The 15th annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival opens tomorrow in the singer-songwriter’s hometown of Okemah, Okla., and it will be a special one, running through the 100th anniversary of his birth on Saturday, July 14. The Woody Guthrie Centennial website says, “His songs have run around the world like a fast train on a well oiled track. [...]

Posted on July 10th, 2012 by Debby
Filed under: History, Rural Life, Social Justice | No Comments »

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson In March, I told you about a well-known sports figure who was arrested hereabouts on charges of arguing while black. I didn’t give his name because I didn’t know how widely the story would be reported and didn’t want to contribute to his public humiliation. Well, the story was widely reported, [...]

Posted on June 2nd, 2011 by Miryam Ehrlich Williamson
Filed under: Racism, Social Justice, White privilege | No Comments »

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson The more of us that show up at rallies and demonstrations, the sooner we’ll get our country back. Libya to the contrary notwithstanding, it may be a little easier to get people out in the streets to overthrow a dictator than to defeat a legislature that promotes union busting, unbridled capitalism, [...]

Posted on March 14th, 2011 by Miryam Ehrlich Williamson
Filed under: Economic Justice, Labor, Political Unrest, Union busting | 1 Comment »

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson I’m steaming here.  If you’re black, you already know about the subject of this post. If you’re not black, but have no interest in white racism and white privilege, go find something else to read. A while back, in a place not far from where I live, a man came out [...]

Posted on March 4th, 2011 by Miryam Ehrlich Williamson
Filed under: Racism, Society and Culture | 2 Comments »

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson Three new progressive organizations, with three distinct but complementary purposes, have surfaced over the last few weeks.  Last week I told you about Cognitive Policy Works, its Progressive Strategy Handbook, and the strategy group that is at work developing the progressive brand, so that people will know at once what progressive [...]

Posted on February 23rd, 2011 by Miryam Ehrlich Williamson
Filed under: Economic Justice, Political Unrest | No Comments »

Posted by Miryam Ehrlich Williamson [This essay, reposted from Truthout, is such a brave piece of work that I wanted to bring it to you without even asking you to click on the link where the original is to be found.  Its author, Barry Wingard, is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air National Guard [...]

Posted on January 19th, 2011 by Miryam Ehrlich Williamson
Filed under: Politics and Political Issues, Social Justice | 1 Comment »

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson It’s a pleasure to end the week with this inspiring post from the Egyptian English-language website Ahram Online. It’s reassuring to know that there are still large numbers of people unswayed by the efforts of some to make us live lives of fear and intolerance. Egypt’s Muslims attend Coptic Christmas mass, [...]

Posted on January 7th, 2011 by Miryam Ehrlich Williamson
Filed under: Religion and Spirituality, Social Justice | No Comments »

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson Well, you’re not going to get a year end review from me. I’ve been thinking all week — talking to you in my mind, actually — trying to come up with something uplifting to say. Running along in my thoughts, as a kind of bass line to the rest of it, [...]

Posted on December 30th, 2010 by Miryam Ehrlich Williamson
Filed under: Economic Justice, Social Justice | 1 Comment »

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson Most people are smart enough to resist the attempt of the radical right, and the Republican politicians who are courting them, to replace their brain cells with string cheese by clamoring for Barack Obama to come up with a valid birth certificate. But even some of these folks look askance at [...]

Posted on December 20th, 2010 by Miryam Ehrlich Williamson
Filed under: Economic Justice, Senate, Social Justice | 2 Comments »

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson I’ve spent the better part of this week researching the WikiLeaks affair, particularly as it relates to the publication of messages that put the State Department in an embarrassing light. My instinct told me this is important to the future of our country – more important than any of the issues [...]

Posted on December 17th, 2010 by Miryam Ehrlich Williamson
Filed under: Justice, Media, Politics and Political Issues, Society and Culture, State Department | 3 Comments »