Democracy in Print: The Best of The Progressive Magazine, 1909–2009

Acknowledgments

This was a group e¤ort if ever there was one. Thanks to Elizabeth DiNovella for doing a lot of the heavy lifting, not only in reading decades of the magazine’s output but also in narrowing the selections. To Ruth Conni¤ and Amitabh Pal for tackling a couple of decades each and for reading over the entire manuscript and making thoughtful comments, and thanks to Amit also for hunting down reprint rights. Thanks to Nick Jehlen for designing the cover. Thanks to Dennis Best, Ben Lembrich, Ina Lukas, and Phuong Luu for retrieving old texts and making them usable in the computer age. Thanks to Diana Cook for copyediting this book, and for proofreading The Progressive for more than thirty-Wve years. Thanks to Jodi Vander Molen for proofreading this book. Thanks to Furaha Norton and Sarah Fau for their Wne editing suggestions early on. And enormous thanks to Sheila Leary at the University of Wisconsin Press, for riding to the rescue at a delicate moment, and to Gwen Walker and Sheila Moermond for their excellent editorial advice, and to Andrea Christo¤erson, for her marketing e¤orts. Thanks also to Gail Leondar-Wright for her professional assistance in getting the word out. Dennis Best, Andrea Potter, and Jodi Vander Molen of The Progressive helped raise crucial revenue for this book project and for our centennial celebration. Research for this book was made possible, in part, by the Argosy Foundation, the Brico Fund, the Buck Foundation, the Compton Foundation, Betty and Corkey Custer, Daniel Erdman, the Evjue Foundation, John and Mary Frantz, the Fund for Investigative Journalism, David and Betsy Gi¤ord, Evelyn Haas, Victor and Lorraine Honig, Matt Johnson, the Kelly Family Foundation of Madison, Wisconsin, Pam and Don Lichty, Art and Sue Lloyd, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Michael Mann, Je¤rey Mayersohn, Richard Mazess, the Menemsha Fund, the Mosaic Foundation of R. and P. Heydon, Jack and Lucia Murtaugh, Christopher Oeschsli, the Purple Moon Foundation , Robert Redford, Lucy Rosenberg, Margaret Rosenberry, the Samuel Rubin Foundation, Natalie Sue Schmitt, Carol Sundberg, Phillip Willkie, and thousands of steadfast supporters of The Progressive. a c k n o w l e d g m e n t s xxi Final thanks to the permanent outside board members of The Progressive, Inc.— Gina Carter, Dayna Cunningham, James Friedman, and Barb Kneer—who give generously of their time and their wisdom in exchange for six free lunches a year.  We’re grateful to all the authors and copyright owners who gave us permission to reproduce their work in this anthology. Some of them requested speciWc citations, which follow. James Baldwin, “A Letter to My Nephew,” copyright © 1962 by James Baldwin. First published in The Progressive, December 1962. Copyright renewed. Collected in The Fire Next Time, published by Vintage Books. Reprinted by arrangement with the James Baldwin Estate. Noam Chomsky, “The Bounds of Thinkable Thought,” copyright © 1985 by Noam Chomsky. Used by permission of the author. Sandra Cisneros, “Prayer for the New Millennium,” copyright © 2007 by Sandra Cisneros. First published in The Progressive, July 2007. Reprinted by permission of Susan Bergholz Literary Services, New York, NY, and Lamy, NM. All rights reserved. Eduardo Galeano, “The Curse of Columbus,” copyright © 2007. First published in The Progressive, October 2007. Reprinted by permission of Susan Bergholz Literary Services, New York, NY, and Lamy, NM. All rights reserved. Marilyn Hacker, “Rue Beaurepaire, I and II,” copyright © 2002 by Marilyn Hacker. Collected in Desesperanto: Poems, 1999–2002 by Marilyn Hacker. Used by permission of the author and W. W. Norton & Company. June Jordan’s essays and poem are reprinted by permission of the June Jordan Literary Estate, www.junejordan.com. Maxine Kumin, “Poem for an Election Year: The Politics of Bindweed,” copyright © 2001 by Maxine Kumin. Collected in The Long Marriage by Maxine Kumin. Used by permission of the author and W. W. Norton & Company. Martin Luther King Jr.’s essay, “The Burning Truth in the South,” was reprinted by arrangement with The Heirs to the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr., c/o Writers House as agent for the proprietor, New York, NY. Adrienne Rich, “Veterans Day,” copyright © 2002, 2001 by Adrienne Rich. Collected in The Fact of a Doorframe: Selected Poems, 1950–2001 by Adrienne Rich. Used by permission of the author and W. W. Norton & Company. xxii Acknowledgments Luis J. Rodríguez, “My Father’s Party,” copyright © 2008 by...