Bill Resnick talks with writer and Portland-area teacher, Bill Bigelow, about how his book "Rethinking Columbus" was removed from Tuscon-area schools because it violates Arizona Law concerning teaching ethnic studies in Public Schools. Bill Bigelow explains how the crack-down on the Mexican-American studies program is about silencing pedagogy that encourages a historical appreciation for racial and other oppression in the USA---insisting that "in America there are no oppressors, only individuals." He also talks about his book, "Rethinking Columbus", which he published in the mid-90s to address the alarming dearth of information about the natives experience of Columbus' arrival to the "new world". He says that the book is a metaphor for the whole Mexican-American studies curricula, in that "it's a lesson in whose stories to pay attention to ignore."  

Iven Hale reviews Colson Whitehead's 1999 novel, "The Intuitionist." Set in a big city during a period of racial integration,Whitehead and Iven both explore the racial implications of the elevator as a metaphor for "social-uplift", the black female protagonist who is the first non-white male elevator inspector in the city, and the dueling methods for testing the functioning of the elevators that so deeply structure society: intuitionism and empiracism. Hale thinks Whitehead bites off more than he can adequately chew, but compares the novel to Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" and remarks positively on how Whitehead treats blindness caused by privilege.

She first became interested in the book through an interview by David Naimon with Colson Whitehead  on KBOO, and refers to one of the many superb essays the novel has generated in response.

 Featuring Chris Hedges and many others, the new film Capitalism Is the Crisis argues forcefully that the current financial crisis is not just a temporary glitch in capitalism, but is part of the way the system works.  Movie Moles Frann Michel and Jan Haaken lay out the film's argument.  But they also explain some of what the movie fails to explain about the history of capitalism and what it will take to end it.  The film can be viewed on line here.  

Two local activists on climate and energy talk about what's going on in Portland and elswhere in Oregon around these issues. Noah Hochman is part of Rising Tide of Portland and of Occupy Portland. John Roschke is with Oregonians for a Renewable Energy Program.