worse for black (24 percent) and Latino (22 percent) kids.

The North Carolina story was particularly disheartening. Our median family income is now almost $5,000 below the national average. We are one of 10 states whose median income actually fell from the year before -- in our case by 4.4 percent. About one in seven Tar Heels lives below the poverty line.

The Bush administration says the recession ended in November 2001. You'd have a hard time proving it in North Carolina.

Newspapers gave the poverty report fairly prominent play. Headlines read "State's median income dips." But, as is typically the case, it was essentially a one-day story. No expressions of outrage appeared. No emergency proposals followed. The Congress stood mute. The executive branch was unmoved. No electoral campaigns took up the mantle. No state legislative initiative was launched.

Once each year we learn that the wealthiest nation in human history countenances shockingly high levels of poverty. We discover, yet again, that -- despite our vaunted rhetorical commitment to equality -- America leads the industrial world in wealth disparity and concentration. We shrug our shoulders, and we go on.

And income differentials hardly present the whole picture. Over 43 million Americans have no health care insurance. In North Carolina, 15.6 percent lack coverage. Of households earning under $25,000 a year, about a quarter are uninsured. We stand alone among the major industrial nations in failing to provide universal coverage. We spend more per capita on health care than any country in the world. But we also leave more of our fellows outside the system, in the shadows.

Economics also drives opportunity. We countenance rich and poor public schools. Not just private schools, mind you; rich and poor public schools. As if were acceptable to treat some of our children as second- or third-class citizens. Higher education magnifies the inequality -- though UNC-Chapel Hill's new "Carolina Covenant" is a hopeful step in the right direction. Only 3 percent of the students at the nation's 146 most selective universities come from the bottom economic quartile. An astonishing 74 percent come from the top quarter. Twenty years ago, children from parents in the top quarter were four times more likely to get a college degree than those at the bottom. Now it's 10 times.

The legal system also prices out a huge segment of the community. Study after study finds that about 80 percent of the legal need of the poor and near-poor goes unmet. Less than 1 percent of our total national expenditure for lawyers goes toward services for the poor. We carve "equal justice under law" on our courthouse walls. The sentiment stops there.

Even our political system rewards those who can pay in order to play. The private financing of campaigns systematically skews the outcome of our political processes toward the interests of the economically powerful. The halls of power are increasing off limits to those without significant economic resources. Across a broad array of enterprises, we have allowed the deck to become stacked against those lodged at the bottom. And we know it.

Yet, decade after decade, in cultural arena after cultural arena, in election after election, these crushing problems are barely discussed. In law, in politics, in philosophy, in the humane letters, we simply turn our gaze away. We have come to think that a regime of economic apartheid is both unavoidable and untroubling.

A couple of months ago, I was asked to give the convocation address at Chapel Hill. Given the brouhaha over Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed," there was a tad of tension in the air. I remember thinking that we would explore Enhenreich's book from a stunning array of perspectives. Is the book balanced? Does it represent good journalism, or first-rate literature? Is UNC leftist? Are we open to dissent? Do legislators have the right to ask for faculty members' political affiliations? Should remarkably underpaid campus workers be allowed to participate in the discussions? Do we practice anything like what we preach?

My own fear, though, was that, in all of the hullabaloo, we would miss the central, irrefutable premise of "Nickel and Dimed": that "the poor have disappeared from the culture at large, from its political rhetoric, its intellectual endeavors, from its daily entertainment." In American life, formal equality has become submerged in a torrent of disadvantage. By accepting it, we turn our backs on our best selves.
(Gene R. Nichol is dean and the Burton Craige professor of law at the UNC School of Law.)
  _____

Who irons the pants in your family?

I can’t iron clothes without thinking of my parents. For me, this is a pleasant association. The hot hoof of the iron releasing great whoofs and chuffs of steam, my parents taking pride in clean and stiffened clothing.

Mom did most of the ironing in our house, but Dad showed me how to do it elegantly, flattening clothes with an almost fond touch, the iron gliding across the starched sleeves of his blue dress shirts. He would give me 25 cents for each shirt I starched and ironed well for him, a rate that could yield several dollars a week if I kept after it.

One day, years after this, I was ironing while Mom was in the room folding other clothes. I mentioned slyly that Dad seemed to be better at ironing than Mom, and she scoffed. She actually scoffed. “That’s because he doesn’t have to do it.”

“Oh…” I murmured. This was a clue about the dynamics of married life that I hadn’t expected and felt embarrassed about exposing.

We've been living in our current house for just over a year now. I alternately complain about the apparent un-neighborliness of our neighbors, who haven't made the effort to meet us, and express guilt at not having made the effort myself. I have met the next-door neighbors but could not tell you their names nor pick them out of a lineup of college girls.

July 4 I was off work and C wasn't, so I walked down the block with my dog, hoping to perhaps run into someone new. And it worked!

First was a woman about my age who was gardening. The fact that she has a very pretty English-style garden gave me an opportunity to compliment her, and we were soon talking. She has two small children, her husband is a landscape architect, and she seems nice enough. Later in the day I went back by her house with an Internet-gathered info sheet about a flower that both she and I have but couldn't name. I then discovered that she has a china cabinet full of collectable dolls. I've spent a few minutes trying to imagine myself becoming friends with the kind of person who buys and displays collectable dolls, and so far, snake eyes.

Next I met some neighbors about my parents' age who live diagonally across the intersection from us. Amazingly, they are liberal Democrats, and they were equally astounded to discover some younger people in the neighborhood (us) who were also liberal Democrats. Isn't life interesting? So I think we'll be hanging out with them some. I feel happier now that I know a few neighbors. I want to meet more.