Tavis Smiley’s departure from National Public Radio will be a loss not only to African-Americans, but also to all NPR listeners.

For its part, NPR issued a vague statement that is long on happy talk about Smiley helping to “jumpstart” its effort at reaching African-Americans.

Smiley’s departing letter to local stations asserts that NPR has “failed to meaningfully reach out to a broad spectrum of Americans who would benefit from public radio.”

Smiley may simply have been tired of banging his head against the racial wall. He told me when I interviewed him a year ago that he was often frustrated and exhausted from doing the work involved in putting together a meaningful show five times a week, while at the same time tussling frequently with NPR over the show’s tone and guests.

“The most difficult thing that I have had to do,” he told me, “is fight a culture at NPR, a culture that is antithetical to the best interests of people of color.”

More Hispanics may have voted for President Bush in 2004, but the perception that the Hispanic vote has shifted is misleading.

Much has been made about the apparent swing of Hispanic voters from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. Various exit polls claim that, nationally, 44 percent of Hispanic voters chose Bush over Sen. John Kerry. (By comparison, 35 percent voted for Bush over then-Vice President Al Gore in 2000.) There is no unanimity, however, in this figure. Zogby International, for instance, disputes the 2004 total. The polling firm believes the correct percentage for Hispanic support for Bush was somewhere between 33 percent and 38 percent.

But whatever the exact number, we need to get over the assumption that there is one monolithic Hispanic community with a common historical experience and political agenda. Some Hispanics have emigrated from Latin America, while others have come from the Caribbean, Europe or elsewhere.

What’s more, the Bush campaign focused on battleground states such as New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and Florida that have sizable Hispanic populations but are not exactly bastions of liberalism.

"The survival of democracy depends on the renunciation of violence and the development of nonviolent means to combat evil and advance the good." A. J Muste

In this quote Muste's meaning for the word "nonviolence" is much more than ending physical violence. His statement calls for the ending of system embedded violence in the forms of elitism, sexism, and racism as well. Limiting Peace advocacy to ending only overt physical violence and aggression leaves the societal, economic, and political violence in place and fully operational. Expecting reforms of such a configuration of interests and expectations to be able to "raise all boats" is delusional, if only because the general pattern of behavior is based upon discrimination, the advantage of the wealthy, and the promise of privilege. We must seek out the historical and social roots of anti-democracy, violence, self interest, and then dissolve it as a basis for our lives.

A disturbing story has been widely circulated that a vote for Bush was the default choice in the software of electronic voting machines in a number of states.  By definition, “default” settings are built-in by the manufacturer to make sure their programs work properly, and can be changed by the user.  Some examples of default settings on a home computer are screen savers, type face, and screen resolution.

According an article by Ann Harrison, posted at http://www.counterpunch.org/harrison12082004.html

in certain counties in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas, and New Mexico where touch screen voting machines were used, there have been complaints from voters who selected Kerry on the touch screen and saw their votes change to Bush on a summary screen.  In addition, there was a specific problem with the Sequoia AVC Edge machine (not used in Ohio) where voters actually saw preselected default choices presented to them.