Protest racism at the valley swim club today 5:30 pm.

You may have read or heard or yesterday that a Huntingdon Valley swim club decided to cancel an agreement with a Northeast Philadelphia day camp to allow campers to swim at the club two time a week because, the black campers would “change the complexion…and atmosphere of the club.” Kids who came to swim were summarily asked to leave the pool and told not to come back? What is there to say to decent people about the existence of blatant racism in this day and age? It’s grossly immoral. It’s enormously ignorant. It’s a throwback to days most of us hoped were long gone. And it can’t be allowed to stand without legal action and protest. Not to stand up and say that this sort of behavior is beyond the pale, is to allow it, and the attitudes behind it, to survive one more day. Continue reading

The digital divide and equality of opportunity

OK, here is the funny thing—or rather two funny things—about my writing on this topic. The first is that I’m one of the most net connected people I know. I use a computer for work or fun probably eight to ten hours a day and always have email, and IM windows open on my computer. And when I’m not on my computer, my phone is connected to a broadband connection through which I email, text, and IM. The second is that one of my closest friends is organizing around media related issues and has a particular concern with overcoming the digital divide. And yet, until today, when I read some responses to a very good op-ed in the Daily News by Hannah Sassaman and Todd Wolfson about the possibility of securing federal money to create a public broadband network in Philadelphia–a network that would help overcome the digital divide in… Continue reading