Media time killers

Sam Smith - Watching Andrea Mitchell drone on about the post-Breyer Supreme Court reminded me of a media problem that gets virtually no attention: all day news channels have to fill all their days with news, or an imitation of it. Analyzing who is going to replace Breyer is of magnificent assistance in this  since …

The dysfunctional family known as America

Sam Smith 2015 - It is hard to think of a time in modern history when there have been so few prominent figures - in politics, academia, business or the media - who seemed worthy of trust, let alone admiration. Consider the matter of fact manner in which much of the major media treats ethical …

Humphrey Bogart and me

Humphrey Bogart and me  Sam Smith – The only successful movement of which your editor was a part back in the 1950s was one that contributed to the revival of the movie Casablanca, now celebrating its 80th birthday, and its hero, Humphrey Bogart. As exams intruded on our lives at Harvard, more than a few …

A Poitier film worth watching

Sam Smith – With the passing of Sidney Poitier, my wife and I pulled up one of his films, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, which co-starred Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy (who would die 17 days after his part was recorded). The 1967 film about interethnic marriage was not only a comedic delight, it illustrated …

Bits from the past: Living east of the Capitol in the 1960s

Sam Smith - In my 1960s neighborhood east of the US Capitol, the Age of Aquarius often looked more like a war zone. Many of the people there were not part of a counter-culture but of an abandoned culture. Even the jukebox at the Stanton Grill -- purveyors of Greek and American food to white …

Some ways to stop the GOP attack on democracy

Sam Smith – The rise in Trumpism is due I no small part to changes that have occurred in the Democratic Party and liberal polilcies in recent decades. Here are a few changes that could be made before the 2022 elections: Stop attacking whites. There are more whites in poverty than there are blacks in …

Our biggest subcultures

 Sam Smith – Starting with the presidency of Ronald Reagan, America began to turn its back on the New Deal and Great Society and develop two powerful subcultures. One consists of the destructively dominant, those who have the money and strength to gain power while ignoring the needs of others. The other is the dysfunctionally …

The strangest thing about our ethnic relations

 Sam Smith – The strangest thing about ethnic relations in this country is the lack of organizations and movements pushing not only anti-racism, but also helping our different cultures actually like and get along with each other. Imagine if the major standard for marriage was just opposition to anti-feminism, righteous as that is. Or if …

The brevity of history

Sam Smith – As I enjoy my eighth decade on this planet, one thing that has struck me is that so much  of what happened in the not so distant past seems to have disappeared from the public consciousness. I mention someone or some event from a couple of decades ago and and I get …

Getting started in alternative journalism

Sam Smith – After graduating from college, I found work in a basement office of a row house on New Jersey Avenue SE, a few blocks from the Capitol. Out of this long, sunken, slovenly one-room den qua office was published Roll Call, a weekly paper for those thousands who worked on Capitol Hill. In …

How about a new religion?

Sam Smith - The decline of morality in America - typified these days by Trumpism - actually has a variety of sources including corporatism, the media and educational systems that teach success but increasingly ignore moral issues. The Ethics Sage lists some of the problems: "Mass shootings, racial hatred, social injustice, incivility, fraud, and White …

Blending the past with the present

 Sam Smith - Attendance at history museums plummeted nearly 70% in 2020, thanks to the pandemic. Even in the best of times, though, history is not the easiest topic to gain broad interest, especially in an era in which it is given minor importance in public education and the media.  I've been married to a …

Making liberalism appealing again

Sam Smith - When I first read about critical race theory, my reaction was, "there they go again." Not because I disagreed with the substance of history but that now was just not the time to try to make the rotten past a political tool. Sure enough, it seems to have been a factor in …

Lies on the rise

Sam Smith - The rise of someone as evil and dishonest as Donald Trump reflects decades of change in the moral culture of our land. As in a mob controlled society truth has become just one more device to distort or destroy not as a rare presumed necessity but as a repeated aspect of life. …

Positive ethnic theory

Sam Smith - Lately I've been struggling with the obsession of the media and academia over the evils of past ethnic relations, not because they didn't exist but because they are given such priority over present solutions that it actually makes me feel depressed about the future. A lot of this comes from the culture …