Uninhabited Spaces

The Times of India is reporting that at least 80 people have been killed and 900 injured in terrorist attacks in Mumbai, including an attack on the famed Taj Hotel (1903). This story has special resonance for me as I stayed at the Taj in 2004 during my memorable trip to India. I fell in love with Mumbai and this historic hotel made such an indelible impression on me. I feel so sad for this great city and for the people who are suffering the senseless and incomprehensible slaughter of innocents. My heart goes out to all of those affected. 

L aunching December 1, (RED)WIRE  is a digital music magazine with one very important difference. It not only changes the way music is discovered, it provides medicine for people who need it in Africa.    Every Wednesday, receive your new exclusive music via the (RED)WIRE player – which also places each song automatically in your iTunes.  Half of your $5 monthly membership fee goes directly to The Global Fund to help buy and administer medicine to people in Africa living with HIV. It costs just $12 per month to provide someone the two pills a day they need to stay alive. So every five (RED)WIRE members generate enough money, every month, to help keep one person living with HIV in Africa alive. Simple. Powerful. Learn more here .  

Apparently the music and fashions of the 1980s are making a serious comeback. How fitting, since we are living in round two of the Me generation. Sadly, Time put "You." on the cover of its 2006 Person of the Year edition. This was well-received by the narcissistic self-entitled masses, their egos pumped with hourly visits to their Facebook and MySpace pages, stacked with their global "friends". This is a generation obsessed with rights and the blithe assumption that all opinons are valid and that everyone is entitled to share their opinions (Might as well throw me on the pile, if you are actually reading this blog). But this is a bastardization of democracy, for democracy is not solely about rights but also about responsibilities. Yes, you have a right to free speech but you have the responsibility to make sure it is informed free speech. Witness the endless cascade of comments at the end of nearly every article on the web. It matters little whether there is an ounc...

In the looming shadow of California's Proposition 8, hope emerges from the east coast, where a Connecticut judge has just opened the door to marriage for same-sex couples. See the breaking news at CNN .

With the passing of Proposition 8 in California, banning marriage for same-sex couples, the timing could not be more sadly ironic for the upcoming biopic on Harvey Milk. Played by Sean Penn the movie "Milk" tells the story of the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. Elected in 1977 as a city supervisor for San Francisco Milk was a passionate advocate for civil rights for gay people. Tragically, he was assassinated by a fellow city supervisor two years later. View the trailer here .

  If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference. It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the  United States of America . It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearfu...