"At a time when pimpery, lick-spittlery, and picking the public's pocket are the order of the day — indeed, officially proclaimed as virtue — the poet must play the madcap to keep his balance. And ours."

RIP, Studs Terkel

The purpose of the Equality Ride isn't to protest — it's to have a dialogue with the students. When colleges have let them, Equality Riders have had open discussions with students about LGBT and queer identities and religious perspectives in support of such identities. To me, this is one of the most important examples of radical activism I've seen in a long time. Equality Riders aren't trying to pass legislation, they're not trying to sue people in the courts, they're not running for Congress or working on a campaign — they're talking directly to those most directly affected by this oppression.

UfPJ and allied groups, which seemed early on to have strong connections to the global justice movement, seems to have been transformed — in the hopes of attracting more "mainstream" participants — into not an anti-war organization, but an anti-Iraq War organization; not a pro-peace movement, but a pro-better-war-policy movement. Few connections are made to "the soul of America," as King would describe it, and much attention is focused on those things that are at best cogs in the system — individual policies on the war, planning or lack thereof for the war, and particular Republicans in Congress and the White House. Yet these problems go considerably beyond Bush and Republicans.

“Somewhere we must come to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be co-workers with God. And without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation.”

we shouldn't be flip about the shortcomings of progressivism in the twentieth century. woodrow wilson had a vision in the league of nations, but he was also an avowed racist. teddy roosevelt broke up the big combines and monopolies, but he also led an imperialist war that had lasting effects for nearly a century. these aren't just character flaws, either. this understanding of the world as something that needed to be "saved," "civilized," "pacified," etc. was a defining element of progressivism, from william jennings bryan on up to john f. kennedy.