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RECENT PAUL LOEB ARTICLES
To be added to Paul Loeb's mailing list, receive his articles regularly (about once a month), and find out when his new books are released, please email sympa@lists.onenw.orgwith the subject line: subscribe paulloeb-articles
I send some additional pieces only to educators, so if you’re a college or K-12 educator, please email instead to sympa@lists.onenw.org with the subject line:
subscribe paulloeb-articleseduArticles appear chronologically, most recent first, but you can go directly to a good overview of The Impossible, of Soul, or on Teaching for Engagement. My newspaper articles tend to be aimed at more of a general audience, while the online ones are aimed more at people already engaged in social justice movements. Both are more topical and specific issue oriented than my general talks, which focus more on civic engagement: If you'd like to see the discussions that have followed some of the articles, the best place is probably the Huffington Post archive of my work.
[I've been doing a lot of election pieces lately, because it's such a critical deicsion, but will soon switch back to more general themes of citizen involvement and some of my new writing on the cultural/political aspects of global climate change]
Did Clinton Win Ohio on a Lie? How the American media profoundly mishandled the manufactured "NAFTAgate" story, and how it likely swung the Ohio primary.Obama & Clinton: Who's More Likely To Confront Global Warming The key role of citizen movements in confronting this ultimate issue.
Behind Obama's Wave of Victories: To Know Him is to.... Unpacking the polls on Obama's February momentum
Obama and the Youth Vote The implications of the youth vote for a long-term Democratic majorityWhy This Edwards Voter is Backing Obama
Does Clinton Cross Ethical Lines? How the Clinton campaign has repeatedly crossed ethical lines, and what this portends.
Hillary Clinton and the Ghosts of 2006. How Hillary Clinton squandered $52 million, the second largest amount ever, on a 2006 race she could have won in her pajamas
(The Baltimore Sun)Hillary Clinton and the Politics of Disappointment. How Hillary Clinton risks splitting the Democratic coalition even if she wins. (Lead Huffington Post article, Seattle Times, and also did Thom Hartmann's national Air America show on it and local interviews in New York City, Los Angeles, Portland and a statwide NPR show in Utah).
Pre-Empting the Next War How the Senate just opened the door to potential war with Iran, and how we can close that door by insisting they assert their constititonal right that attacking another country requires their explicit permission. Related piece on Hillary Clinton's Iran vote- The Phrase That Might Defeat Hillary Clinton
Wild Weather Creates Chances for Political Progress. How the recent surge of extreme weather events may create new political openings to act on global climate change.
Responsible Investment: Gates Foundation and the California Model Why the Gates Foundation and other major foundtions and pension programs should follow the socially responsible lead of California's massive public retirement system, CalPERS. From the Seattle Times.The Haircut That Won't Die Why the media focuses on non-issues like the cost of John Edwards's haircuts, and how Edwards and other candidates can respond. From Yahoo News
Target Gobal Warming, Target Exxon How Exxon funded key global warming deniers and why an active boycott makes sense. Foreign Policy in Focus
Fraudulent Firings The audacity of Bush claiming that the Justice Department was concerned with election fraud when they fired the U.S. Attorneys. From the Baltimore Sun
A Storm of Denial The cost of media not linking catastrophic local weather events with global climate change. Example of a Seattle storm of the century that left over a million people without power and heat. From Earth Island Journal
Hillary Clinton & My Visa Bill Grassroots volunteerism vs Hillary's squandering of scarce resources in the 2006 election. South Florida-Sun Sentinel, Riverside Press Enterprise, etc
Don't Fear a Filibuster Why the Democrats shouldn't fear a filibuster on the minimum wage bill and other bills with broad popular support.
Gerald Ford's Failures of Nerve How Ford's burying his reservations about Iraq parallels the Nixon Pardon. Seattle Times
How the Democrats Can Keep the Youth Vote Major shifts in the youth vote and the politics of student financial aid. (Expanded from letter in USA Today)
Think Globally, Protect the Vote Locally How local voter protection efforts can help ensure fair elections. TheNation.com
Foley's Meltdown: The Seductions of Clicking
How we get seduced into believing that just clicking on petitions or forwarding email equals politics.
