New Gold City

In a commentary piece for The Philadelphia Inquirer last week (Friday, November 6), columnist George Curry uses USA Today/Gallup poll data to paint a bleak picture of America's sense of "race relations." Noting that when Barack Obama was elected president at this time last year, as many as 70% of Americans were "convinced that race relations would improve..." a year later, writes Curry, only about 56% of the country feels hopeful -- the proportion of Americans who felt this way in 1963. Curry then goes on to examine American opinion about race with respect to the Gates-Crowley "teachable moment" we witnessed this summer. He reports that 30% of African Americans blamed Sgt. Crowley for the incident and only 4% blamed Professor Gates, while 32% of whites blamed Gates and 7% blamed Crowley. Leaving aside the fact that well over half the country still has hope that racial issues can settle down, and that more than two-thirds of the African and European ci...

I am honored to find that John Trimbach, son of retired special agent in charge (SAC) of the Minnesota FBI offices, Joseph Trimbach, posted a letter to the editor regarding my commentary piece in The Philadelphia Inquirer on Leonard Peltier's denial of parole. Father and son are co-authors of American Indian Mafia . The letter was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, two weeks after my commentary piece. Go here to read Mr. Trimbach's letter and make sure to read the comments that follow. Why am I honored? Because regardless of their position, it's important that all intelligent people pay attention to this issue. It's important too that we break up the silence about America's first original sin. “We did not ask you white men to come here. The Great Spirit gave us this country as a home." -Crazy Horse See my Inquirer commentary here . And my latest extended version of that for Kotori Magazine here .

My latest commentary was just published by KotoriMagazine.com, "Leonard Peltier and this Great, Funny Nation." It is really a personal essay, but full of good links and resources. "To give Leonard Peltier the last decade or two of his life outside of prison, on parole in his home community, would require that this nation acknowledge a sickness that is its original sin."

Something More (for Marion, October 13, 2009) An older man with dark features And an older woman – long brown hair, Luminous eyes, blue like A cloudless autumn sky – Sit in an old wood bed together. As the audience, we are tired. They have been speaking to each other For many days now. We did not know For the price of admission The time spent would be weeks Here in this theater Where management has served us meals And brought hot towels Down the aisles And given us breaks for showers And toilet runs. The older man looks at the woman, Says, “This is amazing.” Slowly she smiles. The stage fades to black. We hear sheets rustle. The slow, sensual wet sound of lips On skin, whisper kisses, A quiet chuckle From the older woman’s throat. Then silence. We know this is the silence Of two lovers, The embrace Of what some call true love. But we also know now There is something more. There are just no words to describe it. -dcb © Copyright David Biddle, 2009

Today's New York Times contains an excellent essay by the playwright David Mamet called "We Can't Stop Talking About Race in America." The essay is part of The Times' super-sized Arts & Leisure section cataloging all the new cultural events coming this fall and winter. Mamet has a new play coming out this fall called Race . If you know Mamet, you know that he provides some fearless insights on this subject. Let me offer a few choice quotes to get you to go read the piece: "Race, like sex, is a subject on which it is near impossible to tell the truth." "Most contemporary debate on race is nothing but sanctimony..." "The question of the poor drama is 'What is the truth?' but of the better drama, and particularly of tragedy, 'What are the lies?'" In light of all the moments we've had this year: with Barrack Obama's inauguration; the Valley Swim Club in Huntingdon Valley, PA; the Gates-Crowley face off; mad...

On and off today, I took part in an interesting though distressing set of comments at a FaceBook site that were spurred by this weekend's bizarre confrontation and arrest of Louis Henry Gates by Cambridge police. Mark Cohen, an erudite Pennsylvania State Representative got the ball rolling by posting a link to his commentary on this issue at the Daily Kos. See Mark's piece here . It's an excellent drawing together of a number of the more bizarre race-related incidents that we've seen 'round here over the past several weeks. The kurfuffle coming out of this Gates incident is the question of whether it is a blatant example of racial profiling. I usually try not to get involved in commenting on people's posts to their FaceBook sites, but I really liked what Mark wrote and so I paid attention to other people's comments on and off as their additions rolled into my email box. By the end of the day there are 40 comments and the entire discussion seemed to have turn...

This twisted appreciation of David Foster Wallace began as an email to my good friend Paula. I've edited it a bit since sending it to her, but for the most part it remains the same as I wrote it struggling to survive the weirdest illness I've ever had. (Click the photo to the left and it will take you to a short story published by the New Yorker in 2007 called "Good People."). By now you've heard that David Foster Wallace hung himself to death on Friday, September 12th. Around that time, I was just beginning a four-day, all out defense against a flu virus the likes of which have never been seen -- literally, it would appear, since my name is now on the first page of the CDC's list of 2008 flu-season illnesses treated in a hospital. I would like to believe the wild and crazy spirit of DFW may have had a role in things attacking my body (although I know he would have no reason to do so). I knew nothing of his demise until Monday the 15th after a Sunday afternoon...