Reading Journal Entry: Promises Betrayed: Waking Up From the American Dream, by Bob Herbert

Bob Herbert is op-ed columnist for the New York Times. This is a collection of columns from the past several years, grouped thematically. They address a litany of liberal issues, from the domestic (institutionalized racism economic inequity corruption in the justice system unemployment violence crime) to the foreign (terrorism mismanagement of the war in iraq no weapons of mass destruction wounded soldiers vietnam bush looks like a monkey). It is what it is - a collection of columns - and as such it doesn't have much coherence of theme.

I had read many of these columns before, and re-reading them was like opening an old wound. It makes me depressed about the future of the United States (hell, of the human race) to know that things like the prosecution scandal in Tulia, Texas are happening.

Reading story after horrible story I wondered why Bob Herbert doesn't run out of outrage. How does he manage to look at these issues day in and day out without going blind or throwing up. Why hasn't he quit his job at the New York Times and gone to work proof-reading romance novels or repairing TV sets? He must have more intestinal fortitude than I do.

I just joined Code Pink because of this damn book.