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Post by longsuffering on Sept 12, 2023 0:59:27 GMT -5
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Post by sader1970 on Sept 12, 2023 6:30:14 GMT -5
A required book read for the 1970 Class the summer before we started in 1966.
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Post by rgs318 on Sept 12, 2023 6:49:50 GMT -5
A required book read for the 1970 Class the summer before we started in 1966. It swas also required forthe class of '67 when we started in 1963. |
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Post by alum on Sept 12, 2023 6:52:30 GMT -5
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Post by rgs318 on Sept 12, 2023 7:51:04 GMT -5
His work has impressive "staying power."
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Post by mm67 on Sept 12, 2023 8:02:19 GMT -5
Agree or disagree with Michael Harrington's politics, he certainly was a man for others.
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Post by matunuck on Sept 12, 2023 9:07:26 GMT -5
Here’s a Buckley-Harrington Firing Line that I've watched before. Remarkable how you hear the same arguments today as one did back then. Kind of nice to see two people disagree but have a civil and substantive discussion. I don't agree with Harrington's politics, but I am a big fan of HC alums who show leadership and in Harrington's case impact the public policy space -- whether one agrees or disagrees with his solutions to societal problems.
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Post by Crucis#1 on Sept 12, 2023 10:53:03 GMT -5
A required book read for the 1970 Class the summer before we started in 1966. The book was also required reading for the Class of 1972, along with Diary of a Country Priest. |
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Post by nhteamer on Sept 12, 2023 10:53:51 GMT -5
Best political quote of all time
Buckley, a candidate for mayor of NY is asked "what is the first thing you will do it you win?"
"Ask for a recount."
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Post by nhteamer on Sept 12, 2023 10:56:03 GMT -5
.
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Post by Crucis#1 on Sept 12, 2023 13:51:14 GMT -5
I just returned last night from North Carolina. While driving through several rural areas in the state, they still seem the same as they were in the 1950’s and 1960’s. However Raleigh has been developed into a very nice modern city. It is apparent just by looking at road infrastructure in the rural areas, that do not have a storm drain systems, why the areas are prone to flooding.
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Post by sader1970 on Sept 12, 2023 14:11:44 GMT -5
A required book read for the 1970 Class the summer before we started in 1966. The book was also required reading for the Class of 1972, along with Diary of a Country Priest. Why am I getting the impression that TPTB at Holy Cross were trying to help our fellow alum become a best selling author when you require multiple incoming classes to read, and presumably buy, the book?😉 |
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Sept 12, 2023 16:56:40 GMT -5
Does the book have no merit other than that it was written by an alum?
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Post by CHC8485 on Sept 12, 2023 19:28:27 GMT -5
I just returned last night from North Carolina. While driving through several rural areas in the state, they still seem the same as they were in the 1950’s and 1960’s. However Raleigh has been developed into a very nice modern city. It is apparent just by looking at road infrastructure in the rural areas, that do not have a storm drain systems, why the areas are prone to flooding. Not to divert the topic, but this is Crossports ... My town has storm drains and it didn't help us at all yesterday.  We've had news coverage from the local Boston TV stations all day long due to the damage from about 6-8 inches of rain in about 5 hours! The street in this video is about 1/4 mile from my house. A friend of ours lives about 1/4 mile down the road from this spot and this is what their back yard looked like. Their basement had about 5 feet of water in it. |
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Post by sader1970 on Sept 12, 2023 19:49:40 GMT -5
Signs of the apocalypse. Floods in Mass; bigger floods in Libya; earthquakes in Morocco.  Oh, yeah, an extremely large hurricane that wasn't going to hit the U.S.; then was including Boston; now maybe not. Was half expecting a repeat of the BC game against Yale. |
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Post by Crucis#1 on Sept 12, 2023 20:15:59 GMT -5
 In rural eastern North Carolina, their system of diverting storm water is a series of ditches that are on the side of a road. This water tends to overflow onto the roads and cause ponding even with a moderate amount of rainfall. The roads do not have curbs and often do not have safety barriers or guard rails to stop cars from accidentally sliding into the ditches doing heavy rain or snow. www.farrin.com/blog/be-safer-on-rural-roads-in-north-carolina/ |
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Post by alum on Sept 13, 2023 7:21:26 GMT -5
Does the book have no merit other than that it was written by an alum? I think that many would tell you that this book was directly related to the decision of JFK and LBJ to attempt to fight poverty. I think I will read it again and compare it to what I learned about poverty while taking liberation theology forty years ago and again in the recent Zoom course taught for alumni by former professor Jim Nickoloff. NYT Obituary 8/2/89. Michael Harrington, co-chairman of the Democratic Socialists of America and author of ''The Other America,'' which helped to encourage the Federal Government's War on Poverty, died of cancer of the esophagus Monday at his home in Larchmont, N.Y. He was 61 years old.
Except for Norman Thomas, the Socialist Party's leader and longtime candidate for President, Mr. Harrington was probably the most visible spokesman for Socialist ideals in the United States. He often served as the American representative at international Democratic Socialist meetings.
As a political leader, lecturer and teacher and the author of 16 books, Mr. Harrington was active in organizational work most of his life. He was also a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Queens College in Flushing.
