Beacon Broadside

Adele Barker: Disaster’s Aftermath

Today's post is from Adele Barker, who was awarded a Ucross Fellowship for her work on her latest book, Not Quite Paradise: An American Sojourn in Sri Lanka. Barker has taught at the universities of Arizona and Washington, and is the author and editor of five books on Russian literature and cultural life. In 2001-2002 she received a Fulbright Senior Scholar grant to teach and write in Sri Lanka. After the tsunami she returned to the island where she traveled to the areas most devastated by the waves and by the thirty year old civil war between the Tamil Tigers and the central Sinhalese government.

I was on my way home from Sri Lanka, sitting in the transit lounge of Heathrow Airport when the earthquake struck Haiti. Several hours later the first film footage began to come in. We sat with our Starbucks and along with everyone else just stared.

Two weeks earlier my son and I had spent December 26th driving up the southwest coast of Sri Lanka. It was the fifth anniversary of the tsunami. We stopped at a couple of beaches and swam along with other Sri Lankans. On the surface it looked like just another day. But it wasn't. How could it be? We have friends over there who will never ever go to the shore again, much less swim in the waters. Others marked the day in their own way. Officially nothing was done by the government. But privately people remembered.

Like most of us, I've spent a lot of time over the past few weeks in front of the television set looking at images of Haiti. We used to live in Sri Lanka. I had written about the tsunami, and so people have asked me if what happened in South Asia in 2004 can teach us anything about how to respond in Haiti. People want answers; I want answers, but the answers aren't easy to come by. We want people not to die in these disasters; we want aid to reach its mark in something approximating a timely manner; and we want to see life returning to normal as soon as possible. Do we have a shot at any of these or am I simply dreaming? I am neither a seismologist nor an aid worker. Like all of us though I am devastated by the disaster, puzzled and irritated by the problems getting aid where it is supposed to go, and wishing things were different. And so I offer here a few thoughts.    

David W. Moore & George F. Bishop: 2010 Top Ten Dubious Polling Awards

Today's post is from David W. Moore and George F. Bishop. Moore is a Senior Fellow with the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. He is a former Vice President of the Gallup Organization and was a senior editor with the Gallup Poll for thirteen years. He is author of The Opinion Makers: An Insider Exposes the Truth Behind the Polls.  Bishop is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Graduate Certificate Program in Public Opinion & Survey Research at the University of Cincinnati. His most recent book is The Illusion of Public Opinion: Fact and Artifact in American Public Opinion Polls.

Every year, poll watchers are confronted with poll results and commentary that defy either logic or science, often raising questions about the very utility of polls. Typically, the problems are not with the method of conducting polls, but with the pollsters themselves -- as they focus on what they believe is entertaining and appealing to the audience rather than an accurate reflection of public opinion. In the process, pollsters can manipulate public opinion or write commentary that makes a mockery of what the public is really thinking.

With this article, veteran pollsters, authors and political scientists George F. Bishop and David W. Moore issue their Second Annual Top Ten "Dubious Polling" Awards. These awards are intended to mark for posterity some of the most risible and outrageous pronouncements by polling organizations during the previous year.

Each award is ranked, from a low of one set of crossed fingers to a high of five sets. Pollsters generally know in their hearts when all is not right with their polls, but they (figuratively) cross their fingers and hope that no one notices anything amiss. The five crossed-fingers icon is the ultimate in wishful thinking, perhaps the equivalent of football's "Hail Mary pass" for the truly untrustworthy poll.

David Chura: No Bail? Go to Jail.

Today's post is from David Chura, author of I Don't Wish Nobody to Have a Life Like Mine: Tales of Kids in Adult Lockup. Chura has worked with at-risk teenagers for forty years. His writing has appeared in the New York Times and multiple literary journals and anthologies, and he is a frequent lecturer and advisor on incarcerated youth. This post originally appeared at his Kids in the System blog.

