[This short Father’s Day essay was originally published in The Pantagraph (June 15, 2008). I also recorded an audio version for the children’s educational program, Kids Talk Radio, hosted by Bob Barboza from Long Beach, California.] When I was a small boy, I sometimes used to climb to the top of the street pole that stood next to the
Category: Politics
The 2016 Election So Far It seems to be a law of modern politics that the health of a democracy stands in inverse proportion to the length of its presidential campaign season. If so, the signs are all there that U.S. politics is wallowing in a prolonged death agony. Driven by the vast influence of
As a college student in the early 1970s there were a couple of occasions when I hitchhiked home to the Chicago area. It was more than 300 miles from Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale, six hours by car if you were driving and longer if you were hitching a ride north on Interstate 57.
It’s telling that in February 2008 I wrote an op-ed for an Illinois newspaper titled, “What Makes Someone a Campus Murderer?” The commentary then was prompted by the shooting deaths at Northern Illinois University (NIU) of five people and 21 injured at the hands of a former student. At the time, I recalled my visit to the
THE MEASURE OF A REVOLUTIONARY In the annals of American socialism, the name of Eugene V. Debs stands out as the most prominent personality in the movement’s history. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the self-described independent socialist now campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, considers Debs one of his heroes. It’s almost certain Debs would not
MARK HARRIS 