Category Archives: Social Commentary

November 7, 2010 · 10:46 am

A Duchess With a Common Touch – NYTimes.com

Great NY Times article about Deborah, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire. She was one of the famous society Mitford Girls and became quite a businesswoman.

YEARS after the fact, Deborah, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, looked in her mother’s engagement book to see what had been written on the momentous day of March 31, 1920.

Nothing.

“She didn’t refer to my birth at all,” the duchess said. “There was nothing for five days, and then, on the fifth day, in capital letters, it said ‘KITCHEN CHIMNEY SWEPT.’ ”

“No one took any notice of me except Nanny.”

Maybe so, but not for long. Now 90, the duchess is doubly famous. First, as the lone survivor of the six celebrated Mitford girls, who included Nancy (the renowned comic novelist), Diana (the renowned beauty and wife of the fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley) and Jessica (the renowned Communist, author and naturalized American). Second, as the woman who transformed Chatsworth, one of the grandest of England’s grand houses, from a museumlike relic into a family house and self-sustaining business that is visited by 600,000 people a year. Along the way, Deborah Cavendish, to use her civilian name (her friends call her Debo), has become something of a national treasure, as grand as the queen but as approachable as anyone, effortlessly bridging the gap between Us and Them in this perennially class-conscious society.

via The Saturday Profile – A Duchess With a Common Touch – NYTimes.com.

Oscar-nominated actress Jill Clayburgh dies at 66

Jill Clayburgh was one of my favorite actresses. She was such a critical part of the 1970’s film scene with her signature role in “An Unmarried Woman”. I always thought she should have won the Oscar for that part…I will miss her. I was looking forward to many more years of her work…

Jill Clayburgh, whose Broadway and Hollywood acting career stretched through the decades, highlighted by her Oscar-nominated portrayal of a divorcee exploring her sexuality in the 1978 film “An Unmarried Woman,” died Friday. She was 66.

Her husband, Tony Award-winning playwright David Rabe, said she died after a 21-year battle with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. She was surrounded by her family and brother when she died at her home in Lakeville, Conn., he said.

She dealt with the disease courageously, quietly and privately, Rabe said, and conducted herself with enormous grace “and made it into an opportunity for her children to grow and be human.”

Clayburgh, alongside peers such as Anne Bancroft, Shirley MacLaine and Jane Fonda, helped to usher in a new era for actresses in Hollywood by playing women who were confident and capable yet not completely flawless. Her turn as a mother dealing with life after 16 years of marriage in “An Unmarried Woman” earned Clayburgh her first Oscar nod.

“There was practically nothing for women to do on the screen in the 1950s and 1960s,” Clayburgh said in an interview with The Associated Press while promoting “An Unmarried Woman” in 1978. “Sure, Marilyn Monroe was great, but she had to play a one-sided character, a vulnerable sex object. It was a real fantasy.”

The next year, Clayburgh was again nominated for an Academy Award for “Starting Over,” a comedy about a divorced man, played by Burt Reynolds, who falls in love but can’t get over his ex-wife.

via Oscar-nominated actress Jill Clayburgh dies at 66 – Yahoo! News.

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Filed under Broadway, Entertainment, Movies, New York, Social Commentary, Television, Theatre

November 5, 2010 · 8:52 pm

Finding A Place For Colored Boys : Tell Me More : NPR

I have mixed feelings about seeing this film. I loved the play, but Tyler Perry scares me….

I’ve hated all his movies up until now. To me, he has played the worst black stereotypes for a lot of cash.

But I think I will go see this film. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

This article makes a very good point. Why hasn’t someone written the black male point of view? I would love to see that, too…

Or maybe Essex Hemphill or other writers wrote it, but it has yet to be filmed…

This is a gap in popular culture I would like to see explored outside of the world of E. Lynn Harris, the black, male Jacqueline Susann.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

I’ve already seen For Colored Girls.

I was slightly coerced (pushed!) by my colleagues to accompany fabulous Tell Me More host Michel Martin to a screening the other day.

But I’m thinking, “here we go again.”

The last thing I wanted (or needed) to see was another film that painted the black man as society’s stammering uber-demon, who comes to steal, kill and destroy; or another project that portrays black men as this nation’s perpetual delinquents — jobless, thoughtless sexual misfits who can’t stop screwing long enough to pick our heads up and realize how we’re letting down our women, our children and families, our God and our America.

Hide your kids, hide your wife, and hide your husbands, too … (you know the rest).

Quite frankly, it’s a narrative I’ve had enough of, thank you very much.

In For Colored Girls, yes, there is a disproportionate number of troubled black men. There is one redemptive male character who isn’t a killer, a rapist, or a liar.

But although the movie (I never saw the stage version) is basically the story of black women who are — in awful ways — victimized by black men, it is also very much the story of black women, pressing through the grit and gravel of life and finding a hope and place of vulnerability that they can depend on. And that’s a beautiful thing.

I left the screening with Michel disturbed, for many reasons. It was, partially, because the film was so emotionally intense. But I was also disturbed thinking about how the men in For Colored Girls — although perpetrators — had struggles, too.

Where was their healing, their resilience? Where is the window into that pain? And who’s telling that story?

