Goodman writes, "Dennis Brutus broke rocks next to Nelson Mandela when they were imprisoned together on notorious Robben Island. His crime, like Mandela's, was fighting the injustice of racism, challenging South Africa's apartheid regime. Brutus' weapons were his words: soaring, searing, poetic. He was banned, he was censored, he was shot. But this poet's commitment and activism, his advocacy on behalf of the poor, never flagged. Brutus died in his sleep early on Dec. 26 in Cape Town, at the age of 85, but he lived with his eyes wide open. His life encapsulated the 20th century, and even up until his final days, he inspired, guided and rallied people toward the fight for justice in the 21st century."

You can read the rest of the article,"The Poetic Justice of Dennis Brutus" by Amy Goodman, which remembers Dennis' life and work, at truthdig.com.

I've been spending some time with my wife's family in the 14th C. walled small city of Trnava in Slovakia, thirty miles outside of Bratislava. Coincidentally, it is the 20th anniversary of the 'Velvet Revolution', when forty years of Communist control crumbled like a cookie in hot coffee under the weight of its own incompetence and the non violent protests of hundred of thousands of fed up citizens. Each Czechoslovakian town square on the night of the 17th of November 1989 was filled with protesting everyday folks, some of who became national and local 'heroes'. This unusual moment, this 'peak' moment was being celebrated in Trnava and throughout Czech and Slovakia during my time there.

At one commemoration in Trnava, before what was to be a much larger one in a few days, a few 'elders' (They were probably younger than I am!) spoke. The content of their talks was pretty consistent with what I've heard from those I've spoken with or heard on television. They spoke humbly of their roles and felt that while the change seemed inevitable looking back, at the time, the possibility of danger was sharing the Square with hope. Many from that era, however have said that they felt disappointed about how things have turned out and many in the now two countries, like Victor Havel, said that he was surprised that change would take so long. My wife, Viera, said that at a rally in 1989, a returning economist cautioned that change would take twenty years. He was booed. Love and freedom was felt and after all...all you need is...Yes? Now, prices are high, economic security diminished and the country seems to have posttraumatic stress from living in, or being the children of those who lived inside 50 years of either fascism or Communism. What happened to the hopes at the moment when the present was all there was and the fog of being separate individuals lifted, revealing connection and cooperation?

The relationship of peak moments to everyday life has recently interested me. My friend Tony, a history professor on the West Coast said that he wasn't really interested in them anymore. I argued, as Rebecca Solnit argues in her book, A Paradise Made in Hell', (See my last blog) that these moments (Ms. Solnit mostly refers to 'natural' disasters) are important because they can change both one's personality and one's government. Maybe it's also why I like the idea of studying 'underappreciated dates'... they reveal so much and can change so much.

Can the feelings of love, solidarity and equality generated at these peak moments last? Can governments created by these moments ever maintain the revolutionary fervor that gave them their life or are they destined to solidify into a bureaucracy that protects its own?

While I certainly would have rather lived in the United States during the era when Communism ruled Central and Eastern Europe, I think it is a mistake to deny that there were similarities. The Slovakian elders complained of censorship. What was the Black List? (This is on my mind from a 'Democracy Now' feature on Yip Harburg, blacklisted lyricist for the Wizard of Oz (Wizard of Oz a possible 'date'?) The elders complained of food lines. What difference does it make if there are goods but you can't afford them or if you couldn't even enter the stores because of your skin color? We say that Soviet era architecture mirrored the enforced sameness of their society. What of our urban housing projects and the 'gray flannel' suit? There was a saying in the Czechoslovakia, 'If you are not cheating the government, you are cheating your family'... Isn't Peter Galbraith (If people could spin in their grave, Peter's father, the liberal economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, would look like a whirling dervish) expecting to earn 100 million dollars from Kurdish oil development that was secured through his work for the US government helping to re-write the Iraqi constitution?

Would Tom Paine be disappointed in the United States today? Would Sir Edmond Burke say that these excesses are the payoffs for keeping order. It seems like an eternal question. How do you, to quote French writer Regis Debrays book title, keep a 'revolution in the revolution' and not become a Jacobin or a Chinese victim of the Cultural Revolution?

