Today's music only echoes what it once meant

I blame Elvis.

With Chuck Berry, Little Richard and other icons from rock's first generation, he pioneered an incendiary idea: that music could be more than a medium of entertainment, that it could and should also be a tool of cultural revolution. It was not, after all, just music that moved town fathers to ban rock concerts and angry men with sledgehammers to smash jukeboxes containing rock records.

Video sting shows ACORN has indeed gone nuts

The radical activist group ACORN is the E.F. Hutton of prostitution. It stands ready to provide discreet advice on setting up a brothel and engaging in other, associated acts of criminality. When ACORN talks, pimps and hookers listen.

Opposition to Obama is blind to his color, race

When Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, some suggested that race played a factor in his success. People "wanted" to elect a black man president because of our history of slavery and the denial of civil rights for so many years to African-Americans. It is never "racism" to vote for someone because he is black. It is only racism to oppose the policies of a black Democrat.

One flew over the health care reform

Watching the health care debate unfold these days is a little like watching scenes from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" - the ones showing a collage of strung-out, deranged or otherwise incapacitated patients rotting away in a squalid psychiatric ward.

Lies, and the lying liars who lie about them

Wouldn't it be nice, as The Beach Boys sang in another context, if there was such a thing as a liar meter? It would detect when a politician wasn't telling the truth and alert the public. In the absence of such an invention, we are left to challenge our political leadership based on an objective look at the facts.

A crucial month for Afghanistan

The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Sunday, Sept. 6:

Within weeks, the top American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is expected ask President Barack Obama for a new infusion of troops. That already has his White House divided: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leans toward deploying more U.S. warriors; Vice President Joseph Biden leans against.

Make L-A into a hockey town

The opening of the Lewiston Maineiacs season this weekend marks what many hope is a new era in this community. After the movements of the last year, many didn't believe this level of hockey would exist here come fall.

As attendance fluttered and money issues came to the forefront near the end of last season, the team sought to move. The city of Lewiston had invested several million dollars into some improvements since the team had come to town and, within the previous year, sold the Androscoggin Bank Colisee to a professional management firm.

Postcard from Los Angeles

Locals sometimes refer to Lewiston-Auburn as the "other L.A.," a self-deprecating phrase that contrasts our perceived insignificance with the behemoth size, glitz and dynamism of Los Angeles.

Having traveled to California's L.A. late last month, I can state categorically that Maine's L-A has no reason to be defensive. If Lewiston-Auburn is viewed as a stagnant New England mill town struggling to re-invent itself, Los Angeles is the poster child for explosive, but shortsighted and often self-destructive, growth.

Performance Rights Act would hurt local radio

When MTV signed on in August 1981, the first video it aired was the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star." Neither MTV nor video has yet killed off radio, but a proposal floating around Congress may do just that.

Health care should not be a privilege

Recently, I celebrated 20 years of remission from cancer. I call this day my "re-birthday" because I got my second chance at life and I can't help thinking how lucky I am to be here.

'Culture war" is not just a figure of speech

I don't know who coined the term "culture war" to describe our political divisions, but I'm reasonably sure he or she intended it only as a figure of speech.

It feels like something else in light of a new report from the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremist groups. "Terror From the Right" is a listing of bombers, killers, would-be assassins and insurrectionists motivated by anger over abortion, gays, taxes, blacks, Muslims and illegal immigrants.

How to give an Obama speech in 13 easy steps

Everyone marvels at Barack Obama's rhetorical prowess. But don't be overly bedazzled. With these 13 easy steps, you, too, can give a Barack Obama speech.

1) Create a false center. In his speech to a joint session of Congress, Obama positioned himself between the left calling for a single-payer system and the right agitating to end employer-based health insurance. Presto — he's the very definition of a centrist. Anyone advocating almost any position can benefit from the same insta-centrism.

'Trigger mechanism' would prevent public option

Live chat: Political Animals talk health care

Health care reform is boiling down to words: public option. The Political Animals, Will Fessenden and Scott Lansley think it's a great idea ... or a big mistake.

Join the Animals today (Sept. 14) at noon for a live chat about health care, here on sunjournal.com.

Bigotry takes the form of a chunk of concrete

 

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Your blues, author BeBe Moore Campbell famously wrote, ain't like mine.

I've occasionally borrowed that phrase to explain how bigotry as experienced by majority and minority is not the same: the one has access to levers of power enabling it to express its hatred in public policy, the other has access only to fists and words. But there are times that observation is simultaneously true, and irrelevant. This is one of them.

A sacrifice for service

This week marked the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. Whether it was in the newspaper, on the Facebook pages of your friends, or over the radio, nearly every media outlet available in this 21st century world offered coverage, insights and remembrances of that day.

National Dirigo Health? No way.

Congress had a raucous recess this time around, suffice to say. Most representatives and senators went back to their districts to hold town hall meetings with constituents concerning reforming the health care "crisis."

Liberal judge rules against girl's rights

Who wrote the following: "We must learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think about 'unthinkable things' because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless."

A "right-wing extremist" didn't write these words, nor did a cable TV or radio talk show host. Sen. J. William Fulbright, the late Arkansas liberal Democratic senator and Bill Clinton mentor, wrote them in his 1966 book, "Arrogance of Power."

Pharmacies are the face of health care

When it comes to health care, President Barack Obama and members of Congress would do well to take an example from the American people: When faced with a problem with nowhere to turn, trust the pharmacy. The same pharmacy qualities that appeal to patients offer promise to policymakers searching for truly nonpartisan solutions amid one of the more heated debates in recent history.

Public option is the American spirit.

Some estimates suggest there are 40 million Americans who are uninsured; many more thousands are "underinsured." As the debate about health insurance rages, these 40 million Americans have the most to lose and are suffering.

Those fighting against a public option or some version of government run health care are participating in classism. Failure to pass health care reform with a public option simply increases the wedge between those that "have" and those that "have not."

Reform must preserve funding for elderly, disabled

Reforming America's health care system is proving to be a complex and arduous task. As the administrator of Clover Health Care in Auburn, I know that the effort by Congress for extensive reform that will increase every American's access to affordable, high-quality health care is essential. But, I also know that it is equally important that we achieve this objective in a way that ensures that Maine's most vulnerable citizens are not bearing an undue burden in the process.

Public schools in need of massive overhaul

Brandi Scheiner believes she is a political prisoner. Held against her will in what is euphemistically dubbed a "rubber room," Scheiner, 56, likens her two-year captivity to being imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. Alas, it's unlikely the Red Cross will hear her case.

She's a New York City public school teacher who, like about 600 fellow NYC teachers, has been removed from the classroom for alleged incompetence or other charges that include being drunk in the classroom or molesting students.

More aid experts needed in Afghanistan

The debate is heating up over whether we should send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan if our commanders request them. However, there's virtually no debate over the need for a "civilian surge" in Afghanistan.

Top administration officials — and the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal — say they need more American civilian experts to create jobs and improve the lives of Afghans. If we can't "hold and build" after clearing an area, young Afghans will continue to join the Taliban for a paycheck.

Israel again pressured to make concessions

HBO showed the film "Schindler's List" last week. The 1993 Steven Spielberg movie never ceases to arouse my deepest emotions. The perennial question put forth in the film remains: How could people wantonly kill so many others as a matter of state policy? This is more than history, however. There are those who would gladly "finish the job" the Nazis started.

Children get a lesson in political rancor

Well, that was close.