In the sweetest scene of the richest play the English stage offers on the theme of useless, destructive division amongst peoples, Juliet asks, ‘What’s in a name? A rose by any name would smell as sweet. So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d.’
And well that may be for Shakespeare’s lovers, but when it comes to the feud dividing the oppositional forces in the less than United States these days, politics on the “left” seems more, ‘a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, [and] signifying nothing’ where merely finding the right names for the warring rose factions is fraught with confused dissension.
Robert Jensen is an educator, essayist, activist, and self-described radical. Professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, and proud board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center.
Jensen is too a former journalist, still writing on such subjects as foreign policy, politics, economics, and ecology, and author whose book titles include: ‘Plain Radical: Living, Loving, and Learning to Leave the Planet Gracefully’, ‘Arguing for Our Lives: A User’s Guide to Constructive Dialogue’, ‘We Are All Apocalyptic Now: On the Responsibilities of Teaching, Preaching, Reporting, Writing, and Speaking Out’, ‘All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice’, ‘Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity’, ‘The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege’, ‘Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity’, ‘Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream’, and his latest is the newly released, ‘The End of Patriarchy: Radical Feminism for Men’.
Robert Jensen in the first half.
And; campaigns to fill the vacant seat of former Saanich councillor, Vic Derman are gaining steam, with a by-election rumoured to be called for sometime in the Fall. The popular, long-serving Derman died last St. Patrick’s Day, and among those that would succeed him is Blenkinsop Valley farmer, Nathalie Chambers. It was with Derman’s encouragement Chambers and husband, David resurrected the Chambers’ family farm, and with help from the community, and The Land Conservancy, ensured Madrona Farm would be a keystone property in maintaining an active agricultural presence within a rapidly diminishing Saanich farmscape.
Nathalie Chambers and hoeing the rows in rural Saanich in the second half.
And; CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here with a Left Coast Events to bring us up to speed with what’s good going in and around here update at the bottom of the hour. But first, Robert Jensen and How Radicals Are Offering Realistic Solutions to Our Spiraling Political Problems.