I'm in London now and just saw an exhibit at the Tate Modern of the works of John Baldessari, an almost 80 year old, often called, 'conceptual artist'. Mr. Baldessari famously took all of his paintings from the 1960's and in 1970 had them cremated (Another 'date'?) He was part of the upheaval of the 60's... the one that questioned war, materialism, hypocrisy and individualism. He was worried about becoming 'stuck' as a typical 'artist'. He questioned everything...all of the canons, all of the text books about what makes good art...perspective, authorship, 'ideas of beauty and even the image itself. So, he set out on a project to de-stabilize art and its audience. His was truly a one man 'revolution in the revolution' in the world of 'art'.

But, I do have to say, while I'm intrigued by his art, stimulated intellectually by his art, I'm not sure if I 'like' it, whatever that might mean. But he, who wrote thousands of times in his notebook "I will not make boring art', wouldn't care. He has decided not to allow himself to calcify and instead to make the lessons from his own peak personal insights, last. But, as the poet Steve Katz once said on seeing the avant-garde/political theater group, the Living Theater's production of their 'Paradise Now' (A third good moment?); 'They are interesting, but would I want them to be our county's leaders?" How does a country (or a person) keep fresh, responsible to its ideals and founding visions while insuring stability in the 'day to day', where most of us live?

I don't know the answer to all of this. I just know that the night of seeing Baldessari, I found an Arabic neighborhood In London and had, in an Iraqi restaurant, some wonderfully smoky babaganoush and hummus with bread just out of the oven and today, I went to an Anish Kapoor show that attracted a large general public to a fun and deceptively simple art. I keep thinking also of what the wonderful 55-year-old Slovak actor, Juraj Nvota said at the forum in Trnava. He told a gathering to celebrate the revolution of 1989 that he has come to understand that there are free people in any regime and that he could tell who they were, from the look in their eyes.

--Marc Levitt

Does anyone else think that while we are living no longer beyond are means, we are living beyond our present? It seems that we don't live in 'now' time anymore but in the future, driven by engines of anxiety and 24 hour news sources. No sooner do we finish one election than we are on to another. No soon do we finish one baseball season (Yea Yanks!) than we are talking Hot Stove League. No sooner are we finishing one meal, when we are asking what are we eating for the next.

I'm not immune to this. I started my list of possible dates for next year's Action Speaks even before I started this year's and the list is starting to grow. I'm reading a great new book that is stimulating my thinking. It's Rebecca Solnit's; A Paradise Made in Hell. The book is a description of five disasters of the last century and the human response to them. Very briefly... She says that these crises or catastrophes rather than unleashing the 'dark' forces of human nature, as the media often portrays, through coping with an altruistic and humanitarian side of us emerges. The philosophical and political implications of this, she points out are great. Ms Solnit, whose books are all worth reading, says that we must set up institutions that allow for this part of ourselves to flourish and to find ways to encourage rather than to discourage cooperation, interdependency and civic engagement.

Not a bad way to go into the Thanksgiving vacation, huh?

---Marc Levitt

Recorded live at AS220 on October 28th 2009

1951 - The Rise of Levittown

Can the suburbs be fixed? What does sustainability look like in a land of three car garages, shopping malls, single use zoning and houses on steroids?

This week, Action Speaks takes a look at a birthplace of suburban utopia, Levittown. In just over 50 years, the American suburbs have physically transformed the landscape of our country, redefined the middle class and helped to both fuel and bring down our nation's economy. Is this the American dream we were looking for? Will the suburbs, built on a seemingly inexhaustible supply of oil, be able to turn 'green' and can bastions of 'white flight' and individualism reflect our nation's demographic diversity and its needs for community?

PANELISTS:

V. Elaine Gross is the president of ERASE Racism, a regional not-for-profit organization based on Long Island, New York that promotes racial equity through research, policy advocacy and education in areas such as housing, public school education and health. The Racial Equity Report Card: Fair Housing on Long Island is a revealing report published in March 2009.

