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"Pondering the persistent questions of life with my students." -Professor Cordell Schulten Home > Programs > Commentaries
Commentaries
Commentators
Pete Abel
Michael Allen
Bob Archibald
Liz Forrestal
Donn Johnson
Terry Jones
Nancy Kranzberg
JoAnne LaSala
Sandy MacLean
Anna Navarro
David Pannell
Tom Schlafly
Mark Shook
Wm. Stage
Mira Tanna
Susan Uchitelle
Elaine Viets
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Bob Archibald
Langston Hughes in St. Louis
Aired August 20, 2010
He saw Negro streetcar conductors and bus drivers and lovely Negro homes in what had been all white sections of town. "The sun do move," he thought, quoting from a favorite sermon of an old preacher. And he wrote:
"St. Louis! The town where Scott Joplin and Tom Turpin played ragtime...the town where Josephine Baker started out as a fifteen-dollar-a-week waitress and ended up in Paris...the town where the river boats ran from New Orleans with Louis Armstrong's horn blasting the night away.
St. Louis, that old city of river boats and ragtime, Old Man River and old Jim Crow, and a sun that "do move."
Mark Shook
State-Sponsored Orthodoxy
Aired August 19, 2010
I must wear a sign on my back that reads: “Here is a naïve guy that thinks religion is a force for good.” This must be the case because, at least once a week I find myself in conversations with people who are highly critical of religion.
Last week Governor Nixon stood aside and allowed a piece of anti-abortion legislation become law. Many observers will try and parse the political meaning of his very vocal inaction, but I am more concerned about the bill’s required, state-produced brochure proclaiming: "The life of each human being begins at conception.”
We now have a state sponsored orthodoxy.
Pete Abel
Voters Need to Stand Up, Be Counted
Aired August 10, 2010
If you’re one of the non-voters, you might argue that primaries don’t matter – that the candidates with the best name recognition win, and your vote would not make a difference. I could debate that point, but my concern with the low turnout in primary elections is broader than the candidates who move on to the general election. My concern includes the fact that, occasionally, there are matters on the primary ballot that are unique to that ballot – like this year’s Proposition C.
Nancy Kranzberg
Humor in Art
Aired August 06, 2010
Bryna Campbell, PhD candidate in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Washington University, says of an exhibition that she has recently curated, "While we tend to associate visual humor with the pleasures of escapism, it also frequently serves as one of the most effective (and entertaining) modes of social criticism. Jokes can have the uncanny ability to catch us off guard, rendering us quite literally speechless. And in that moment of laughter, we often experience a shift in attitude of understanding. By creating a new sense of awareness, humor has the power to impact or, at the very least, challenge the way we come to see the world."
Susan Uchitelle
Insisting on Quality Education for All
Aired August 05, 2010
It is evident that creating and maintaining quality schooling is an ongoing challenge. Most recently in St. Louis another charter school was closed down because of poor performance. The unwillingness of the State Board of Education to allow the school to continue was a proper decision and certainly fair to the children in that school.
But does this mean that only charter schools are evaluated for the quality of their education?
