Democracy
For a democracy to function as such requires more than elections, it requires government officials who work for the benefit of all, media that hold government accountable, and people who take an active interest in the way things are done.
Elaine Scarry’s excellent article in the February/March 2004 Boston Review points out that the United States was founded on the premise that government is accountable to the people, not the other way around: ‘The double requirement—that people’s lives be private and government actions be public—is turned inside out by government surveillance & data mining programs.
Echoes from the 1960s
Billionaire George Soros recently warned that the world capitalist system faced the potential of massive street violence—if not collapse. Mainstream discourse has failed to give due credence to the most widely shared argument of Occupiers: our democracy is broken, corporations … more
What Part Is Labor Playing in the Transition?
Working class. Ahhh… it’s refreshing to hear such culturally repressed language out in the open once again. A photo of an energetic, determined Occupy Wall Street march is posted on “The End of Capitalism” website, accompanying an article by David … more
Social Research | Social Justice Conference
A unique and excellent addition to the Lehigh Valley’s offerings, the Social Research Social Justice Conference began in 2003 as a collaboration between faculty and students in the Department of Media and Communication at Muhlenberg College, with the goal to … more
Social Research | Social Justice 2012 – Student Presentations
April 13, 2012, Moyer Hall (Muhlenberg College) More information 9:00 – 9:30 a.m. Continental Breakfast Mendham Gallery 9:30 – 10:40 a.m. RESEARCH SESSION I PANEL ONE: Framing Discourses of Popular Media: Gender and Sexuality [Moderator: Kate Richmond, Muhlenberg College] Melissa Pieller, … more
MLK’s Final Speech
I Have Been to the Mountaintop Martin Luther King, Jr. April 3, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee “Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy in his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered … more
MLK: Breaking the Silence
Dr. King gave this talk nearly 45 years ago, but it seems remarkably applicable today if you replace the name Viet Nam with Iraq, Iran, or the Middle East. And despite our ast resources, we have made little progress against … more
Corporate Pledge of Allegiance
[by Robert Reich – Tuesday, November 8, 2011] Despite what the Supreme Court and Mitt Romney say, corporations aren’t people. (I’ll believe they are when Georgia and Texas start executing them.) The Court thinks corporations have First Amendment rights to spend … more
Occupy Wall Street’s Moral Ground
By Kathleen Moore in Yes! Magazine, November 1, 2011] Much of the Occupy movement’s power comes from a simple moral message: It’s wrong to wreck the world. It’s wrong to wreck the health and hopes of others. The Occupy Wall … more
Statement from the NYC General Assembly
Following is the first collective statement from the New York City General Assembly, issued October 5 2011. As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. … more
Tim DeChristopher’s Statement to the Court
Grist | 27 Jul 2011—Before being sentenced on various charges involving a Bureau of Land Management auction of oil leases, Tim DeChristopher addressed the prosecution and the judge. Here’s what he had to say: Thank you for the opportunity to speak … more