Alyssa Katz is a freelance journalist who teaches at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. The former editor-in-chief of City Limits, an award-winning magazine about urban policy in New York City, she is currently an editorial consultant for the Pratt Center for Community Development and the author of Our Lot: How Real Estate Came to Own Us.

Paul Lukez is a Boston based architect and the founding principal of his own firm, Paul Lukez Architecture. His designs and competition entries have earned him numerous awards with the NE / AIA and BSA. With over 15 years of teaching experience, he has taught at MIT, Tsinghua University , TU Delft and is currently teaching at Washington University. He is the author of Suburban Transformations, a book which proposes theories and tools for planning suburbs and edge cities.

The New Metropolis
This relevant two part documentary was aired on RIPBS as part of Action Speaks' programming during the Fall 2009 recording season.

Recorded live at AS220 on October 21st 2009 at AS220

1972 - Nixon visits People's Republic of China

What began as a Ping Pong match is now a game of 'Chicken'...the US and China; partners or enablers?

The relationship between the US and China has been a driving force in the development of both countries. In the past 30 years, China has transformed from agricultural superpower to manufacturing giant, from a capitalist enemy to the biggest U.S. lender. To understand the impact of this relationship on the future of the US economy and its foreign relations, Action Speaks is heading back in time to follow President Nixon on his historic visit to China when much of this co-dependent relationship began to take shape.

PANELISTS:

Howard W. French is a Associate Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. A former reporter for the New York Times, French has served as bureau chief for Central America and the Caribbean, West Africa, Japan and the Koreas, and China in Shanghai. French is also an author, documentary photographer and two-time nominee for the Pulitzer Prize.

Crystal Jiang, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Management at Bryant University's Business College. She received her PhD at Temple University majoring in international business, where she studied the dynamic evolution of Chinese firms and the roles government play. Her research interests include internationalization, innovation strategy, and corporate entrepreneurship of emerging economy firms. Her research work appears in the Oxford Handbook of International Business, Journal of World Business, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, and others.

Robert George Lee, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of American Civilization and Chair of the Department of American Civilization at Brown University, where he teaches such courses as "China in the American Imagination." He has published on a wide range of subjects related to Asian American studies, racial formations, and relations between Asia and America. Three of Lee's well known books are: Dear Miye, Letters Home from Japan 1939-1946, Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture, and Displacements and Diasporas: Asians in the Americas.

William H. Overholt, Ph.D. is a Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. He formerly held the Asia Policy Research Chair at RAND's Center for Asia Pacific Policy and served as Director of the Center. A well-known and well-respected analyst of Asian politics, Overholt is the founder of the prestigious journal, Global Assessment, and a frequent publisher. His recent work includes America and Asia: The Coming Transformation of Asian Geopolitics and the award-winning The Rise of China.

Independent Lens: China Blue
This relevant documentary was aired on RIPBS as part of Action Speaks' programming during the Fall 2009 recording season.

Recorded live at AS220 on October 14th 2009 at AS220

1932 -The Highlander Center opens its doors

First door-to-door, now e-mail-to-email, will community organizing have the same power in a virtual community? How will we organize for change in the 21st Century?

How has mobilizing the public changed in the world of Web2.0 from the days of the Highlander Center's multiracial labor and Civil Rights organizing? Does Internet based organizing mean less or more 'Bowling Alone'? Why is community organizer Saul Alinsky's 'Rule for Radicals' a favorite book of the 'Right'?

Heather Cronk is the Chief Operating Officer at the New Organizing Institute, overseeing NOI's growing operations and planning strategically for NOI's programs. The New Organizing Institute trains progressive nonprofits and political campaigns on new tools and strategies for organizing, emphasizing the areas of field and leadership, data and technology, and new media. Prior to her work at NOI, Heather worked with PledgeBank, a project of mySociety, reaching out to organizations and individuals across the country to encourage the use of PledgeBank and other web-based tools for local community organizing and citizen-centered collective action.

