Express
In Conversation
Marilyn Gittell
By Julie Thompson KeaneIn the past year, the New York City public school system has undergone an historical and seismic shift—with the blessings of Albany and the Department of Justice, schools are once again under mayoral control and the locally elected school boards have been disbanded with no clear provision for community involvement at this time.
Hope Rises for Progressive 3rd Parties
By Williams ColeThe two-party system has given this country the war of Lyndon Johnson, the Watergate of Nixon and the incompetence of Carter. Saying we should keep the two-party system simply because it is working is like saying the Titanic voyage was a success because a few people survived in life rafts. —Senator Eugene McCarthy, 1978
Win Locally, Lose Nationally
By Ryan GrimThere are currently 171 Greens who hold elected office. This is small solace in such rough times, but still an impressive number. Of these, there are still more State House of Delegate members (one) than dog catchers, although it’s tough to imagine a Green dogcatcher.
Will There Be Another FDR?
By Theodore HammThe prevailing wisdom among left-liberal critics is that the Democratic Party needs to restore the New Deal to the center of its agenda. With an economy teetering on the brink of depression, a government abdicating any responsibility for the well-being of society’s least well-off, and an opposition party groping for direction, it does seem like the early 1930s all over again.
The Roots of Carnival in Veracruz, Mexico*
By Andrew Grant WoodThe roots of modern Carnival in Veracruz extend back to the colonial period when residents living in neighborhoods located just outside the city wall (barrios, negros or extramuros) forged new forms of music and dance drawn from European, African and Indigenous traditions. Gradually growing out of the December Corpus Christi religious celebration, porteños fashioned Carnival into a local, pre-Lenten event.
