The problem with our view of history is we revere the violence rather than review the issues that caused it. Movies display in detail the attack on Pearl Harbor, the D-Day invasion, the Battle of the Bulge. Re-enactors playing dress-up perform in Kabuki-like ritual, a dumb show, reliving the carnage of Civil War battles, parading about old battlefields, while we dissect the tactics, the geography of military movement but rarely focus on the causes, the events which brought us into conflict. ...more

December 8, 2008

These days little children are brought along to places that would have been considered inappropriate a generation ago: four-star restaurants, cocktail parties, rock concerts. But for all the sniping from adults who resent this territorial invasion, the onslaught shows no sign of letting up. ...more

February 12, 2008