Although surgery for cancer disfigured his face in recent years, Mr. Harrington continued to maintain a youthful attitude and the bonhomie of an inspiring political organizer. Illness did not stop him from writing and continuing his involvement in domestic politics and international socialism. Despite his poor health, he continued to work out of the offices of the Democratic Socialists in a former factory building in Lower Manhattan. #600 Gather for Tribute Mr. Harrington succeeded in completing a seminal work, ''Socialism: Past and Future,'' that was published last month by Arcade Publishers. In the book, he outlined a socialist future that could create a new, progressive society. He said that it must be international; that tax policies should redistribute wealth and increase growth without ''takeover games''; that real control must come from below, and that ''the inexorable socialization of the entire planet'' can become ''the tool, rather than the oppressor, of free women and men.''
In June 1988, more than 600 friends and colleagues, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Cesar Chavez, president of the United Farm Workers, held a celebration in the Roseland Ballroom in New York to honor Mr. Harrington.
Mr. Harrington, looking gaunt from the effects of chemotherapy, vowed to continue to campaign for his socialist beliefs as long as his health permitted. He described himself as ''the long-distance runner,'' the title of one of his two autobiographical works, published in 1988.
''I see Michael Harrington as delivering the Sermon on the Mount to America,'' Mr. Kennedy said at that event. ''Among veterans in the War on Poverty, no one has been a more loyal ally when the night was darkest.''
The Democratic Socialists of America, whose roots are in the Socialist Party, formed in 1983 in a merger of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee and the New American Movement. Unlike the Socialist Party, which runs its own candidates for public office, the Democratic Socialists group simply endorses candidates. Left Wing of 'the Possible'
Asked in an interview how his brand of socialism differed from the system that had evolved in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Mr. Harrington said:
''Put it this way. Marx was a democrat with a small d. The Democratic Socialists envision a humane social order based on popular control of resources and production, economic planning, equitable distribution, feminism and racial equality. I share an immediate program with liberals in this country because the best liberalism leads toward socialism. I'm a radical, but as I tell my students at Queens, I try not to soapbox. I want to be on the left wing of the possible.''
His political views earned him a place on President Nixon's ''enemies' list.'' Asked if this troubled him, Mr. Harrington said, ''I was in good company. It would have been terrible to be left off it.''
Mr. Harrington's best-known work, ''The Other America: Poverty in the United States,'' was published by Macmillan Publishing Inc. in 1962. In the book he argued that there was an underclass of the poor in America, which included tens of millions of Americans who, though employed, lived below the poverty line and were neglected by both the Government and the rest of society.
On the surface, he contended, some of these people seemed to be ignored by official measurements of poverty because they own items like an automobile or a television set, yet they could not enjoy the nation's resources and opportunities. 'A Scream of Rage'
Mr. Harrington won the George Polk Award and the Sidney Hillman Award for ''The Other America.'' Writing in The New York Times Book Review, A. H. Raskin, senior labor columnist of The Times, described the book as ''a scream of rage and a call to conscience.'' While contending that Mr. Harrington had exaggerated both the size and the intractability of the poverty problem, Mr. Raskin went on to say: ''The chroniclers and celebrants of America's upward movement are plentiful. It is good to be reminded that we are still a long way from the stars.''
In The New Yorker, Dwight Macdonald called the book ''excellent and important'' and said it analyzed the reasons for the persistence of vast poverty in the midst of general prosperity.
After seeing reviews of ''The Other America,'' President Kennedy read the work himself, according to his aides. Kennedy subsequently supported Federal initiatives to help the poor. What later became known as the War on Poverty was largely carried out by President Johnson after Kennedy's death. It included the expansion of existing programs like Social Security, Aid to Families With Dependent Children and food stamps, as well as new programs for housing and medical care.
In addition to writing many newspaper and magazine articles about the philosophy of democratic socialism, Mr. Harrington was also the author of books on contemporary politics, including ''The Next America,'' ''The Next Left,'' ''The Politics at God's Funeral,'' ''Twilight of Capitalism,'' ''Toward a Democratic Left'' and ''The Accidental Century.'' He was a member of the editorial board of Dissent.
In his autobiographical ''Long-Distance Runner,'' Mr. Harrington wrote, ''If the best values of humanity are to survive, then we will have to go down the road upon which I have been running.
''I am, in my own way, as militant as I was when I first became an active radical in 1951 and infinitely more radical than when I encountered a slum house in St. Louis in 1949. I have been enriched beyond belief in the struggle.''
Mr. Harrington, who was born Feb. 24, 1928, in St. Louis, started out as a welfare worker there after attending the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., and the University of Chicago, where he earned a master's degree in 1949. He also attended Yale Law School for a year.
Afterward, he became associate editor of The Catholic Worker magazine, organization secretary of the Workers Defense League, a researcher and later consultant for the Fund for the Republic and editor of New American magazine. In the Korean War, he declared that he was a conscientious objector.
In 1972, Mr. Harrington was appointed as a professor of political science at Queens College and was named a Distinguished Professor in 1988.
He served as chairman of the League for Industrial Democracy in 1964 and was a member of the national executive board of the Socialist Party from 1960 to 1968. He became chairman of the Democratic Socialists of America in 1982 and later was co-chairman of the party.
Mr. Harrington is survived by his wife, Stephanie, and two sons, Alexander Gervis, of Manhattan, and Edward Michael 3d, of Larchmont. Plans for a memorial service will be announced later. |
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Post by Chu Chu on Sept 13, 2023 19:24:10 GMT -5
Thanks, very interesting bio!
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We've had news coverage from the local Boston TV stations all day long due to the damage from about 6-8 inches of rain in about 5 hours!