Grassroots Matching Grants: My Five Mnutes as a Donor
Thoughts on the Democratic National Commitee's innovative challenge to have ordinary citizens match the grants of others..War at Home: The Seattle Shooting. Reflections on the shootings at my local Seattle Jewish Federation, and on Lebanon and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. From Seattle Times, Portland Oregonian, Riverside Press Enterprise, Detroit Jewish News, and others
The Fugitive Girl Act
Parallels between the Fugitive Slave Act and the recent bill barring minors from out-of-state abortions
Global Warming, Local Hope Hope from local cities taking the lead on global warming. Common Dreams, Working For Change etcThe Lamont Victory--Next Steps for Citizens How citizens throughout the country can act in the wake of Ned Lamont's underdog victory. Huffington Post etc
Joe Lieberman's Loyalties Why Joe's first value, alas, is to look out for Joe. Huffington Post, Common Dreams, South Florida Sun Sentinel, etcAn Inconvenient Video Game Idea to make a video game out of Gore's powerful movie. Huffington Post, Grist, Wired News
Out of the Shadows Seattle's immigrant rights march and the politics of immigration. From CommonDreams, Huffington Post, etc
Enron's Good Fight The ethic of Enron. Huffington Post, Yahoo news etc
Dying for Nixon, Dying for Bush Growing parallels between Nixon and Bush, Iraq and Vietnam. TomPaine.com, Common Dreams, Huffington Post, etc
Alito and Extraordinary Circumstances Why changing political circumstances would have given an Alito filibuster a chance of succeeding. Linked with the follow up pieces Filibustering Evasion, and Roberts and Alito: Evasion Confirmed, on how Democrats could have responded in the wake of the hearings. From TomPaine.com, HuffingtonPost, Tikkun, CommonDreams, DemocraticUnderground, etcThe Real Rosa Parks Originally in the Los Angeles Times
My most reprinted op-ed--on the myth that Parks came into involvement out of nowherePrecarious Lives On why individual solutions to hard times don't work. Fort Worth Star Telegram, Huffington Post and others
Drowning the Hard Questions: Questions missing from NOVA's documentary on New Orleans. Huffington Post & others
Hard Conversations About the Big Easy. Why community conversations about New Orleans matter even more now that the disaster is receding from the headlines.
911 & Katrina Why the New Orleans disaster is even more consequential than the 9/11 attacks, and the lessons we need to heed. Earth Island Journal
Paul Allen's Other Yacht The Estate Tax, massive wealth and New Orleans. From the Detroit Free Press
Speaking Truth to Roberts. Why challenging Judge Roberts matters even if the odds seem stacked in his favor. From the Huffington Post and other sites.
The Enemy of our Enemy May be the Enemy of Democracy Why an Alberto Gonzales Supreme Court nomination should be opposed even if the religious right is also against him. From the Huffington Post and other sites.
They Died for Their Country Reflections on dying for your country, for noble and ignoble causes. From www.tomdispatch.com, CommonDreams.org, Workingforchange.com, etc
More Damning Than Downing St What it means that we were effectively fighting a war on Iraq even before the Congressional vote. From the Boston Globe & San Francisco Chronicle
Extraordinarily Rancid Justice Why the confirmation of justices Owens, Pryor and Brown suggests the "nuclear option" compromise is a moral failure. From CommonDreams.org, Workingforchange.com, etc
Nuking Democracy
The parallel between those willing to wage winnable nuclear wars and those willing to destroy 200 years of Senate procedures to ram through right win judges.Abortion & Schaivo--The Stories We Tell
A longer version of a USA Today article of mine on why support for death with dignity has increased while support for abortion choice has plateaued or declined.The Impossible Will Take a Little While Post-election overview of hope in a time of fear, adapted from the book's introduction. Parts appeared earlier in The Nation
Shut Up and Color: The Politics of Bullying, TomPaine.com How the Bush administration is threatening democracy with the politics of bullying.
