May 1997

Articles

• My Race Problem

  A consideration of touchy matters -- racial pride, racial solidarity, and racial loyalty -- rarely discussed.

  Randall Kennedy

• The Man Who Counts the Killings

  George Gerbner, who thirty years ago founded the Cultural Indicators project, which is best known for its estimate that the average American child will have watched 8,000 murders on television by the age of twelve, is so alarmed about the baneful effects of TV that he describes them in terms of "fascism."

  Scott Stossel

• Abortion in American History

  The year after abortion was legalized in New York State, the maternal-mortality rate there dropped by 45 percent—one reason why legalization can be seen as “a public-health triumph.”

  Katha Pollitt

• The May Almanac

• The Disunited States

  "Devolution" -- shifting power from Washington to the fifty states -- is no cure for what ails American government.

  John D. Donahue

• Hidden Colors

  The rubble on one of the few remaining gray blocks near the old Checkpoint Charlie reveals much about what Berlin is losing, and losing fast.

  David Lawday

• Green

  Guy Billout

• Off the Maine Coast

  The island as foreign country; the vacationer as admiring expat

  Peter Davison

• Underwater Daredevils

  Divers compete to see who can go deepest on just one breath -- and who can survive the yet-more-perilous ascent to air.

  Colin Beavan

• The Crisis of Electoral Politics

  Martin P. Wattenberg

• 77 North Washington Street-May 97

• Letters

• The Salsa Sectors

  Michael J. Weiss

• Word Court

  Barbara Wallraff

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