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“We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt”
A fitting economic metaphor for our times, from the famous 1963 speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the great moral teacher of the American 20th century. Black Power icons such as Assata Shakur, so hallowed by today’s politicized hip-hop artists and others, have worked hard to discredit King’s vision as a course of meekness, of do-nothing, of turn-the-other-cheek. It’s
The call of conscience
Lasantha Wickramatunga, editor of Sri Lanka’s Sunday Leader, has been gunned down by assassins on motorcycles. Steve Coll has published a long, extraordinary statement from Wickramatunga in anticipation of his own death: It is well known that I was on two occasions brutally assaulted, while on another my house was sprayed with machine-gun fire. Despite the government’s sanctimonious assurances, there was never a
Doings
I’m working on an essay for Z Word about jazz and politics in the 00’s. I’m also dealing with the fact that my new MacBook Pro will connect wirelessly to the Internet only when it is not sitting on my desk. So my posting, and my attention to current events, may remain a little light in the coming days. Like
On Noah Preminger
My preview of tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger at the Jazz Standard (Wednesday, Jan. 21), in the current Time Out New York.
New York @ Night: January 2009
January marks my return to All About Jazz-New York as one of four New York @ Night columnists. This month: short reviews of Harris Eisenstadt’s quintet at Cornelia Street and Jon Irabagon at Tribeca PAC.
On Joshua Redman
My review of Joshua Redman’s double-trio CD Compass, in the current issue of Time Out New York. [Update: I was just alerted to an event featuring Redman and Gary Giddins in conversation: Joshua Redman & Gary GiddinsFriday, January 16, 2009 6:30 pm – 8:00 pmElebash Recital HallThe Graduate Center, CUNY365 Fifth Ave (at 34th St)Free and open to the public —
A concluding thought
As I’ve said, there’s little point to debating a moral illiterate like Gabriel Ash, who writes fan letters to the Iranian Supreme Leader. But his take on Iraqi sanctions requires a brief comment. Anyone who states, as Ash does, that “the U.S. led sanctions regime consisted in murdering children as a policy tool,” and who holds Saddam’s regime not one
Rosen PPS
I hadn’t seen Norm’s dissection of Nir Rosen before I wrote mine. It’s worth reading, and this line sums it up: [Rosen] has a moral argument he wants to make on the subject of attacking civilians and he makes it, but under cover of denying the resources of moral argument on that subject to everyone but the weak. His argument