Today's TMM: All About Choices

Our theme today was Choices. Choices in education, questioning whether public school systems should allow the U.S. military to run charter schools; the choice to speak-up about politics, and choices when it comes to the health of a child ... and your money.

I have to be honest; we didn't plan it that way. But when we looked at many of the issues currently in the news, and how they seem to follow a common theme, that's just how today's program seemed to naturally evolve (I LOVE it when that happens). Actually, our line editor, Kyle McKinnon, is the one who stepped back, saw the "big picture" and pointed it out to me. Say hello to the people, Kyle...

Hey, people ... it turns out that this program -- whether you hear it on the radio, stream it online or in podcast form -- has such a nice rhythm to it, and we try to I.D. the day's beat early on. Of course, sometimes the program is so "live" and ALIVE that it takes on a heartbeat and life of its own. Credit the host for that. She also prettied-up the "forest-through-the-trees" idea today to make it sing.

We thought all the questions about military charter schools was so interesting that we're also going to follow it on tomorrow's program. You heard from two parents today, with different views. Tomorrow, you'll hear from someone who has studied the issue AND, hopefully, from one other voice about overall trends in high school education. We hope you'll join us...

Also, I wanted to mention the piece we did on the songs of protest. We got the idea from Chris Macias, who wrote a piece for the Sacramento Bee noticing that today's music artists, with a few exceptions, are not as explicit about their own political views in their music as artists were during other times of war. Macias argued that there were subtle political messages in their work. In true Tell Me More fashion, of course, we wondered why. So, we invited both Macias and Serj Tankian of System of a Down on to talk about it.

But now, I'm thinking ... those pieces we heard were sentiments and ideas associated with left-of-center politics. That's logical, after all. What is usually protested? ... If not the status quo (or those in power), recent anti-war messages have been associated with the politics of the left (but not always ... certainly, isolationism in World War I was associated with the center-right).

NOW, I want to know about topical music of the right or center-right political leanings. I don't mean racists. We've all heard (I suspect) about the racist twin-girl singers whose music is being promoted by white supremacist groups. Rather, I'm interested in mainstream conservative political views as expressed by artists. ...Do we not think about this so much because it's so mainstream, especially in the genre of country music (I'm proud to be an American -- how many political campaigns have used that one)? But even that really isn't what I'm thinking about, because that song expresses an ongoing value, pride in nationalism. I'm interested in topical stuff.

So ... anybody want to send some songs our way? If there's an interesting theme. I'd do a follow-up...

Tomorrow. We have a wonderful (I think) conversation with a most unlikely peacemaker. Betty Bigombe was packing for a business trip for her job at the World Bank -- more concerned about whether she had enough shoes for every outfit and paid all the bills before her travel -- when she saw that civil conflict in Uganda was escalating. Most of us would have shaken our heads, turned off the TV and kept packing. Not Betty. She did pack ... but not for her business trip. What she did, and how she did it, might offer one of the more helpful things you'll hear this week about how peace can be achieved ... even in some of the most difficult, intractable conflicts.

That's tomorrow...

Michel Martin

4:39 PM ET | 10-23-2007 | permalink

comments | | e-mail

4:39 PM ET | 10-23-2007 | permalink