Literarisches Events (in and around Lawrence KS)

  • PATRICIA LOCKWOOD. Lawrence. Thursday, September 11, 7:00 p.m., Spooner Hall, KU Campus.
  • PATRICIA LOCKWOOD. Lawrence. Friday, September 19, 7:00 p.m. Lawrence Public Library. Sponsored by Raven Bookstore.
  • DENNIS ETZEL, JR. & RACHEL CROSS. Lawrence. Thursday, September 25, 7:00 p.m., Raven Bookstore, 6 E. 7th St.
  • TONY TRIGILIO. Lawrence. Thursday, Oct. 2, 4:00 p.m., English Room, Kansas Union, KU Campus. FREE.
  • CALEB PUCKETT & JUSTIN RUNGE. Lawrence. Thursday, October 16, 7:00 p.m., Raven Bookstore, 6 E. 7th St.
  • BEN LERNER. Kansas City, MO. Thursday, October 23, 7:00 p.m., Epperson Auditorium, Vanderslice Hall on the KCAI campus, 4415 Warwick Blvd.
  • KRISTIN LOCKRIDGE & ROBERT DAY. Lawrence. Thursday, December 4, 7:00 p.m., Raven Bookstore, 6 E. 7th St.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Obama v. Roosevelt

The comparison is inevitable. So how does Bo stack up against FDR? Here is Daniel Schorr's analysis (Schorr was reporting during both administrations). Also, compare Bo's press conference and "internet address" to Roosevelt's inveighing against "malefactors of great wealth" and "economic royalists" (the latter includes a downloadable MP3 recording).

Poor folks trusted Roosevelt - even though his accent was kinda funny-sounding, he exuded reassurance. Not only did he "feel their pain," he gave them jobs. And he really did tax the rich and spread the wealth. People wrote him letters fully believing he would personally read them (and he did, some of them).

Nowadays, I feel like "my voice" "counts for more" on a blog than in a "letter to my elected representatives." It seems as though politicians are more afraid of this amorphous force called the "blogosphere" than they are of the rather more (statistically) tangible entity called the "elecorate." It's Growing Bigger Every Day, after all - and "blog" sounds a little like "Blob," don't you think?

Moreover ("moreover"?), I've about come to the conclusion that corporations are more sensitive to political pressure than are politicians. For the former, it's a matter of dollar and cents. For the latter, well, their dollars and cents come from the former. Yelling at a politician to change things makes about as much sense as yelling at the receptionist to give you your job back.