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We Americans don't know much about how our criminal justice system works. We have the basics down. "Commit the crime, do the time!" as the pop cliché has it.

If only it were that simple.

Most Americans know that if you get arrested and post bail you're released from custody while your case grinds through an overburdened court system.

That is, if you're lucky enough to be able to post bail-- which means you're white enough; rich enough; well connected enough. But if you can't get bail-- which means you're poor; probably a minority; you’ve burned bridges, are alone-- you go to jail. Even though you've not been judged guilty. Even though the state has yet to prove that you did the crime you're accused of. Even though you're innocent until proven otherwise. Still you stay locked up in jail, not some special holding place, until your trial. You live with convicted criminals in the same conditions that society has set up to punish (because that's what jails do) these wrongdoers.

That's the way it is for two-thirds of the people in U.S. jails according to a recent series on NPR; more than a half million inmates locked up because they can’t get the money to post bail.

The Death of Howard Zinn Mourned by Many

The Boston Globe's James Carroll shares a truly remarkable story rooted in Zinn's anti-Vietnam War efforts: 

HOWARD ZINN had just buckled his seat belt when the flight attendant’s voice came over the speakers with the pre-flight routine - the welcome aboard and identification of crew members. At mention of the pilot's name, Zinn’s eyes lifted, and he wondered - could it be the same man? Years before, Zinn, and fellow anti-war activist Father Daniel Berrigan, had traveled to Hanoi for the purpose of accepting the release from North Vietnam of three American prisoners of war - downed US flyers. They were the first prisoners to be released, but the condition was that they be handed over not to American officials, but to representatives of the anti-war movement.

The three prisoners were subdued and skeptical - obviously beaten down by their ordeal. The empathy Zinn felt was rooted in his own having been an Army Air Forces bombardier during World War II. Zinn and Berrigan reassured them, and soon the five men were flown out of Hanoi - freedom! While changing planes in Laos, they were intercepted by the US ambassador, who took custody of the POWs. Zinn wished them luck, and that was the last he had ever seen of them.

But now he had just heard the name of one of the three - the man at the controls of his airliner. Could it be? When the flight was underway, Zinn asked an attendant to tell the pilot his name. Soon, the captain came walking down the aisle. They recognized each other, exchanged a friendly greeting - and that was it. Some moments in life are too multi-layered for words. When Zinn told me this story, he said he was glad to see the man looking well, but that their brief meeting left him feeling sad. Beyond acknowledgment, there was simply no way to reckon with what they had shared. For Zinn's part, he realized that the intense bond he felt with the former POW was unbroken.

Also in the Globe this weekend, Alice Walker shared her memories of Zinn. She, like Marian Wright Edelman, was one of Zinn's students at Spelman College:

Howard Zinn was magical as a teacher. Witty, irreverent, and wise, he loved what he was teaching and clearly wanted his students to love it also. We did. My mother, who earned $17 a week working 12-hour days as a maid, had somehow managed to buy a typewriter for me and I had learned typing in school. I said hardly a word in class (as Howie would later recall), but inspired by his warm and brilliant ability to communicate ideas and conundrums and passions of the characters and complexities of Russian life in the 19th century, I flew back to my room after class and wrote my response to what I was learning about these writers and their stories that I adored. He was proud of my paper, and, in his enthusiastic fashion, waved it about. I learned later there were those among other professors at the school who thought that I could not possibly have written it. His rejoinder: "Why, there's nobody else in Atlanta who could have written it!"

Bob Herbert in the New York Times calls Zinn "a treasure and an inspiration," but questions the use of the term "radical" to describe the man and his work:

I always wondered why Howard Zinn was considered a radical. (He called himself a radical.) He was an unbelievably decent man who felt obliged to challenge injustice and unfairness wherever he found it. What was so radical about believing that workers should get a fair shake on the job, that corporations have too much power over our lives and much too much influence with the government, that wars are so murderously destructive that alternatives to warfare should be found, that blacks and other racial and ethnic minorities should have the same rights as whites, that the interests of powerful political leaders and corporate elites are not the same as those of ordinary people who are struggling from week to week to make ends meet?

