“Jazz does not belong to one race or culture, but is a gift that America has given the world.”

When I started graduate school I was interested in the culture of the Civil Rights Movement.

Although I was brought up in a culturally and religious conservative culture, as a Baptist I was taught that no one has the right to subpoena your conscience.

Coming up in the African-American culture, we were taught that we belonged to the universe and society was wrong in the way it dealt with us. We had to learn to express and affirm values not from the winning position.

The down side of Americans being obsessed with pop culture is that they kind of like it light.

So then it comes back to whether the suffering and cruelty is justified by its place in a tradition that has deep roots in the culture. At present, the view in Catalonia apparently is that it does not.

Except for talk radio, liberals pretty much control the culture.

Faith, culture, structure and guidance are good things.

So there is a long struggle between the Dar al-Islam and the Dar al-Harb, which in effect was Christendom. This was the perceived enemy. And this has inevitably colored the perception of everything else.