I feel blessed to have a motley circle of friends. And, specifically, among my black male “homeboys,” there is no shortage of issues among us. One good friend is a self-described “flaming heterosexual,” for whom dating (and mating) is like a sport. Another is navigating his way through his own sexuality — in the closet some days, out and proud on others. One was sexually abused as a youngster. Another grew up with an absent mother. And another suddenly lost his father at a critical time in his life.

We all have issues, and we’re working through them daily — sometimes selfishly, and not so wisely. And I believe (scratch that, I know) that among us, we’ve at times “fit the profile” of destructive black men, and caused others (including the women we love) a portion of pain.

My point? Hopefully one day, more narratives will unearth the delicate taboo of the wounded black male and his journey to find “god in himself.”

For Colored Boys? Right now, it remains unwritten, but that’s a story I’m waiting to see.

via Finding A Place For Colored Boys : Tell Me More : NPR.

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Filed under Broadway, Entertainment, Gay, Movies, Social Commentary, Style

November 3, 2010 · 10:21 pm

Obama suffering from failure of leadership – latimes.com

I hate to say it, but there is a lot of truth in this article. I encourage you to click the link and read the entire story.

President Obama entered office wrapped in a mantle of moral leadership. His call for change was rooted in values that had long been eclipsed in our public life: a sense of mutual responsibility, commitment to equality and belief in inclusive diversity. Those values inspired a new generation of voters, restored faith to the cynical and created a national movement.

Now, 18 months and an “enthusiasm gap” later, the nation’s major challenges remain largely unmet, and a discredited conservative movement has reinvented itself in a more virulent form.

This dramatic reversal is not the result of bad policy as such; the president made some real policy gains. It is not a consequence of a president who is too liberal, too conservative or too centrist. And it is not the doing of an administration ignorant of Washington’s ways. Nor can we honestly blame the system, the media or the public — the ground on which presidential politics is always played.

It is the result, ironically, of poor leadership choices.

Abandoning the “transformational” model of his presidential campaign, Obama has tried to govern as a “transactional” leader. These terms were coined by political scientist James MacGregor Burns 30 years ago. “Transformational” leadership engages followers in the risky and often exhilarating work of changing the world, work that often changes the activists themselves. Its sources are shared values that become wellsprings of the courage, creativity and hope needed to open new pathways to success. “Transactional” leadership, on the other hand, is about horse-trading, operating within the routine, and it is practiced to maintain, rather than change, the status quo.

The nation was ready for transformation, but the president gave us transaction. And, as is the case with leadership failures, much of the public’s anger, disappointment and frustration has been turned on a leader who failed to lead.

More: Obama suffering from failure of leadership – latimes.com.

Tom Perriello: A Note from a Class Act

Tom Perriello lost his re-election race last yesterday in my home district: Virginia 5. It is their loss. They failed to re-elect one of the most thougthful, dedicated, hard working, smart and honest men who ever served in the U.S. Congress.

Here is the note he sent today to his supporters. I’m proud to say I am one of those supporters who gave money and time to support him even though I no longer live in his district. We will hear more from Tom in the future. I’m convinced of that fact. He is too much of a dedicated public servant to just disappear.

I’m again ashamed of my home district that they chose to replace him with an empty- headed, Country Club Republican who’s sole qualification for office seems to be that he came from an “old Virginia Family.” I do hope one day Virginia joins the 21st Century.

Tom Perriello could have helped lead them there….

To those who chose Robert Hurt over Tom, I only have one thing to say: You should be ashamed of yourselves. You have hurt Southern Virginia and the U.S. Congress by replacing this outstanding man with a mediocrity.

Here is Tom’s note:

Dear Supporters,

This has been an awesome couple of years and couple of months. I promised you I would have your back against the powerful interests in Washington, and last night, you had mine. Even though we fell short of reelection, we defied the pundits in the roughest of political years. Because I come out of faith-based justice work instead of politics, I can see last night as a victory for conviction and hard work for the idea that when you fight for the people, the people win.

Consider this. We won Danville, Martinsville, Charlottesville, Albermarle, Prince Edward, Brunswick, Buckingham, and Nelson with stronger than expected turnout. Over 110,000 voters had our back last night. And when you compare us to other races across the state and nation, we dramatically outperformed others in “safer” districts and those where members had either dodged the tough votes or run away from them after. And we did not back away from this President when it would have been convenient, because in politics, I will stand with the problem solvers over the political game players any day.

Look at what else we have won. Because of our work together, we turned near-economic collapse into nine straight months of private sector job growth. Because of our work together, 1,800 homes in our district have been weatherized, putting people to work making $20 an hour. Because of our work together, over 20,000 young people in our district are getting more aid to afford college. Over 120 small business owners got the loans to live their American dream. And being a woman is no longer considered a pre-existing condition in this country. And because of our work together, Medicare is now solvent for a generation and beyond, and I do not believe any party will have the gall to roll that back.

I wake up this morning inspired by the people-powered, conviction politics we offered and the incredible results it produced. I feel bolstered by a team that understands real change does not happen with one election night victory or end with one loss. We shouldn’t have expected nirvana after our win in 2008 and we shouldn’t expect armageddon now. As I told the crowd last night, my father made me promise when I entered politics that I would always consider Judgement Day more important than election day, because doing what’s right is more important than winning elections. I believe he is smiling on us today, and that he is thankful for all of you who sacrificed so much to offer a better kind of politics in America.

Blessings,

Tom

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