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Bill Clinton, class act

Bill Clinton is one seriously classy dude.

He derailed the only Democratic presidency of my adult years thanks to blow jobs and his inability to tell the truth. The turmoil of his administration doomed Al Gore’s bid and paved the way for the Reign o’ Dubya.

He made unacceptable statements about the role of race during the Democratic primary, and probably saddled Hillary with baggage that she did not deserve.

And now this, from the London Telegraph:

Mr Obama is expected to speak to Mr Clinton for the first time since he won the nomination in the next few days, but campaign insiders say that the former president’s future campaign role is a “sticking point” in peace talks with Mrs Clinton’s aides.

The Telegraph has learned that the former president’s rage is still so great that even loyal allies are shocked by his patronising attitude to Mr Obama, and believe that he risks damaging his own reputation by his intransigence.

A senior Democrat who worked for Mr Clinton has revealed that he recently told friends Mr Obama could “kiss my ass” in return for his support. 

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2008 06 29 Dave politics Comments (5) Permalink

Sad news about the ABJ’s Brian Windhorst

Via Henry Abbott at TrueHoop: Brian Windhorst, the Akron Beacon-Journal’s Cavs beat writer, is very sick. Continue reading ›

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2008 06 24 Dave Akron
sports Comments (2) Permalink

Amy’s mission to Guatemala

[Note to my CityBeat pals: this would make a great cover story. Most locals have never heard of the program, let alone realize that it's based in Cincinnati.]

We tend to associate poor parts of the world with diseases like AIDS and tuberculosis. Less often, do we think about seemingly more ordinary things like vision. But there is obviously nothing mundane or ordinary about not being able to see.

Amy left eight days ago for a Gift of Sight mission in Coban, Guatemala. Give the Gift of Sight is a charitable foundation that began at Lenscrafters’ Cincinnati headquarters in 1988, and provides free vision care and eyewear to underprivileged individuals in North America and developing countries. Since its inception, the program has helped over six million people on five continents and in hundreds of communities across North America.

GOS has an elegantly simple model: old eyeglasses are collected at retail outlets and through the Lions Club. They are recycled — the prescriptions are noted, scratched lenses are replaced, and so on — in a center at the company’s headquarters. Employees are encouraged to volunteer during work hours, and once a year, there’s a big week-long push where friends and family members can come in to volunteer.

Once the glasses are recycled, they are delivered to people in need at three different levels. In Cincinnati, GOS works with school districts to provide vision exams and free glasses to needy students. In North America, domestic missions last a week, and help thousands of people in need; clinics were recently set up in Chicago, San Francisco, and Mexico City. International missions last two weeks, with teams of 25-30 Luxottica employees and doctors going to locations such as Africa, Thailand, Romania, and Bulgaria — each international mission generally serves over 25,000 people.
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2008 06 24 Dave personal Comments (3) Permalink

Sometimes it feels like stealing

Today is the fifth anniversary of Radio Free Newport. Five years and 778 posts ago, I was doing freelance website development work for a business non-profit — work that required me to regularly work with one of the most dreadful people I have ever encountered — while waiting to return to graduate school in the fall. I was excited about returning to finish my PhD, but also a bit anxious. I had left the PhD program at Loyola-Chicago for a variety of reasons seven years earlier, and I was 37 years old — isn’t it time to get a real job, dude? School also meant placing a lower priority on playing music for the first time since I became a serious musician 20 years earlier. I started RFN — in the early days of these things called weblogs — so I would have a place to write about things I cared about until school started.

Five years later, I love my gig and I can easily say that I have never been more content with my life.

Most academics, or at least the ones I have encountered, really dig what they do. As my friend Jeff, also a sociology professor, says, “sometimes it feels like stealing.” We get paid — not a lot, mind you, given the time invested and money sacrificed to get here — to think and read about ideas, research social issues that are interesting and meaningful to us, and teach students. We have a high degree of autonomy — outside of classes, committee meetings, and appointments, I rarely have to be anywhere at a specific time; I often work on my front porch, with my dogs by my side and Coltrane blaring on the iPod. We are rarely forced to collaborate with difficult colleagues. Despite the fact that we work long hours and deal with constant pressures concerning tenure, publishing, and grant money, Jeff is right: sometimes it feels like stealing. Continue reading ›

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2008 06 17 Dave personal
sociology Comments (10) Permalink

Tim Russert; public sociology; HRC & sexism

By now, you have surely heard the sad news about Tim Russert’s passing yesterday. There is not much I can add to all of the wonderful tributes that have poured forth from his friends (here’s video of Tom Brokaw breaking the news), colleagues, and competitors (CBS’ Bob Schieffer and ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, the hosts of the Sunday morning competition for Meet The Press, are on the Today show as I type). MTP has long been a part of our Sunday mornings, and it is odd to imagine someone else trying to fill that spot. In an era when honest, old-school journalists are becoming an endangered species, it is truly sad to lose one of the best. Best regards to Mr. Russert’s family, friends, and colleagues.

