The New(est) Dispensation of Kentucky’s Domain of Greed, Power, and Corruption

My institution, The University of Kentucky, continues to receive national media coverage for the embarrassments that take place on campus and in its administrative meetings.  Our latest shameful news is that the University Board of Trustees met today to discuss whether or not they would accept Joe Craft’s proposed gift of $7 million and the [...]

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Rejecting Nobel’s Audacity of Hope

This article appears in North of Center.  I hope everyone in the downtown Lexington area picks up a copy.
Rejecting Nobel’s Audacity of Hope:  Why We Should Not Appreciate Barack Obama’s Peace Prize
When the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that it would give President Barack Obama the 2009 Peace Prize, I, like many people, reacted bitterly.  Having [...]

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Two Plugs: Sheehan and Pease

This weekend, famed voice for peace and activist Cindy Sheehan will visit Lexington.  She’ll be available at various events and locations this weekend, including a free talk at Transylvania University on Friday, September 12, 7:00 pm, and an appearance at Morris Book  Shop on Southland Drive (the next day, Saturday, between 3 and 4 pm).  [...]

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When Washington Lobbies Pony Up for Budding Photojournalists

The past few days I’ve been in Washington DC at a Campus Progress training summit.  We’ve been talking about effective journalism, writing good ledes, weighing the ethics of journalism against the challenges of being a college student, and other important facets of the profession.
One of my assignments is to take some digital photographs and construct [...]

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Payday Advances

Some time last year I wrote a post about the roots of our consumer credit crisis and the subprime mortgage crisis. In that post, I likened the predatory lending and ultimate greed that caused our financial demise to the national behavior of Judah in the Eighth Century B.C.E.  The biblical poet Amos, writing during that [...]

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An Evening with the Mountain Keepers

On April 9, the University of Kentucky Writing Program is sponsoring “An Evening with the Mountainkeepers,” the germinal event in the WP Community Engagement Series.  The festivities begin at 6 PM in the UK Student Center Ballroom.  It’s a free event that is open to the public.

The fundamental premise behind this event is that public [...]

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The Spirit of Sacrifice

Tomorrow is a day to celebrate the life and message of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Each year when this day approaches, I think about an article I read a couple years ago, “Missing Martin,” which classifies King as one of our antisceptic heroes.  Too often in our society, King’s message has been emasculated, even [...]

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Peace and Protest: Objections to Goshen College

It’s been a few weeks since this small media ruckus developed, but I want to comment on it nonetheless.
On November 10, the nationally syndicated conservative talk radio host Mike Gallagher aired a segment in which he noted that Goshen College, a small Mennonite institution near South Bend, IN, refrains from singing the United States’ national [...]

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A City Built Upon a Hill? Political Rhetoric, Imperialism, and American Exceptionalism

On our Election Day last month, I woke up, put on my sandals and a jacket, and walked across the street to cast my vote in the presidential election. My expression of democratic freedom marked the end of a three month stretch, in which I along with many others have been saturated with blather [...]

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25 News Stories that Need More Coverage

Of late I have become an avid listener of NPR’s On the Media. As good as this program is in holding our corporate media accountable, it still pales in comparison to Project Censored, a longstanding independent study of U.S. media.  The project, which is run by students and faculty at Sonoma State University, seeks to [...]

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