[This post is the the third in a series (1, 2).] Like Marshall Kirkpatrick, I want it all. I want my data to be free, I want to be in control of it and I want to have control over my privacy as well. Is that too much to ask? The watchdog group Privacy International [...]
Privacy Matters
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 20. Jan, 2008 in breaking news, civil liberties, civil rights, disarmament, human rights, immigrants, politics, race and racism, tech
Unions, Mobsters and Government Thuggery
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 12. Jan, 2008 in civil liberties, disarmament, labor movement, Weblogs
Since my recent post on domestic surveillance and J. Edgar Hoover’s secret plan for mass detentions of suspected “subversives,” I’ve come across a number of blog posts that make interesting supplements to the sources I originally assembled. I’m posting excerpts from two historically focused pieces here and will follow up soon with another post that [...]
My Father And The Peace Movement (Thumbnail Version)
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 06. Aug, 2005 in disarmament, hungry blues, labor movement, nyc politics, old left/new left, Paul Greenberg 101, race and racism, writings of PG
Sixty years ago today the US dropped the nuclear bomb called Little Boy over the central part of Hiroshima, killing at least 66,000 people. In honor of this year’s Hiroshima Day, I am posting this excerpt from my father’s Political Autobiography. By now the McCarthy period was upon us. The CIO was split and the [...]
Genius Scientist Discovers His Research May Be Used For Evil, Becomes Pacifist
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 21. Jul, 2005 in Books, breaking news, disarmament, jewish, old left/new left, race and racism, Weblogs
No, damn it. Albert Einstein was a political radical and anti-racist. When it came to how to handle Einstein’s ashes or his house on Mercer Street, everyone involved meticulously adhered to his wishes. But when it involved his ideas, and especially his concerns about what he called America’s “worst disease,” the fact that Einstein wanted [...]
History Teaches Us
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 17. Jul, 2005 in breaking news, disarmament, women and feminism
to cash in… AP Reporter Heather Clark Albuquerque Journal reports on Shigeko Sasamori’s experience as a survivor of the US atomic bomb, dropped on Hiroshima, August 6, 1945. Her story is one of the many we must repeat and remember: The 73-year-old grandmother was a 13-year-old school girl when she saw the nuclear bomb drop [...]
Thousands mark first atomic blast
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 17. Jul, 2005 in breaking news, disarmament
WHITE SANDS MISSLE RANGE, New Mexico (AP) — Emmett Hatch’s grandmother ordered him to drop to his knees and pray on July 16, 1945, shortly after the world’s first atomic blast. She was awake at 5:29:45 Mountain War Time that morning in Portales to make breakfast and saw the explosion from more than 220 miles [...]
Some still remember the day Mississippi was nuked
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 17. Jul, 2005 in disarmament
Anniversary of the first atomic bomb testing brings back memories to residents By James W. Crawley MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE BAXTERVILLE, Miss. Billy Ray Anderson remembers the day the earth kicked up waves, the ground cracked, chimneys tumbled and the creeks turned black in this corner of the Deep South. “The ground swelled up,” said [...]
Sixty Years Ago Today
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 16. Jul, 2005 in disarmament, friends, marsha joyner, women and feminism
[This is from my friend Marsha Joyner, who produced the TV series. I carried something else by her yesterday. --BG] “All life on Earth has been touched by the event, which took place here.” The official Trinity Site proclaims For we are all Downwind Atomic Bomb Series on ‘Olelo Channel 53 (Hawaii) Sixty years ago [...]
William J. Douthard (aka “Meatball”), Jan. 6, 1947 – Jan. 4, 1981
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 10. Jun, 2005 in civil rights movement, disarmament, document, family, hungry blues, labor movement, liberal party of new york, nyc politics, old left/new left, research
I first mentioned William Douthard in passing here. At the right is a flier from a civil rights rally I think my father organized, where William spoke (click on the image to enlarge). William Douthard was a student demonstration leader in Birmingham, Alabama, which was where he and my father met. To many in the [...]
It’s Almost Passover (Rerun)
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 23. Apr, 2005 in Books, civil rights movement, disarmament, family, hungry blues, jewish, judaism, nyc politics, old left/new left, Paul Greenberg 101, proportional representation, race and racism, situations and predicaments, writings of PG
[I never marked the first anniversary of HungryBlues back in March, but I think that gives me occasional license to rerun posts that are more than a year old. What follows is a slightly shortened version my post from this time (on the Jewish calendar) last year. I think I have some more readers since [...]
Political Autobiography
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 02. Sep, 2004 in civil rights movement, disarmament, document, family, frankie newton, hungry blues, jazz, labor movement, liberal party of new york, nyc politics, old left/new left, Paul Greenberg 101, proportional representation, writings of PG
Maybe it was 1937 when my oldest brother and I were in a local WPA theater production of Waiting For Lefty. I remember thinking that a union organizer was the noblest of all jobs even better than playing right field like Mel Ott. I also thought that Jewishsocialist was one word and that Jews who were not socialists were the exceptions even though my mother’s family was among the exceptions.
We were a decidedly secular family. Judaism was some old fashioned thing that my paternal grandmother held onto and it was sort of embarrassing. I did love seders at my Aunt Beck’s house because my Uncle Sam made Exodus come alive. To me Moses was a union organizer and socialist revolutionary and John L. Lewis all rolled into one.
Ben Greenberg's Weblog
Folks I've got them hungry blues
And nothin' in this to lose
People tellin' me to choose
Between dyin' and lyin' and
keep on cryin'
Tired of them hungry blues
Listen ain't you heard the news
There's another thing to choose
A brand new world
clean and fine
Where nobody's hungry
And there's no color line
A thing like that's worth
anybody dyin'
I ain't got a thing to lose
But them doggone hungry blues
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