Cusp-a point of transition, as from one historical period to the next;
the borders between the twelve astrological signs.
You are considered to be "on the cusp" if you were born
within a day or two of the beginning or end of any sign.

The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak, 1863; Albert Bierstadt


29 January 2010

Friday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time



In memory of Howard Zinn, "people's historian" who died 26 January. He taught us that we don't have to look at history through the eyes of the rich and powerful. 

He would have been appalled with the Supreme Court decision giving corporations unfettered spending in campaign funding. "America's business is business." Calvin Coolidge

"Very wealthy corporations dominate American life.They are the great forces behind political events, and they determine the everyday lives of most Americans. Giant conglomerate businesses manipulate or policy in Chile; sugar companies make us hostile to Cuba; armaments industries lobby for big military budgets. In their thirst for profit they have wasted national resources and destroyed the beauty of the countryside. They have ravaged the earth's coal and iron, stripped the forests, ruined the beaches, polluted the air and water, and sucked the energy, the health, out of generation of working people.

"To know that this has been true for a long time, that it is a persistent fact of American history, is important. It means these conditions do not belong to one period of the past. Here we find a use in history. If it shows conditions as continuous and deep-rooted--in this case, the power of corporate wealth behind politics, behind everyday life--it suggests to us that more radical measures than electing another president or passing another program in Congress will be necessary to change these conditions. It suggests that we will have to dig to the roots--to change our thinking, our relations with one another, to transform our institutions, our economic system, our day-to-day existence." Introduction to Harvey Wasserman's History of the United States, 1988

RIP


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