Dear Progressive Reader,
Egyptian feminist author and physician Dr. Nawal El Saadawi passed away last Sunday in Cairo at the age of 89. A lifelong activist, Dr. Saadawi opposed fundamentalism and patriarchy in her own country and U.S. imperialism around the globe. She opposed the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003, and was an active voice during Arab Spring in 2011. Dr. Saadawi spoke with The Progressive in 2011 about that uprising. “Women are half the society. You cannot have a revolution without women,” she said. “You cannot have democracy without women. You cannot have equality without women. You can’t have anything without women. You cannot have dignity. The slogan of the revolution was dignity, social justice, and freedom. You cannot have dignity or social justice or freedom without women.” A 2017 BBC documentary about her life is currently available to watch on the Internet.
March 24 was the third anniversary of the youth-led “March for Our Lives” in which hundreds of thousands gathered in cities across the country in 2018 to march for an end to gun violence. But sadly, this past week seems to also reflect a surge in that violence. On Monday March 22, ten people were killed in Boulder, Colorado. Less than a week earlier, on March 16, eight were murdered in Atlanta, Georgia. But in between those two, there were at least five other mass shootings. And yesterday, in Philadelphia and Virginia Beach, two more shootings wounded or killed at least sixteen more people.
“Typically, after each gun-related massacre, elected officials—particularly conservative lawmakers who have received millions of dollars in campaign contributions from the NRA—offer “thoughts and prayers” to the victims and their families. They churn out empty platitudes but take no action,” wrote David Love on our website in early 2018. Will this time be different? Sharon Johnson hopes so. As she says in our February/March issue of The Progressive, “President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were elected with the most ambitious gun reform agenda in decades. . . . [and to] meet the challenge, gun-safety organizations are seeking to ensure that gun safety will be front and center during the Biden Administration.” Let us hope, for the sake of everyone in cities and towns across the United States, that this time action will indeed be taken.
Elsewhere on our website this week, Ruth Conniff takes a look at what is being called on FOX News “Biden’s Border Crisis.” Sarah Lahm brings the latest update on the Minneapolis civil settlement with the family of George Floyd while the criminal trial for his murder gets underway. Jake Jacobs reports on the movement to oppose standardized testing in schools even as the Biden Administration green-lights the controversial system. And, longtime radio producer David Barsamian interviews Ralph Nader about corporatism’s threat to democracy. “It behooves the Democrats to start looking at themselves in the mirror and asking why they came so close to disaster,” Nader tells him. “The Democrats don’t do the kind of post-election self-assessment that the Republicans do when they lose elections. They’re very arrogant.”
Finally, on a sad note, longtime contributor Reese Erlich writes that he has penned his last column for The Progressive due to declining health. Erlich has written the bi-monthly “Foreign Correspondent” column for our website for more than three years—building on a decades-long career as an award-winning international reporter, broadcaster, and author. We will miss his voice, and his insights, in our pages.
Keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time. Also, stay tuned for two upcoming virtual book talks in April with authors Victoria Law and Chuck Collins – both are benefit events for The Progressive.
Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher
P.S. – Our new April/May issue just went to press and will be in the mail in a week or so. If you don’t already subscribe to The Progressive in print or digital form, please consider doing so today. Also, if you have a friend or relative that you feel should hear from the many voices for progressive change within our pages, please consider giving a gift subscription.
P.P.P.S. –We need you now more than ever. Please take a moment to support hard-hitting, independent reporting on issues that matter to you. Your donation today will keep us on solid ground and will help us continue to grow in the coming years. You can use the wallet envelope in the current issue of the magazine, or click on the “Donate” button below to join your fellow progressives in sustaining The Progressive as a voice for peace, social justice, and the common good.
|
|
