Category Archives: Uncategorized

IT WAS AN EARLY SUNDAY MORNING and my phone was urgently ringing. I usually do not receive calls so early. The call came with a shocking message: “Coup d’état!” I remember throwing the cell phone with anger, awe and great … Continue reading →

Gateway through people on the street even though they paid their rent They won’t even let us live in a tent You can’t just look the other way Your silence gives consent! These brothers are sleeping in the park That … Continue reading →

IN FOLLOWING THE NEWS coverage and comments made regarding the murder of Kiwane Carrington-Williams, I am disturbed to see how many people are quick to jump to the defense of an officer who took the life of a 15 year … Continue reading →

CHAMPAIGN POLICE SAY it will take a month for an investigation into the “officer- involved shooting” of Kiwane Carrington, an unarmed 15 year-old African American youth. There has been an outpouring of support for young Kiwane from friends and family. … Continue reading →

THE COMPLEXITY OF THE REGION affords great cover for ongoing misrepresentation by the administration, representatives, think tanks, and the media. All spin, “simplify” and generally distort the war on terror/al-Queda as currently conducted mainly in Afghanistan/Pakistan. Unresolved colonial borders that … Continue reading →

IN THE PAST MONTHS, the American print media stories and the talking head punditocracy have discussed the status of sports in Iraq. The Iraqi National Soccer Team played their first home games since prior to the United States invasion. Iraq … Continue reading →

This column was published by The Guardian Unlimited on August 4, 2009. Update: It appears that the proposed media law referred to in The Guardian debate below is not going anywhere in the Venezuelan Congress; it is not clear that … Continue reading →

”Idle hands are the devils playground”, or some ominous saying of that nature, is a good way to begin describing why I started my blog. However, I do not believe in the imminent physical manifestation of the devil, nor do … Continue reading →

ONCE AGAIN, RACIAL PROFILING numbers were released by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) with no coverage in the local media. When I notified a journalist for the News-Gazette of the latest figures, he told me they covered the story … Continue reading →

SHARING WINE, pasta and birthday cake in a log cabin in the mountains of central Italy this past June among artists, actors & friends, we visitors from Illinois heard the name “Katrina” spoken often throughout the evening. It was a … Continue reading →

PRESSURE ON UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS Chancellor Richard Herman and President B. Joseph White to resign over the ongoing admissions scandal reached new heights on September 14 as the Urbana-Champaign Senate, primarily a faculty body, passed a resolution by the overwhelming … Continue reading →

RRFM will be Saturday, October 10, 3PM–5PM followed by FNB from 5PM–7PM, at the southeast corner of Westside Park in Champaign. The Really, Really Free Market (RRFM) movement is a non-hierarchical collective of individuals who form a temporary market based … Continue reading →

I RECENTLY RECEIVED A LESSON in Champaign City Government 101. On August 13 the Safe Haven Tent City came to St. Mary at my invitation. It was a simple act of kindness for the homeless. They could pitch their tents … Continue reading →

IN THE 1880’S, THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR constructed a much broader vision of organized labor than the “business unionism” of its craft union rivals that became the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The Knights welcomed unskilled workers, of any race … Continue reading →

TWO YEARS AGO, A COOPERATIVE effort between our local Primary Communications Project and el COPINH, an indigenous peoples’ organization in La Esperanza, Honduras, built a powerful AM radio station to enable the Lenca Mayans to communicate their ideas. Honduras is … Continue reading →

Music for the Young and Young at Heart is the theme of the upcoming fundraiser for the Champaign Urbana Folk and Roots Festival. The fundraiser will take place Sunday August 23rd Noon to 8pm at Channing Murray Foundation and the … Continue reading →

I would like to express my gratitude to the Public i for allowing Margaret Fitzpatrick to highlight the problems taking place in Afghanistan in her article “Afghanistan, a Beautiful Place Now Covered in Landmines”. However, there are some inconsistencies within … Continue reading →

CHINA HAS LOST A LOT OF BLOOD THIS MONTH, and as it continues to dribble red, the rest of the world is straining to understand China’s inability to have anticipated and managed the situation. China is rife with ethnic conflict, … Continue reading →

THE UNITED STATES IS UNIQUE in the world for its overzealous love affair with life without parole sentences (LWOP). It is one of the few western countries to have LWOP sentences and the only country in North America to have … Continue reading →

INCARCERATION AT THE TAMMS SUPERMAX was approved by the Illinois legislature in 1998 as a short-term, one-year “shock-treatment” program for men in other Illinois prisons,who cause harm to guards or other inmates. However, Tamms has become a warehouse of human … Continue reading →