Ellin Jimmerson — I recently served two weeks on Madison County, Alabama’s grand jury. For those who may not know, the grand jury is the legal agency which decides whether there is “probable cause” to indict. That means it is the grand jury which decides whether someone arrested for various criminal offenses, including misdemeanors and felonies, will face a jury trial. Wikipedia offers the following … Continue reading The Not So Grand Jury: My Experience
Ron Berger — During the 1950s to 1970s, social scientists were interested in the question of “national character,” that is, whether people in a nation could be characterized as having a common sociocultural orientation that structured the way they view the world and that penetrates individual consciousness or personality. Although this line of inquiry fell in disfavor by scholars who felt that the concept lacked … Continue reading Canada and the American Dream
Dave Gillespie — On June 17, 2015 Dylann Roof murdered nine African American parishioners at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. More than a year later, on December 15, 2016 he was found guilty on 33 charges associated with the murders. And, in January 2017, Dylann Roof was sentenced to death. The true story of Dylann Roof will now always be … Continue reading Crime and Due Process: Two Scenes Connected in the Dylann Roof Case
Tony Platt — In 2010, Rebecca Skloot was a little known science journalist on the faculty at the University of Memphis when her first book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, an investigation into the ethics of medical research, was published. It became an instant crossover hit: translated into twenty-five languages, persistently near the top of The New York Times bestseller nonfiction list, receiving the … Continue reading Inequality of Disclosure: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Ellin Jimmerson — Now that Donald Trump has been elected president, immigration as a topic of Christian concern has re-surfaced—or, in some cases, simply surfaced. My mind often wanders to this encounter I had with a deeply reflective Border Patrol agent on an airplane between Tucson, Arizona and Guanajuato, Mexico in 2011. I had gone to the area on the US/Mexico border to shoot footage for my migrant … Continue reading A Christian Border Patrol Agent’s Reflection on The Border Wall
Charles Cottle — When I was young there were heroes. They were on TV, in the comic books, and at the movies. It was the 1950’s, the heyday of the cowboy western. It was the age of the buckaroo. A man of few words, and often a loner, the buckaroo showed up whenever there was trouble. He always defended the weak in the name of … Continue reading Bring Back the Buckaroo: Or “Shane, Shane, Come Back!”
Jeff Berger — Recently I read an article by Sharon Noguchi in my local newspaper, the San Jose Mercury, about teachers helping students to distinguish between fake news and real news. The article focused on teenagers who naively get their news from the internet. The key paragraph in the article reads: “Lessons on fake news fit right into the state’s Common Core State Standards, which encourage … Continue reading Reflections on Fake News
Les Guliasi — Point Isabel is the largest off-leash dog park in the country. The two sections of the 53 acre park are divided by Hoffman channel and connected by a wooden bridge that once served as a train crossing. Located on the eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay, a stone’s throw north of Berkeley, California, the park has sweeping views of the San … Continue reading The Sheriff of the Park
Bob Bates — Sociologist Matthew Desmond’s widely acclaimed book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2016), a study of the city of Milwaukee, pounds at a reader’s emotions until they become raw. Daily struggles and their grinding effects on America’s poor who are forced to rent housing in contexts of landlord neglect of substandard structures will likely make you both nauseated and enraged … Continue reading Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Jeff Berger — Last October I was called to jury duty. When the judge announced what the case was about, I felt a chill go down my spine. It was a well-known kidnapping/murder case, and the prosecution was going for the death penalty. Coincidentally, there was a California state proposition on the ballot of the November 2016 election that was to occur 3 weeks later. … Continue reading My Day on Jury Duty for a Death Penalty Case
Dave Gillespie — The verdict came in around mid-afternoon Thursday, December 15, just a couple of hours after the lawyers completed their closing statements and the judge gave his charge to the jury. U.S. v. Dylann Storm Roof: Guilty on all charges. Given the complexity of the indictment—33 counts, many of them alleging hate crimes—the brief time it took was remarkable. But the verdict itself was anything but surprising. … Continue reading The Dylann Roof Trial: First-Hand Reflections and Assessment
Ron Berger — Cross-national studies indicate that Americans report one of the highest levels of belief in God in the world. A recent Gallup Poll conducted in May-June of 2016 found that 89 percent of Americans say they believe in God. When given the option of expressing agnosticism by saying they are not sure if they believe in God, 79 percent still say they do. … Continue reading America’s Four Gods
DeWitt Clinton — Most people I see I don’t know. I can sit down on a public bench and not say a word to the guy sitting next to me, as he’s busy scrolling or texting. I wouldn’t think of even mentioning how the weather has changed slightly. Yes, of course, I have neighbors, but I’ll also admit I don’t know their first or last … Continue reading Those Neighbors
Ron Berger and Marvin Free — In the current presidential campaign, Donald Trump has positioned himself as the “law and order” candidate and an advocate of aggressive “stop-and-frisk” policing practices in some urban communities. This policy, which is praised by some as vital to police effectiveness and criticized by others as racially discriminatory, remains controversial. Fortunately, there is a considerable amount of criminological research that … Continue reading Policing, Profiling, and Crime
Ron Berger — In July 2015 the murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco by illegal immigrant Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez reignited political discussions about the link between immigration and crime. Donald Trump, of course, has led the charge, claiming that illegal immigrants are running rampant throughout country committing violent crimes. In doing so, Trump has gone farther than his predecessors in trying to exploit this … Continue reading What Research Says about Immigration and Crime
Ron Berger — I am a sociologist by training and have been thinking about and studying disability as a social phenomenon, not just as an individual experience, for many years. In the tradition of C. Wright Mills, who famously coined the term “sociological imagination,” I have sought to illuminate the ways in which personal troubles are related to public issues. In this article, I highlight … Continue reading Disability in Society: Four Public Agendas
Charles Cottle — Snow was falling and I was tired. I was returning home to Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin after a day of teaching at the university. It was 5:30 in the afternoon in the middle of winter, so it had already been dark for about an hour. As I pulled into town, I started thinking about food. I was in no mood to start cooking … Continue reading Dining with the Colonel – No. 39
Ellin Jimmerson — Last Thursday, something unusual happened in America. In a country uncomfortable with both political discussions and art which is not decorative, we heatedly discussed a statue. You know the one I’m referencing – the nude statue of presidential hopeful Donald Trump – depicting him as a pompous dictator with no clothes and no testicles and a very, very small penis. Commissioned by the … Continue reading The Emperor Has No Balls: Are the Trump Statues Body Shaming or Legitimate Political Commentary?
David Gillespie — It was Monday, June 20. This year. Celebrating a milestone wedding anniversary, we were in Rome. This would be a day for touring the Vatican under the care of a local guide. As we walked through the public area of the Papal Apartments on our way to the Sistine Chapel, the guide told us that we were about to go into the … Continue reading Twenty-five Selfies in the Raphael Room
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