The folks at HowardZinn.org have a very active and growing Howard Zinn Fan Page at Facebook, where many more links are being shared.

Last Thursday's Daily Show ended with a Moment of Zinn. Here's the entire interview from 2005 (click here to watch if the embedded clip does not appear below) in which former President George W. Bush comes up short in comparison to Christopher Columbus.

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Marian Wright Edelman on Howard Zinn

The following is an excerpt from Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors by Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund. Edelman was a student of the late Howard Zinn at Spelman College.

  Photo by Roslyn Zinn

HOWARD ZINN

The tall, lanky professor and I arrived at Spelman College together in 1956. He and his wife Roslyn and their two children, Myla and Jeff, lived in the back of the Spelman College infirmary where students felt welcomed to gather, explore ideas, share hopes, and just chew the fat.

Howie encouraged students to think outside the box and to question rather than accept conventional wisdom. He was a risk-taker. I am indebted to him for my first interracial experience with a discussion group at the YMCA on international relations and for going with his Black Spelman students to sit in the "White" section of the state legislature which stopped its deliberations to hoot and jeer and demand that we be removed. He lost no opportunity to challenge segregation in theaters, libraries, and restaurants, and encouraged us to do the same.

Howie not only lived what he taught in history class by breaching Atlanta's segregated boundaries, but stretched my religious tolerance beyond childhood limits. I felt shock and confusion when he announced in class that he did not believe in Jesus Christ. There were few Jewish citizens in my small South Carolina hometown. Through him I began to discern that goodness comes in many faiths and forms which must be respected and honored.

Helene Atwan: The Loss of Howard Zinn

Helene Atwan is the director of Beacon Press.

 photo by Robert Birnbaum

The death of Howard Zinn is an irreparable loss. His contributions to how history is viewed and taught, to political discourse, to activism will be celebrated in the coming weeks and months by the legions of people who were influenced by his work and by his example. Already some of those encomia are being published and posted; the list below represents only a sampling. I want to say just a little today about his enormous contribution to Beacon Press and to independent publishing.

Howard's first book with Beacon was SNCC: The New Abolitionists, the story of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee which he advised for many years, and which we published in 1964. It was his second book. It began a 46 year relationship with the press that was virtually uninterrupted. We didn't publish all of his books, of course, or all of the books he championed over the years, but we were proud to publish quite a few, including Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal and You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train, his memoir. His last book, Three Plays: The Political Theater of Howard Zinn, was slated for publication in April 2010. Receiving his advanced copies just two weeks ago Howard wrote: "Hot off the press; looks great!" As always, he thanked us for our work. And, as always, we were the ones who owed him the thanks.

Alan Michael Collinge: The Way Forward on Student Loans

Alan Michael Collinge responds to the State of the Union and what the President promised to student borrowers. Collinge is the author of The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt in U.S. History—and How We Can Fight Back and is the founder of StudentLoanJustice.org.

Last night, President Obama's first State of the Union Address clearly showed a man determined to inspire bipartisanship from the Republicans. At the same time, he pulled no punches in repeatedly reminding us that the banking crisis can be blamed largely on the banks, and at times even seemed to take pleasure in unloading on Republicans from his well-stocked quiver of damning facts. On the student lending front, Obama described the Direct Lending program, the billions that will be saved by cutting out the middlemen banks, and repayment programs that will guarantee students an easy time of repaying their loans. This was one of the least controversial of Obama's initiatives over the year, and not surprisingly was met with relatively broad approval from the audience.

Given this, one might think that student advocates like me would be pleased, or at the least, have little to complain about. The reality, however, is that I am not pleased. In fact, I, and anyone fighting for the return of standard consumer protections to student loans couldn't be more disappointed. Obama's plan does nothing to bring back fundamental protections that were taken away during the past administration, and does nothing to address systemic problems such as college costs and government oversight.

