The Public Professor

In 1999, I was charged with chauffeuring Texas singer/songwriter Butch Hancock about Lincoln, Nebraska for a couple of days.  As a graduate student, I had a research appointment at the Center for Great Plains Studies, and Hancock was in town as part of their annual conference, which that year focused the music.  Part of the deal was that he visited several schools and talked to the kids, and since I also had a weekly radio show at the local community station, I was tagged as one of the liaisons from academia to the musicians who were in town for the occasion.

I chaperoned Hancock to four schools in all, including one that was based in the Lincoln Zoo.  But encountering students who attended class amid a myriad of animals was not the most exotic experience for me during those couple of days.  Rather, it was when we entered one high school and found all of the kids sitting on the floor in the hallway at 11:00 in the morning.

I was at a complete loss.  But as a native of the Texas panhandle, Hancock just chuckled.  He immediately knew what was going on.

It was a tornado drill.  He’d grown up with them as well in the town of Lubbock.

The school sounds the alarm and all the kids move to the interior of the building, away from windows and exterior walls.  It’s kind of like a fire drill, but you stay indoors. Read more »

Filed under: Current Events | 1 Comment »

Filed under: Art for no Reason | No Comments »

On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirt Waist Company.  Occupying the top three floors of the supposedly fireproof Asch Building in lower Manhattan, Triangle Shirt Waist was a sweatshop owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris.  The workforce was composed almost entirely of young immigrant women, mostly Jews who had little education, spoke little English, and made little money.

It was late on a Saturday afternoon when the fire was first noticed.  The workers  had been winding down their standard six-day workweek, collecting their meager pay, and opening their purses and bags for mandatory inspection by the male managers.

When the fire broke out on the 8th floor, efforts to douse it failed; pails of water were no match and the emergency fire hose was broken.  The fire spread quickly as 180 panic-stricken workers looked for an exit.  A manager phoned the 10th floor, which housed salespeople and executives, including owners Blanck and Harris.  All but one of the people on the top floor were able to escape to the roof and the safety of an adjoining building.  But they did not warn the 250 workers on the 9th floor; all phone calls had to go through the switchboard on the 10th floor, which was now vacated.  Workers on the 9th remained unaware of the situation until the conflagration rose to meet them. Read more »

Filed under: American History, Current Events, Economy | 1 Comment »

What if the United States has already passed its peak and begun a slow decline?

Granted, that’s a mighty big IF.  It’s impossible to read the future.  But nothing lasts forever, and the United States will certainly cease to exist at some point.  And when that time comes, historians will look back in an effort to identify and analyze the causes.

It’s impossible to know the future, but thoughtful speculation can enlighten how we understand the present.  In that spirit, if the United States has turned a corner, I offer these four possible factors to explain its impending imperial decline.

Internal Political Dysfunction: Political dysfunction in the United States is a wide ranging problem.  Among the many issues, partisan gridlock wrenching the federal government has received much attention of late, and rightly so.

However, from the marbled halls of Washington, D.C. to the modestly carpeted offices of municipalities, counties, and townships, the major overarching problem in U.S. politics is the corrupting influence of money.

Getting elected has become an increasingly expensive proposition everywhere.  The necessity of raising substantial sums of money to win elections often leaves successful politicians beholden to various special interests.  And as the lobbying industry bears more and more impact, it is beginning to recede into the shadows, away from the light of day that nourishes healthy democracies.

Of course the United States, like most places, has a long history of government representing elite interests.  The founders created a republic that severely limited voting rights to the privileged and wealthy.  However, notions of republican virtue and national interest, which used to play a prominent role in American political culture, seem to be on the decline. Politicians increasingly serve private and even ideological interests instead of the citizenry or nation. Read more »

Filed under: American History, Culture, Politics, Society | 1 Comment »

Filed under: Art for no Reason | No Comments »

Filed under: Art for no Reason | No Comments »

Filed under: Art for no Reason | No Comments »

Three civilians, one police officer, and one suspect died during the bombing of the Boston Marathon and its aftermath.  More than 170 more were seriously injured, mostly from the blast.

The body count from the West Fertilizer Plant explosion in the town of West, Texas is still being calculated.  So far, there are fifteen confirmed deaths and over 200 injuries, in addition to the total immolation of the plant, and the destruction of an apartment building, a school, and at least eighty homes.  Many of the dead are first responders who fought the initial conflagration for thirty minutes before the plant went up like a megaton bomb, creating shock waves that were felt 80 miles away in Ft. Worth.

So why is it that these two events, which happened at roughly the same time, have received such substantially different news coverage?  Why was the entire nation focused on Boston for nearly a week, while the tragedy in West was practically ignored by comparison? Read more »

Filed under: Current Events, Media Matters | 3 Comments »

Filed under: Art for no Reason | Comments Off

Two days ago, I began writing a piece concerning my biggest fear about the Boston Marathon bombing.  But then I stopped.

It was all so speculative.  There weren’t yet any suspects, and wondering aloud just seemed irresponsible.  So instead I wrote a philosophical piece about the nature of humanity.

But now that we have two suspects, one dead and one on the lam, and we are starting to learn about them, I’m ready to finish and publish that piece.  Because it seems my biggest fear might be coming true.

After the bombing, speculation began surfacing almost immediately.  Many on the Right were instantly convinced that it must be an attack by Islamic jihadists.  Many on the Left suspected it was the handiwork of right wing extremists, perhaps white supremacists, anti-abortionists, or anti-government figures.

But I was deeply concerned about a third possible explanation that has received comparatively little attention.

I worried that this was the latest episode of mass, public bloodletting, from Columbine to Newtown.  I worried that the bombing of Boston might be the newest incarnation of the Active Shooter phenomenon.

I am no expert on Active Shooters by any means.  But having spoken to someone who has done thorough research for law enforcement on this phenomenon, here’s what I know. Read more »

Filed under: Current Events, Society | 1 Comment »