John L. Cooper Livres

America is a very violent society. Even murder has become just another blood sport. The reason for it all is emotional deprivation. This book explains the phenomenon and its impact on our society.

The subject of this essay is Clarence Thomas, his elevation to the Supreme Court, and the political process that put him there. When President George H. Bush nominated him to sit on the Court, his name produced a great deal of consternation in the liberal community. Thomas was the product of a very controversial public career. He was identified as a person who had been insensitive the civil rights of minorities, women and elderly people when he had been a top administrator at the Department of Education and Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). As well, being a politically conservative black man he did not appear to be suitable as a replacement for the retiring liberal justice Thurgood Marshall. Moreoever, on moral and ethical grounds, Thomas had a dubious professional record that demonstrated a failure to respect the courts and the law. To be sure, there were legitimate questions about his qualifications to be a member of the highest judicial body in the land. Nevertheless, President Bush wanted Thomas on the Supreme Court, and he played hardball partisan politics to achieve that end.

John Cooper's moving tale of growing up in the slums of Philadelphia in the 1940's is a startling look at a difficult time in American history. African-American and overwhelmingly poor, John was one of eight boys raised by his remarkable mother amidst difficulties many of us can't even imagine. As a young boy he believed in magic, fairy godmothers, and Hollywood motion pictures, but grows up to recognize that it is the struggle to survive that gives life meaning and that the best lessons in life come from one's own experiences.

The Black Ghettos are no descendents. They are political statements forced upon the minorities by the majority. The ghettos are to house throwaway people and keep them out of the mainstream. In this the guard, the police are not there to catch wrong doers, but rather they are there in the ghetto to help maintain the status quo and social order.

It is safe to say that the true role of the police, and indeed the criminal justice system over all, is largely misunderstood by the public and very likely by the people who make up its ranks. It is the purpose of this book to define this role by asking the WHY? Why do we have a police force and a criminal justice system in American and what are the true sociological ends being served by them; or better still, to what ends are they being asked to serve. We may discover that what the police are expected to accomplish is more important for society than their actual performance.

Judy Wald has a problem. Shes in a mental institution and she doesnt know why. All she is sure of is that her problem has something to do with the multiple backgrounds of her family. Judy is a little girl lost, lost in the web of ethnocentrism, the emotional attitude that results in the belief that ones own culture or nation is superior to others. But in actuality, ethnocentrism is just another name for bigotry.