Beacon Press Mourns the Passing of Howard Zinn

  Photo by Roslyn Zinn

The staff of Beacon Press deeply mourns the passing of Howard Zinn, historian, author, playwright, social activist, and friend.

In the coming days, we will share remembrances of Zinn, along with some of his own words. Until then, here are links to obituaries and some places where you can read Zinn's words online.

Boston Globe: Historian-Activist Zinn Dies

New York Times: Howard Zinn, Historian, Dies at 87

Democracy Now! Howard Zinn Tribute

Daniel Ellsberg: A Memory of Howard Zinn

The Nation: Goodbye, Howard Zinn

Guernica Magazine interview: A People's History of Howard Zinn

Danielle Ofri: Doctor-Writers: What Are the Ethics?

Danielle Ofri is a writer and practicing internist at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital. She is the editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Review. Her newest book is Medicine in Translation: Journeys with my Patients (View the YouTube book trailer.) You can follow Danielle on Twitter and Facebook, or visit her homepage.

There is a veritable epidemic of doctor-writers out there. What is going on?

Are doctors suddenly in the kiss-and-tell mode? What about confidentiality? Professionalism? HIPAA?

As one of the aforementioned doctor-writers, I look upon this trend with both awe and trepidation.  I suspect that that this flourishing literary phenomenon relates to the public’s fascination and fear about all things medical. It also relates to the falling away of previous, pedestal-like images of doctors and doctoring. Lastly, it may have occurred to the medical profession-- and this has taken a few centuries, it seems-- that doctors have profound emotional reactions to the work we do, and that exploring these reactions may offer benefit to both patient and doctor.

Whatever the reason, this literary genre appears to be here to stay, and it is worth considering the ethical implications. Legally, there doesn't appear to be much beyond protecting identity and avoiding libel.

Adele Barker: Jaffna Rebuilds: After The Tsunami In Sri Lanka

Today is election day in Sri Lanka, and today's post is from Adele Barker, who was awarded a Ucross Fellowship for her work on her latest book, Not Quite Paradise: An American Sojourn in Sri Lanka. Barker has taught at the universities of Arizona and Washington, and is the author and editor of five books on Russian literature and cultural life. In 2001-2002 she received a Fulbright Senior Scholar grant to teach and write in Sri Lanka. After the tsunami she returned to the island where she traveled to the areas most devastated by the waves and by the thirty year old civil war between the Tamil Tigers and the central Sinhalese government. This post is part of a series, appearing at the Huffington Post marking the anniversary of the 2004 tsunami.

January 4, 2010

It's kite season on the Jaffna Peninsula in northern Sri Lanka. On the tip of the peninsula, people are flying their homemade kites along the sea's edge with a little help from the northeast monsoon winds. It's a good season up here for other things as well. Peace has come to the north of this war torn country. It's a very different place than it was three years ago when I was here. Sri Lankans from all over the island are now free to travel to the north. For foreigners it is still problematic. Small guest houses that had gone to ruin are being rebuilt. Just outside of town the land is being cultivated for the first time in many many years. People are busy turning the soil, and planting everything from onions to cabbage and chilies on land that was occupied by the military during war time. Each week more land is being released back to the population at large, something that is absolutely crucial given the number of people up here who need to be resettled.

Downtown Jaffna is booming with the kind of energy that tells you that this is an area intent on rebuilding. Three years ago when I was up here working on my book Not Quite Paradise: An American Sojourn in Sri Lanka, the center of Jaffna looked like a poster city for civil war, twenty-six years of it to be exact. Mostly the stores sold tools and twine, the markets were bare, textile shops sat waiting for the odd customer. The only shops that seemed to be doing well were the ones selling bicycle seats since petrol was both expensive and generally unavailable.