By all accounts, Russert was a passionate, honest, decent, hard-working man who never lost touch with his blue-collar roots, and who was proud of Buffalo (and Cleveland, as well). My kind of guy. There are few things I enjoy more than watching someone who excels at their work, while doing it with it joy, passion, and honesty; Russert certainly fits that bill.

Here’s one of the cool tidbits that came out yesterday: when Russert was student body president at Cleveland’s John Carroll University, he booked a relatively unknown singer named…Bruce Springsteen.
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2008 06 14 Dave politics
sociology Comments (3) Permalink

My goodness

(I’ll write more about public sociology soon, but until then…)

Tonight is a watershed moment in American history. 43 years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act and 40 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, an African-American has won the right to represent one of our two major parties in the Presidential election. Senator Obama is also the first post-boomer candidate to run for President.

Tonight is one of the most important social and political moments I have witnessed in my lifetime, and Hillary Clinton chose to piss all over it by not conceding gracefully and by continuing to lie — by claiming she has won more popular votes — in the process. I seriously cannot believe what I just saw. How classless, crass, and narcissistic. She’s horrible (said in my best Bill Walton voice).

And now I am watching Obama just absolutely throwing down in his victory speech.

“America, this is our moment…this is our time.” Yes, it is. Go get ‘em, Barack.

(How cool is it that Michelle gave him a fist-bump when he took the stage?)

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2008 06 03 Dave politics Comments (9) Permalink

Dr. Paul Farmer and public sociology

My last post was about Tracy Kidder’s fantastic book on Dr. Paul Farmer. If you didn’t follow the links or watch the 60 Minutes clip, the short version of the story is this: Farmer is a doctor and medical anthropologist (M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard) who has been working in a severely impoverished area of Haiti for 25 years. In the process, he and his colleagues have saved thousands of lives and changed the way the international public health community thinks about and treats infectious diseases, especially TB and AIDS, in poor parts of the world.

Farmer began working in Haiti in 1983, just after graduating with a B.A. in anthropology from Duke, and a year before entering Harvard Medical School. One remarkable part of the story is that worked nearly non-stop in Haiti throughout his time in medical school — he would return for exams and important labs, but otherwise continuing working to treat Haiti’s sick. In 1985, while still a medical student, he helped found Zanmi Lastane, the one-room clinic that would eventually grow into a full-blown hospital and public health organization. Three years later, he earned his M.D., and two years after that, his Ph.D. in anthropology. But think about this: by the time he officially became a doctor, he’d been working nearly non-stop on poor, sick patients in Haiti for five years.

Compare this to the situation in sociology (and in related disciplines, I would guess), where public and applied/clinical sociology is hardly encouraged for anyone, and certainly not for junior hires in the pre-tenure phase. Farmer was doing great work in Haiti for years before he earned his M.D. — I, on the other hand, will not likely do any applied sociology until after tenure, or six years after earning my Ph.D. One guy is out, as author Tracy Kidder described it, “curing the world” — the other guy is building his vitae by publishing in academic journals that 99.99% of the populace will never read.
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2008 05 29 Dave sociology Comments (3) Permalink

Dr. Paul Farmer

courtesy of CBS

I just finished reading Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure The World. I cannot recommend this book highly enough — it’s a must-read. Kidder is a former Pulitzer Prize winner, and Farmer makes for a fascinating, inspiring, and moving story. I was vaguely familiar with Farmer and knew that he was influential in public health circles, thanks mainly to my advisor, a medical sociologist, mentioning him on occasion. But I had no idea what a massive force he is.

I was preparing to outline Farmer’s basic story here when I came across a 60 Minutes piece on him from earlier this month. Watch the video below (the transcript, video, and additional photos are here, in case the video does not appear below), check out a recent PBS piece on Farmer, and consider supporting Partners In Health, the organization he co-founded.

I will post soon on how Farmer’s work relates to public sociology.

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2008 05 26 Dave sociology Comments (2) Permalink

‘Tis but a flesh wound

More substantive stuff coming soon. Until then, a very funny video for your amusement (via AmericaBlog):

2008 05 22 Dave politics Comments (0) Permalink

Akronicity

A few local notes:

* The Ohio Brewing Company, located downtown on Main Street, is open. They have no online presence yet, so my post from back in February has become the first Google hit when you search on “Ohio Brewing Company and Akron.” Amy and I may go there tonight to celebrate our birthdays (my 42nd is today, her 41st is tomorrow) — I’ll report back if we do.  Continue reading ›

2008 05 15 Dave Akron Comments (3) Permalink