Archive | Commentary

Maryla Husyt Finkelstein, the author’s mother, after the war in Austria.  She was in a Displaced People camp. Every night as we watched the news on television my mother would avert her eyes and raise her hand to block the screen when scenes from Vietnam flashed across it.  After a few moments the question would […]

Some people knew exactly what to think about the letter Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent to U.S. President George W. Bush.  Since they had already pegged Ahmadinejad as a Holocaust-denying, Israel-threatening, nuke-hungry lunatic, it was no stretch to see the letter as exactly the sort of thing a Holocaust-denying, Israel-threatening, nuke-hungry lunatic would write, even […]

It might look strange, Harker paying bus fare clear down to Laramie for two guys to take possession of the same model pickup he could’ve bought from Jim Sturgess’s dealership, right there at home.  What happened was Harker found out he could shave a considerable slice off the price if he dealt with a certain […]

Hating Barry Bonds has become a national passion — or so the very sportswriters who have whipped up this hate tell us.  What they don’t tell us is that this passion is prevalent almost exclusively among a few white men. Not that others, including myself, don’t think that Barry probably used steroids.  Though not proven, […]

THE END OF GENOCIDE BEFORE MUHAMMAD ALI BECAME “MUHAMMAD ALI™” “NUESTRO HIMNO”: Overcoming an Anthem to the Empire EQUALITY AND UNITY: Migrants and Natives “HISPANIC QUEBEC” MAKES ITS ENTRANCE WHAT’S IN A NAME?: Of West Point, War, and Pizza SEYMOUR HERSH AND THE AMERICAN BRAIN THE LOBBY: It’s Not Either-Or WHITHER NEPAL?

Warnings, war, and apocalypse.  Two riders approached.  The wind began to howl.  Electric guitars — and voices — sliced the night, like double-edged swords. Yep.  Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard pulled into town Saturday night.  The guy playing sax in the street out in front of the civic center put it this way: These guys […]

Migration between countries occurs if and when it “resolves” social and especially class contradictions inside both of them.  One set of contradictions pushes people out of a country just as another set of contradictions in other countries pulls them in.  Finally, while migration “resolves” some social contradictions, it likewise engenders or aggravates others. These days, […]

A union presence at the Sago mine might well have prevented the disaster. Training at a union mine is strictly enforced.  Workers, in rotation, walk the three alternate escape routes monthly and train on priorities in case of an emergency.  Barricading as was done at Sago is the fourth and final resort. There were no […]

The man who shocked the nation by changing his name has sold that name for cash.  Last month, Muhammad Ali™ was paid $50 million by CKX, an entertainment and licensing firm, in return for an 80 percent interest in his name and likeness. So, before Muhammad Ali™ becomes a corporate logo, let’s pause to recall […]

In an age dominated by brute force and overwhelming military power — in other words, any age at all — it is hard to remember that the simplest addition to our vocabulary can change the world.  This was what Raphael Lemkin accomplished in 1944, when in a study on the Nazi occupation of Europe he […]

A Review of “Nuestro Himno,” in Somos Americanos, Urban Box Office (www.ubo.com) $10 ($1 goes to support the immigrant rights movement).  Release date May 16, 2006 A Spanish-language version of the US national anthem was distributed to radio stations Friday, April 29th, in time to be played over the air to build the May 1st […]

The impact of the “Day Without Immigrants” boycott and marches across the U.S. on May Day is far-reaching.  Crucially, this mass action humanized undocumented migrants under economic and political attack. Significantly, their lives are moving from the margin to the center of the U.S. public mind.  Such social energy has a force of its own. […]

En ce Premier Mai 2006,  des milliers et des milliers de Latinos se sont absentés du travail et de l’école, ont manifesté dans les rues des principales villes américaines et ont fait grève de consommation pour protester contre le projet de loi HR 4437 sur le contrôle de l’immigration illégale et faire reconnaître leur apport […]

The Sudan Liberation Army signed a peace agreement with Khartoum.  Now, only the Justice and Equality Movement is left (Lydia Polgreen and Joel Brinkley, “Biggest Rebel Faction in Darfur Poised to Sign Peace Deal,” New York Times, 4 May 2006). Will the “30 Days for Darfur” campaign, “inspired by a meeting between Rabbi [David] Saperstein […]

When is a “West Point” graduate no longer a “West Point” graduate?  That’s easy, according to the legal experts at the United States Military Academy.  Any time you have an organization using the term, West Point, of which they do not approve.  In fact, according to a letter received by us from these authorities, any […]

compadre, if i injected my flesh with silicon did hundreds of situps a day wore lacey push-up bras got surgery to correct my Asian single-eyelid wore subtle lipstick, concealer, and gloss made my gaze bruised with shadow and mascara wore dainty stiletto heels and flippy skirts got some hips would you buy me then? hermano, […]

May Day in North Carolina, USA.  The weather is perfect.  A march for immigrant rights begins this afternoon — part of the nationwide movement to prevent the passage of a legislation that would make it a felony offense to be in the US without papers or to help anyone that is here without said papers.  […]

Dear New Yorker Magazine: You’ve got your nerve, printing Seymour Hersh’s article, “The Iran Plans: Would President Bush Go to War to Stop Tehran from Getting the Bomb?”  I have just thrown my April 17 issue of your so-called publication across the room, breaking the little shepherdess in my Hummel collection — so you owe […]

[This essay is the second installment of “Stolen Birthright: The U. S. Conquest and Exploitation of the Mexican People” by Richard D. Vogel. Read the first installment here.] La guerra de Estados Unidos en México La guerra de Estados Unidos en México de 1846-1848 fue la primera guerra estadounidense de agresión en contra de una […]

[John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s essay “The Israel Lobby” (London Review of Books 28.6, 23 March 2006) rekindled the smoldering controversy over the relations among US foreign policy, Israel, and the Israel lobby in the United States.  Norman G. Finkelstein‘s comment on the controversy below provides a very useful analytical perspective on the subject. — […]