In Fact… In Fact…
KATHY BOUDIN AND PAROLE DENIAL Noted with dismay: New York prison officials' recent decision to deny parole to former Weather Underground fugitive Kathy Boudin. This magazine can spare no sympathy for the 1981 Brink's robbery in which Boudin drove the getaway truck while former members of the Black Liberation Army killed two police officers and a security guard. But Boudin was an accessory, not a principal, in that robbery and had surrendered before the officers were killed. In twenty years behind bars, she has embodied the ideal of a prisoner remaking her life: earning a graduate degree and teaching other inmates at Bedford Hills. Even though the victims of the Brink's robbery and their families were divided over Boudin, Governor George Pataki chose to heed a vocal campaign by Rockland County police officials to keep her locked up. That denial is part of a national pattern in which governors, in the name of fighting crime, have made it almost impossible for prisoners to earn parole. In some states 80 percent of all applications are denied. The denial of parole is a hidden engine of the nationwide prison crisis that's breaking states' treasuries--and at the same time is leaving large numbers of nonviolent offenders with no incentive to rebuild their lives. The point of parole is precisely for officials and offenders alike to step back from the acts that got inmates locked up in the first place and look at the whole life. No possible purpose is served by keeping Boudin incarcerated. ON THE WEB: THIS [email protected] From the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban Mark Gevisser writes that South African President Thabo Mbeki proclaimed that the divide between North and South "also coincides with the divide between white and black, broadly defined." Meanwhile, the Congress of South African Trade Unions struck to protest his government's "neoliberal" economic policy. Re the US-Israel walkout: Charles Tanzer reports that while the United States emphasized concern over the language about Israel in the final document, it "spent its time challenging nearly every word of the text, objecting to language that might actually require it to take steps to combat racism or acknowledge that slavery was a crime against humanity" (see www.thenation.com). CAREY McWILLIAMS AWARD Victor Navasky is co-winner of the American Political Science Association's Carey McWilliams Award. Named after The Nation's great editor, the award honors "a major journalistic contribution to our understanding of politics." The other winner is William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard. Asked how the association justified giving the award to the proprietors of two such different magazines, a spokesman said that they had in common a willingness to alienate their own constituencies. We congratulate Navasky and commend to Kristol the writings of Carey McWilliams.
Sep 6, 2001 / The Editors
Modesto Man Modesto Man
Whether in his home district or in Washington, DC, Congressman Gary Condit is a discredit to his profession.
Sep 6, 2001 / Column / Christopher Hitchens
Israel: Into the Abyss Israel: Into the Abyss
Ariel Sharon's government is failing to use nonviolent approaches in its confrontation with the Palestinians.
Sep 6, 2001 / Neve Gordon
The Joe and Hil Follies The Joe and Hil Follies
It's a slippery slope that these two lawgivers would have us tread.
Sep 6, 2001 / Danny Goldberg
A Good Death A Good Death
Euthanasia is the right step for some people, but today the person taking that step must do so unaided.
Sep 6, 2001 / Carol Bernstein Ferry
Cleaning Up Elections Cleaning Up Elections
The Shays-Meehan bill would help reform campaign financing--but there is a much better solution.
Sep 6, 2001 / The Editors
Al, Don’t Run Al, Don’t Run
He may have been screwed out of the election, but he's still a terrible candidate.
Sep 6, 2001 / Feature / David Corn
The Dishonest Debate The Dishonest Debate
The facts about Bush's tax cuts are being kept from the public.
Sep 6, 2001 / Robert L. Borosage
Monarchs Landing and Flying Monarchs Landing and Flying
If they have come for the butterflies then bless their breaking hearts, but the young pair is looking nowhere except each other's eyes. He seems like he could carry them both over the street on great wings of grief tucked under his coat, while all around them float, like wisps of ash or the delicate prism sunlight flashing off the city glass, the orange-yellow-black-wing-flecked monarchs. Migrant, they're more than two dozen today, more long-lived than the species who keep to the localized gardens--they're barely a gram apiece, landing, holding still for the common milkweed that feeds their larvae, or balanced on bridges of plumegrass stalks and bottle-brush, wings fanning, closing, calmed by the long searchlight stems of hollyhock. If they have come for the butterflies then why is she weeping when he lifts her chin? He looks like he's holding his breath back-- or is he trying to shed tears, too? Are any left? He's got his other hand raised, waving, and almost before it stops the taxi's doors flare on both sides open. Nothing's stirring in the garden, not us, not the thinnest breeze among the flowers, yet by the time we look again they've flown.
Sep 6, 2001 / Books & the Arts / David Baker
On the Record: Toward a Union Label On the Record: Toward a Union Label
Courtney Love's plea to fellow recording artists to join her in the creation of a new musicians' guild, printed below, is the latest blow to the beleaguered "Big Five
Sep 6, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Courtney Love and Johnny Temple