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Keeping the faith


We live in a time when faith can get easily politicized, thrown into an opponent’s lap like a hot potato. But don’t let all of the talk of organized religion fool you. We also live in a time when faith can be tailored to fit an individual’s needs and beliefs.

In this issue of InTheFray, we explore some of faith’s personal, social, and cultural manifestations. Belton-Martell Mickle journeys to Ghana to discover his roots — and the importance of the Diaspora to African development. And ITF activist’s corner editor Anja Tranovich tackles a classic hotspot for belief in her interview with Palestinian-fighter-turned-peace-activist Ashraf Khader. The two discuss Khader’s work with Combatants for Peace, the difficulties of renouncing violence in a land plagued by armed conflict, how inciting violence led him to fight for peace, and his group’s hope for a politics without militarization.

Rounding out this month’s stories, cancer patient Robinette Pelka uncovers the waiting room’s dark underbelly and creates her own rituals for enduring this melancholy space.

If you haven’t donated to ITF yet, I hope you’ll do so. The past year has been an exciting time for InTheFray — we launched our new site at inthefray.org, our writers received national awards, and we expanded our content with a new section devoted to activist interviews and an eclectic assortment of articles from five continents. But we need your help to continue providing high-quality writing and photography on topics that matter. In the coming year, we plan to broaden our pool of talent by increasing the compensation paid to our contributors and staff. We will also raise awareness of the magazine through targeted marketing and advertising. We hope that you will join us in our mission to inspire conversations about identity and community, foster tolerance and unity, and help society come closer to a vision of justice, transparency, and opportunity for all people. Please support our efforts and visit inthefray.org/donate to make a donation. You can even use it as a tax write-off!

Thanks for reading!

Laura Nathan
Editor
Buffalo, New York

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Blog

Random bits


A new study says that feminists are not ugly spinsters, that feminists actually have it better (what with being respected as human beings and all) romantically and sexually. I knew that. So why am I not doing a hiney-shaking victory dance? Because, dangit, it’s a biased study in a journal called Sex Roles. Also, we cannot read the study for ourselves. Even if I happen to like the results, I still need to see it for myself.

Not that a single study, done by anyone without any bias, would make a difference for feminists anyway. We’re doomed to keep paying for our foremothers’ aesthetic shortcomings, no matter what we stand for now and no matter if it benefits men, too. I’m still going to hear, in response to admitting I’m a feminist, "But…you’re wearing lipstick…you’re pretty." ♦

So yesterday I was in my car, waiting to take a corner, at a full stop, a good 10 feet away from passing cars, when a white-haired old man on a bike (at least in his late 60s and without a helmet) flipped me off, mouthing something about trying to kill him. He made me laugh. But he might want to try a helmet if he’s so concerned about living longer — the viagra doesn’t make your skull harder, you know. ♦

Die A Little by Meghan Abbott — the new goddess of fiction noir — will be made into a movie with Jessica Biel. You know how I feel about books being made into movies — it’s like being told you’re going to be punched in the face, and I squeal, really — bruises are so my color. Once it’s over, I’m just pissed off and hurt. ♦

If you are like me and you enjoy bowling but cannot knock down a pin to save your life, I’ve learned a trick: if you’re right-handed, bowl with your left. It had been three hours and half the group went home, so I picked up the 10-pounder to see what would happen… I tossed it with my south paw and got a strike. After that, eight pins. Try it. ♦

Back in February I had the misfortune of buying a new computer with Vista pre-installed. These have been the most trying eight months of my life. In fact, my penny-pinching uncle’s computer, still running on Windows 95 (I’m not even kidding) runs faster than a machine with Vista. Until a friend of a friend who works with computers said to dump Norton AntiVirus. Hallelujah, it worked. Apparently, Norton and Vista cannot co-exist peacefully. So I picked up a copy of CA AntiVirus ($40 at Staples with a $30 mail-in rebate. Sa-weet) and I can’t believe the difference. It doesn’t take 10 minutes for Word to open. The machine doesn’t have a crippling panic attack if I try to download an attachment. Spread the word. ♦ 

Finally, I’ll give you $20 bill (Monopoly money — a freelance writer doesn’t have $20. Silly rabbit.) if you can identify which show is playing on the TV:
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Political Prose

Appearances on Bill Moyers Journal and the Brian Lehrer Show

My coauthor will appear on Bill Moyers Journal tonight (9 p.m. on most PBS channels), and both of us will appear on the Brian Lehrer Show, a radio program on New York's WNYC station, on Nov. 15.


Katherine S. Newman, a Princeton sociologist and my coauthor, will be discussing our book The Missing Class: Portaits of the Near Poor in America on the next edition of Bill Moyers Journal. The show is broadcast at 9 p.m. tonight on most PBS stations.

Also, Newman and I will be appearing on the Brian Lehrer Show, a radio program on New York’s WNYC station, on Thursday, Nov. 15, from 11:06-11:40 a.m. It’s a live studio interview with call-ins.

As for upcoming events, Newman and I will be doing a book reading in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the First Parish Church on Wednesday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m. The address is 3 Church Street, which is adjacent to Harvard Yard.

I’ll be doing a book reading at Manhattan’s New York Public Library on Monday, Dec. 10 at 6:30 p.m. The address is 455 Fifth Avenue (at 40th St.), across the street from the central research library.

Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen

Dear Reader, In The Fray is a nonprofit staffed by volunteers. If you liked this piece, could you please donate $10? If you want to help, you can also: