I Realised I'd Never Climb Everest But

White-collar Crime Gets More Outrageous By The Second In America.

Organizer Is Kind Of A Grand Term For What I Was Doing. I Answered An Ad That The Presbyterian Church Of Chicago Put Up On College Campuses. I Was At The University Of Kansas, And It's Somewhat Relevant To My Life And Work That I'm A Jew. But They Weren't Doing A Religious Litmus Test. They Wanted Energetic, Civil-rights-committed College Students To Come Help Them Run Some Summer Programs.

I Guess I Don't Have A Candidate Who Makes My Heart Go Pitter-patter The Way I Wish It Would. I'm Thinking, Here's An African American Candidate - Yes! And Here's A Woman Candidate - Yes! Why Can't I Get Behind Either One Of Them? Don't Tell Me I Have Latent Sexism Or Racism That I Need To Confront. I Don't Believe That. I Think We Are So Burned By The Current Situation That We Want Somebody That It Isn't Possible To Have. We Want Someone Who Definitely Looks Like The Messiah.

I Look At The Great Poets Of The Soviet Union, Like Anna Akhmatova, Who Endured Far Worse Then Anything We've Seen Or Hopefully That We Will Ever See. If They Could Keep Writing And Keep A Voice Alive, Keep People Hopeful Through Their Poetry, Then I Would Be Ashamed To Stop And To Give In. It Would Be Really Self-indulgent, Unacceptable, And Inexcusable To Walk Away From It.

There Is No Frigate Like A Book And No Harbor Like A Library, Where Those Who Love Books But Can't Afford Their Own Complete Collections, Or Those Who Need A Computer, Or Kids Who Need A Safe Place To Read After School, Or Moms With Toddlers Who Want Their Babies To Learn To Read, Can All Come Together And Share In A Great Community Resource.