Mary Kay Harris is the Lead Organizer for the Providence organization Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), and by extension a player in the national social justice alliance Right to the City. For over ten years, Harris has worked within coalitions of activists and community members, for greater police accountability in Providence. Together they have seen such victories as the passage of the nation's 7th Driving While Black Bill. Her training in outreach, strategy and leadership development, allowed for the creation of PERA, or Providence External Review Authority, an autonomous body for investigations on potential police misconduct incidents. Recently, Harris was honored as one of the two recipients of the National Organizers Alliance 2008-2009 Organizer Respite Award.

Pam McMichael is the director of the Highlander Research and Education Center and a national fellow with the Rockefeller Foundation leadership project. A social justice activist in her native community, Louisville, Kentucky, she is also the co-founder and eight-year co-director of SONG, Southerners on New Ground.

Nicholas V. Longo, Ph.D. is the Assistant Professor of Public and Community Service Studies and Director of the Global Studies Program at Providence College. He is the author of the book Why Community Matters: Connecting Education with Civic Life and a host of other scholarly articles on service learning and civic engagement.

The Democratic Promise: Saul Alinsky and His Legacy
This relevant documentary was aired on RIPBS as part of Action Speaks' programming during the Fall 2009 recording season.

Recorded live at AS220 on October 7th 2009

1993 - The creation of Hillary Clinton's Taskforce on Healthcare

Is the patient stable, improving, or failing? What are the chances of survival for a nation divided on health reform?

As we enter into what will be the next big stretch of our nation's effort to reform the health care system, Action Speaks looks back on Hillary Clinton's 1993 Healthcare Taskforce. What can past failures teach us about the present stakes, struggles, and special interests in the health care arena? Can this historical precedent offer us any clues in our search for long-term solutions?

PANELISTS:

Dr. Joseph Chazan, MD is the President and founder of Nephrology Associates, Inc., an actively practicing Nephrologist, and the Executive General Manager of American Renal Associates, Inc. for RI and S.E. Mass. Chazan is a Clinical Professor of Medicine (Emeritus) at Brown University's Warren Alpert School of Medicine.

T.R. Reid is the author of nine books including the current bestseller The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care. Reid has taught at Princeton University and the University of Michigan; he has served as an expert advisor to many organizations both local and national. A former correspondent for the Washington Post and frequent commentator on NPR, Reid has written and hosted documentary films for National Geographic TV, PBS Frontline, and the A&E network. Two of his creations, A Second Opinion and Sick Around the World are critical examinations of the current health care system.

Theda Skocpol, Ph.D. is a sociologist and political scientist at Harvard University. She has served as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and gained recognition for her work on civic participation, including Boomerang: Clinton's Health Security Effort and The Turn Against Government in U.S. Politics. Skocpol was the recipient of the prestigious 2007 Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science.

Frontline: Sick Around the World
This relevant documentary was aired on RIPBS as part of Action Speaks' programming during the Fall 2009 recording season.

Marc Levitt

How about the birth of Levittown? Thought our discussion about 'retrofitting the suburbs' should include demographic changes as well, so I asked Elaine Gross of Eraseracism NY to be part of our discussion. Her organization looks at diversity issues in the suburbs and is located near Levittown. I got her name from Dr. Lawrence Levy who is the head of the new National Center for Suburban studies at Hofstra on Long Island. It turns out that they are having an international conference on diversity in the suburbs the weekend before our panel. I've also been thinking that the discussion should include a talk about how the housing industry fueled and then help fell the economy. But then again, maybe we should have taken on urban revialization instead and the 'SoHo/Creative Cities model. Oh, yea, that's another 'occupational hazard' I'm suffering from. In real estate they call it 'buyer's remorse'. In radio show planning they call it 'Topic Doubt'.

Marc Levitt

Marc Levitt

Recorded live at AS220 on May 20th 2009

1961 - JFK Calls for the Moon!

President Kennedy called for a Moon Landing. President Obama wants a 'Green' Nation. Are solar panels and wind turbines as exciting as 'One Giant Leap for Mankind?' How do we re-energize and re-mobilize America?

