A Wild Week

Friday, September 15, 2006

I'm looking back at the week and shaking my head. Boy, did we ever cover a lot of territory, beginning with our 9/11 show with Michael Ratner, followed by the Mexican elections, then on to Tuvan rock throat-singing, then the visionary James Martin with his counter Doomsday take on the future of the 21st century, and ending with a salute to cheddar cheese! Now that's one wild whitewater ride. And all of it done running on fumes without the benefit of the manic Joe Hardtke, our Technical and Creative Director who's been on a looong European vacation, well deserved, but you picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille.

I was very grateful to the callers in the Michael Ratner show, especially to Pat who called in at the very end of the hour and cried. Thank you, Pat. You have restored my faith in my fellow countrymen who seem to have become rather blase at the notion of torture, rendition, and black sites controlled by the CIA. Sorry, but I can't conceal my sorrow and outrage.

And thank you for all those great calls on Tuesday in the Mexican election show! It was very gratifying to get such a robust response. Makes me think a global cultural call-in program on WPR is not such a crazy idea after all.

My favorite program this week was the one with the Tuvan throat singer doing classic rock, but you guys know by now how much I love way-out stuff like that. I hope somebody goes to his concert in Humboldt Park tonight and sends us a report.

My favorite guest this week was James Martin, the British futurist who seems to have so much clear-eyed, level-headed faith in the ability of The Transition Generation to steer us through the whitewater bottleneck ahead. He also has a lot of faith in our capacity to reach an understanding across diverse cultures. He's predicting that by 2050 we'll all be familiar with all the world's diverse cultures. Too bad I won't be around that long.

One more thing: I had a bright idea after hearing Joe Elder give his talk last Wednesday on The Roots of Conflict in the Middle East. What do you think about starting an Interfaith dialogue on Here on Earth? Do any of you know any religious leaders from the three major faiths that might be really good in such a context? One of the points James Martin makes in "The Meaning of the 21st Century" is that the most dfficult task that we face is in avoiding antagonisms among religions. "It would be an irony grander than any in great theater," he says, if the religions that evolved from the teachings of the world's saintly prophets somehow prompted wars that wiped out civilization." Indeed.

Thanks for staying in touch.

Jean