Andrew Packman

Reflections

Hope Grammar

At a recent panel discussion, I got to hear four men nearing retirement reflect back on their lives.  They all came of age in the 1960s, so they couldn’t tell their stories without mentioning the anti-war protests, marches for racial equality, community organizing for social justice.  One guy even dropped out of graduate school to study “alternative education” in Mexico, only to return to the States and got a job as a factory worker with hopes of radicalizing the labor force.

Reflections

Power to the People

Every 10th grade world history student learns that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In Game of Thrones, power is that luminous jewel that makes kings of those who have it and servants of those who don’t. In Ukraine, power comes in the form of Russian soldiers protecting “national interests”.  On Wall Street, power shows up in Italian suits and capitalism’s “invisible hand” that, besides turning the gears of globalization, also tends to buy those I-bankers ever more Italian suits.