PANELISTS:

Martin J. Collins, Ph.D. is a curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and head of the museum's Oral History Project. Among his author credits are the full length books After Sputnik: 50 Years of the Space Age (Smithsonian/HarperCollins, 2007) and Cold War: Laboratory: RAND, the Air Force, and the American State (Smithsonian Institution, 2002). He is editor of the academic journal History and Technology (Routledge).

Kristen Haring, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of History at Auburn University. Haring's work has been recognized by the Society for the History of Technology, which awarded her the IEEE Life Members' Prize in Electrical History for portions of her book, Ham Radio's Technical Culture (MIT Press, 2007). Haring studies technology as a component of community and culture in the United States.

Paul Di Filippo, a highly prolific science fiction writer, has hundreds of short stories and several full length novels to his name, including: Ciphers, Joe's Liver, Fuzzy Dice, A Mouthful of Tongues, Spondulix and Cosmocopia, with additional titles forthcoming. Di Filippo writes in a wide range of sub-genres, most notably steampunk and cyberpunk. His innovative science fiction writing has earned him consideration as a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, BSFA, Philip K. Dick, Wired Magazine, and World Fantasy awards. The Providence based author is also a regular reviewer for almost all the major print magazines dedicated to science fiction writings.

Bracken Hendricks is a Senior Fellow with American Progress where he works on issues of climate change and energy independence, environmental protection, infrastructure investment, and economic policy. Hendricks served in the Clinton Administration as a Special Assistant to the Office of V.P. Gore, the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the President's Council on Sustainable Development, and the White House Livable Communities Task Force. Hendricks was the founding Executive Director and is currently a National Steering Committee member of the Apollo Alliance for good jobs and energy independence, a coalition of labor, environmental, business and community leaders. He has been a member of Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell's Energy Advisory Task Force, the Cornell University Eco-Industrial Round Table, and the Energy Future Coalition to name just a few in a long list of credits. Hendricks is widely published on economic development, climate and energy policy, national security, and progressive political strategy.

NOVA: Sputnik Declassified
This relevant documentary was aired on RIPBS as part of Action Speaks' programming during the Fall 2009 recording season.

Recorded live at AS220 on May 13th 2009

1937 - The Flint, Michigan United Auto Workers Sit-In

Banks, Auto and Insurance Companies bailed out, lay-offs abound and yet...Where's the anger of the past? The Auto Industry, unions and the drive to protest; has it stalled and are union's pot-holes on the road to recovery?

PANELISTS:

Richard McIntyre, Ph.D. is Professor of Economics and Director of the University of Rhode Island Honors Program at The University of Rhode Island. He has written and published extensively in the fields of international and comparative political economy and labor relations. McIntyre is the author Are Worker Rights Human Rights? (University of Michigan Press, 2008) and editor of the New Political Economy book series for Routledge Press.

Travis James Rowley is a conservative republican and native of the state recently named the most democratic in our nation, Rhode Island (Gallup, 2009). A 2002 Brown University graduate, Rowley co-founded the Foundation for Intellectual Diversity at Brown University, an independent 501(c)3 committed to the promotion of underrepresented ideas, beliefs, and perspectives through lectures, conferences, publications, and academic programs at academic institutions in southern New England, including his liberal alma mater. Rowley is the chair if the RI Young Republicans and works as an independent financial advisor for New York Life Insurance Company. Rowley is the author of Out of Ivy: How a Liberal Ivy Created a Committed Conservative (BookSurge Publishing, 2006) and a frequent contributor to the Providence Journal.

Rachel Miller serves as the Rhode Island director of Jobs with Justice, a strongly pro-union non-profit organization with a national presence of around 40 local coalitions. These coalitions bring together labor unions, community organizations, religious groups, and student groups in their fight for economic and social progress in workplaces and communities. Jobs with Justice works on the direct concerns of the labor movement, such as first contract campaigns and organizing, as well as broader economic issues, including affordable housing and health care.

With Babies and Banners
This relevant documentary was aired on RIPBS as part of Action Speaks' programming during the Fall 2009 recording season.