Recommended Reading ... and Listening

As you may or may not know, Don Imus is back on the air -- it's about time! -- on WABC radio in New York, and on RFD-TV. Last week he had a fascinating, refreshing, and startling give and take interview with Dr. Debra Dickerson, who blogs for Mother Jones magazine. The subject was race, and particularly her observations about who can legitinately be called "black" and whether the term still has any validity.

Dr. D has written about her appearance on Imus in the Morning, and shared other thoughts, in a blog post you can read here. I highly recommend it. She includes links to the Imus interview, and you definitely should listen to that!

Warning: it is not light reading, or light listening. Put on your thinking cap! Whether or not you are a racist, everybody in America has been influenced and affected by racism, including you and me. It's worth thinking about.

Writer's Haiku

Writer's Haiku

Pages stare back -- like
Stones we washed in rivers, and
Laid aside to dry.


(c) 2008 J.J. Jackson Jr.

Having to Howl

Having to Howl
(For Tanya)

Look at me with big brown eyes.
See yourself
in my big brown eyes.
Study yourself, primp a little.
Read my door
(a special sign just for you)
ANIMAL SHELTER
Come on in and pet me.

(c) 2008 J.J. Jackson Jr.

The Poet Returns

More like a resurrection, really, than a return. I haven't written any poetry in years. But when I mentioned in an earlier post that in 1969 the poet laureate of Arkansas dubbed me Arkansas' Poet of the Future, oldest daughter suggested I should market my little volumes of verse on the Internet. Probably not ready for that ... but I've dragged out some of my old notebooks, and from time to time, when I have no other inspiration, I'll post a poem or two for your consideration and critique. First one in the next post.

Negotiate? NEGOTIATE?!@!

Handicapped bombers kill dozens in Iraq
Officials say 2 handicapped female suicide bombers struck pet markets

Iraqi soldiers walk past a pile of slippers that belonged to victims of a suicide bombing in central Baghdad on Friday. (Ali Yussef / AFP-Getty Images)

AP, BAGHDAD - Remote-controlled explosives strapped to two mentally handicapped women detonated in a coordinated attack on pet bazaars Friday, police and Iraqi officials said, killing at least 73 people in the deadliest day since the U.S. sent 30,000 extra troops to the capital this spring.

OK, now who is it that thinks we can negotiate with animals like these? The only good terrorist is ...