artspolitics

I love Bob Herbert’s column in the New York Times and I loved this collection of essays written about people not getting by in America because of Bush’s failed policies and America giving up on them. There are sad stories about people wrongly convicted of crimes because they’re poor and black, and veterans suffering because they were injured in Iraq and have limited resources here in America. These are familiar stories, but more compelling because of Herbert’s telling the stories of individual people and humanizes them. When he writes about his fellow soldiers who fought in Vietnam suffering from mental problems, I felt connected to them as people, not statistics.

Though a lot of the stories of racism and classism can be overwhelming, there are slivers of hope. The Black residents of Tulia, Texas that were wrongly accused of drug possession were finally exonerated, and his essays about his baseball idols like Willie Mays are heartwarming. Promises Betrayed is a great look at how America isn’t as good at its promise, but with Bob Herbert keeping an eye out for forgotten Americans, maybe it will be someday.