Tag Archives: class struggle

The other side of graduation hoopla

We are once again in the late spring graduation season featuring much upbeat newspaper coverage of inspirational speechifying and partying. But this self-congratulatory mood flies in the face of certain realities about the role of education in our society. Of the truths we hold self-evident, that formal education, the more the merrier, is one of […]

The responsibility of the 99% to itself

All I’m getting these days is gloomy email about how, as bad as things have been with a small Democratic majority in the senate, it’s going to get worse because the Republicans are headed for a big victory. That’s gloomy for progressives; the Republicans are rubbing their hands in glee. The conservative billionaires seem to […]

Truro vs. a wealthy citizen

Truro’s protracted battle with the Klines continues. The issue in recent months is the $178,000 it had cost the town by July to attempt to enforce the law—that is, tear down this house declared illegal by the courts—and whether the town can afford to go on enforcing its own zoning. A former selectman (who happens […]

Kline House: Class struggle in Truro

Truro’s protracted battle with the Klines continues. The latest chapter, reported on in the Times on July 6 is the $178,000 it has cost so far to enforce the law—that is, tear down this house declared illegal by the courts—and whether the town can afford to go on enforcing its own zoning. Christopher Lucy, former […]

The politics of Christmas [op-ed CCT 11 December 2012]

Christmas has the reputation of being apolitical, above the fray. Maybe a lot of us are seeing this season as a welcome relief from the intense election season just past, or the struggles in Washington. As if. Dickens’ beloved “A Christmas Carol” pretty well lays it out. Scrooge loses his m iserly ways and in […]

Truro’s Kline house controversy: what it boils down to [op-ed CCT 15 May 2012]

Four years in and counting, the saga of Truro’s controversial Kline house continueth. Quick recap: In 2008 building inspector Wingard issues a permit for the largest house in town at 8333 square feet. Neighbors immediately sue, putting the project in jeopardy, you would think, but nothing daunted, the Klines proceed full speed ahead. State courts […]

Revolution plays to subdued Cape audiences [December 2009 / CCT]

Revolution came to town for a while–in the form of a movie, Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: a Love story.” It spent two or three weeks amongst us and then it was gone. For a revolution it didn’t cause much of a stir. In fact, after seeing it, I was amazed equally by the audacity of this […]

Kennedy was better than his money [September 2009 / CCT]

Senator Kennedy was no saint, but one of the important things you can say about the most influential liberal force in our times is that he was better than his money. It seems common knowledge, easily confirmed with an online search, that the Kennedy family fortune was, like so much great wealth, of dubious origins. […]

[ op ed ] Occupy oustings: the emperor’s naked power

As Occupiers seem to know, the crackdown– tents torn down, books and personal belongings confiscated, the arrests, the cowardly pepper spraying at UC Davis—none of this is a defeat. On the contrary, forcing the powers-that-be to show their hand is the biggest victory so far. Almost certainly the 1% didn’t want to resort to police […]

[ op-ed ] Do the rich deserve their wealth?

I must say the Occupy Wall Street movement does the heart good. Something about pent up righteous anger, which can seem to occupy no space at all and is hence all too easily ignored, finding outward expression in the classic fashion of taking to the streets. Does the head good, too, to see this physical […]