Nation Topics - Major | The Nation

The article presents New York Representative Major Owens' views on education policy in the United States. The author suggests that eduction become the top federal budget priority. Statistics related to education spending are reviewed. The importance of a first-rate education system in the United States is discussed.

The article presents the author's views on media ownership in the United States. According to the author, the number of major U.S. media companies fell by more than one half in the past two decades. It is the author's view that the marketplace of ideas in the U.S. is shrinking large conglomerates continue to by up medial outlets. The history of media consolidation is reviewed.

Investigates the causes of childhood obesity in America. Review of efforts being made by major food companies to convince Americans that they understand their concerns with weight and health; Suggestion that behind the scenes, food companies are pushing the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to defend their interests; Author's view that the conflict over what Americans eat and the way the U.S. government promotes food is an example of how Bush's corporate interests supercede his interests in public health; Review of how public opinion is behind more restrictions on junk food marketing.

Comments on a American news media, which the author contends are not reporting on the deaths of prisoners in American hands since the beginning of 2005. Suggestion that major news media are not looking into the number of prisoners who have died at the U.S. military controlled prisons and Guantánamo camp in Cuba; Major news agencies that have not reported on the deaths of detainees, including CNN, Fox, and MSNBC; Indication from LexisNexis that the "New York Times" is nearly alone in mentioning deaths; View that American deaths from September 11 are reported, but not the Iraqi deaths from war.

Focuses on the role of civil society in bringing about political change and democratization in countries around the world. Statement that the political movements were peaceful and popular; Shift toward the involvement of governments in bringing political change; Creation of the National Endowment for Democracy in the United States for supporting political parties in other countries; Reference to the U.S. involvement in the successful coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in 2002; Contributions of the Endowment for Democracy to support the presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko in Ukraine; Claim that the integrity of civil society depends on independence from governments.

The article reports on United States Congressional hearings on the use of steroid drugs by Major League Baseball players. The Congressional hearings on steroid use in baseball turned into an orgy of self-promotion as committee members told gushy stories about their love of the game. After eight hours of this, six subpoenaed multimillionaires delivered pointless testimony. Although slammed for stonewalling questions about his own drug use, baseball player Mark McGwire took a position in the tradition of noncooperating by refusing to implicate others for personal advantage. And player José Canseco, who wrote a book about big-leaguers' drug use, inherited the role of money-grubbing snitch.

Looks at the role of women in U.S. political journalism. Report that female journalists are underrepresented in opinion and editorial sections of major U.S. newspapers; Impact of socialization on the roles of men and women in journalism; Examples of successful female journalists, including Barbara Ehrenreich, Dahlia Lithwick, and Susan Faludi; Differences in the opportunities available to liberal and conservative female journalists.

The article focuses on the Democratic Party in the United States, following its defeat in the 2004 elections. Major studies of public opinion released just before the election are highly informative. Voting patterns were similar to 2000. A small shift in preferences would have put Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in the White House. As previously, elections were run by the public relations industry. The most careful studies reveal that voters tended to believe that the candidates shared their beliefs, even when this was demonstrably false. There is little connection between public opinion and electoral practices. There is ample opportunity for education and organizing to create--in part re-create--a functioning democratic culture in which public opinion plays some role.

The article focuses on the Democratic Party in the United States, following its defeat in the 2004 elections. Democrats are being advised to respond to their election losses by enhancing their rhetoric of religion. Major movements of social advancement in this country have spoken in the name of the prophets, not in the name of churches or religion. Martin Luther King Junior, for example, spoke as a prophet, not a priest or theologian, and in fact was regarded with suspicion by many religious leaders, including in the black church. Prophets denounce hypocrisy and insist on justice as the tool of God and the manifestation of God. Democrats have to challenge the legitimacy of the Christian right in the name of the prophets. We have to unmask the unholy passions that inspire the apocalyptic zeal of so many Christians, Muslims and Jews: the ressentiment that has been fostered by the right wing, and the loneliness that makes apocalyptic fantasies so appealing. We need a new civil rights movement, a mobilization against the President George W. Bush regime, against its nascent totalitarianism, with marches on Washington that will stir the dormant American conscience. A movement can become powerful in America if it speaks in the voice of the prophets, insisting on our duty as citizens to resist a government that is subverting justice with its deadly policies.

The article reports on Major League Baseball player Carlos Delgado of the Toronto Blue Jays and his protests against the United States-led war in Iraq. Carlos Delgado, the star first baseman of the Toronto Blue Jays, has protested the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Delgado's antiwar anger is rooted in his native Puerto Rico, where for six decades the U.S. Navy tested myriad weapons by bombing the small island of Vieques off the country's eastern coast. He has donated some $100,000 to communities and activists on Vieques and, in April 2001, together with singer Ricky Martin and boxer Felix Trinidad, took out full-page advertisements in the New York Times and the Washington Post protesting the bombing. Delgado's unobtrusive, dignified protest against the war in Iraq has drawn predictable howls from right-wing sports fans. There are some 750 players on Major League Baseball's thirty teams, and scores more managers, coaches, umpires and front-office executives. It is fair to assume that a significant number of them also think the war in Iraq is stupid, or at the very least a dubious enterprise. Yet they remain silent.