Time to Act
From Experience Life magazine, reprinted in Hope Magazine.
How increased time pressures make it hard to act as a citizen.Lootocracy
How Bush is turning the US into a Lootocracy, where the rule of plunder is all that matters.
From www.democraticunderground.com, www.workingforchange.com and www.zmag.orgThe Hundredth Volunteer--how the actions of ordinary citizens can make the key electoral difference. Workingforchange.com & CommonDreams.org
Invisible Casualties www.workingforchange.com and Organica Magazine. Why some crises and tragedies seem real, but not others.
A Thousand Points of Hype, Christian Science Monitor
The hypocrisy in Bush's embrace of Americans volunteeringBreaking the Cycle of Vengeance, from the book America's Tragedy, a Spiritual Response
My reflections on the World Trade Center attack
A Final Plea to Nader SupportersThe Unforeseen Fruits of Hope, TomPaine.com and www.commondreams.org. On how citizen movements produce unexpected fruits of hope.
The Lone Ranger of Righteousness From www.alternet.org Why Ralph Nader running is a terrible idea.
Dean and Kucinich My thoughts on Dean vs Kucinich. From www.workingforchange.comHope out of Quagmire: New Peace Movement Opportunities
www.tompaine.com, www.Utne.com, and www.commondreams.org
How shifting polls offer new opportunities for the peace movement to once again become a national forceReclaiming Hope: The Peace Movement After the War www.sojo.net
How to overcome the demoralization that many of us felt in the wake of the Iraq war.Stopping the Next War. www.workingforchange.com How the peace movement should act now that Bush has gone to war with Iraq. And how we can keep on acting no matter what happens.
The War and our Role as Educators
How we as educators can respond to raise the real questions as the war begins. Some of this is still relevant now that it's ended.Reclaiming our Courage www.workingforchange.com How social justice activists can reclaim courage and hope in this difficult political time.
Which Deaths do we Mourn? Seattle Times Why we mourn the lives of dead astronauts more than all the other needless deaths we allow to happen. [Some overlap with Invisible Casualties]
Stopping the Confederate Charge Atlanta Journal-Constitution Why Maine's Senators should learn from the courage of the Maine troops who turned the Gettysburg tide--and stop our current neo-Confederates.
Volunteer and Vote www.workingforchange.com Why we need to overcome our disappointments and do more than just vote.
Making our Voices Heard www.workingforchange.com. How to keep acting against war in Iraq, even after Bush's Congressional victory.
Patriotic Ballads, www.workingforchange.com Different views of what it means to be a patriot..
Teaching for Engagement, Academe
Adapted from conference talks and workshops I've been giving nationwide for faculty and staff--how to teach in a way that helps nurture future citizensAn Alternative to Silence
WWW.Workingforchange.com How to respond politically in the wake of the 911 attacks, including to divisions within the Bush administration.The Money Defense Shield, Christian Science Monitor
The money politics of the missile defense program
The Perils of Civility, Christian Science Monitor
Impact of the Democrats caving and confirming John Ashcroft. How they can challenge George Bush without recreating Newt Gingrich's scorched-earth politicsNo Second Chances, www.commondreams.com
How a president who built his career on unearned breaks is creating a regime of no second chances.
Public Squalor Betrays Our Nation's Soul, Los Angeles Times
How Bush cut earthquake preparedness funding the morning of the Seattle earthquake. what this and his proposed tax cuts say about our national priorities.The WTO Protests, Organica
New possibilities of hope from the WTO protests
A Big Con for the Democrats, Christian Science Monitor
How the vote supporting permanent favorable trade status for China was guaranteed to fracture the Democratic coalition.Why I'm holding my nose and voting for Gore, circulated on the Internet. My own last-minute election pitch. Wish it had gotten out just a bit more widely, particularly in Florida.
Uncivil Justice, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Article on the politics of civility, taking off from a speech by Clarence ThomasSoul of a Citizen, Utne Reader
Cover story excerpt: from Soul of a Citizen: the best single overview of the book.