There’s a famous scene in a season one episode of The Andy Griffith Show, “Ellie for Council.” A battle of the sexes erupts when the local pharmacist (and Andy Taylor’s first love interest on the program, Ellie Walker, played by the wonderful Elinor Donahue), a woman, runs for town council. Just at the moment when Ellie has decided to quit the council race to try to bring the gender feud to an end, Andy, who’s been as chauvinistic as any man in Mayberry, steps up and defends her right to seek office. Andy begins his speech with one of the most delicious of “Southernisms” you’re ever likely to hear: “Naw. Naw. Now, listen – all of you. I’m'a gone say this. I’m bound to say it and you’re bound to hear it!” And he proceeds to shame his own gender, including himself, for their petty bigotry.

This essay about is going to be a little like that. Full story »

I suspect I am not alone in saying that for me, Andy Griffith was like family. It’s not just that he was from North Carolina, my native state, or that Mayberry was based on his hometown of Mt. Airy, maybe an hour up the road from my little burg. It’s not just that he wove an idyllic little haven off the highway, secure from the encroachments of an dangerously accelerating world, and brought it into our homes each week.

I guess it has more to do with the fact that he never once seemed to lose sight of his moral compass. He went to Hollywood and it didn’t seem to change him. The result was a show that had more pure heart than just about anything in television history, and I have through the years suggested that The Andy Griffith Show might be the greatest sitcom ever produced. Full story »

The Andy Griffith that I grew up with was the kindly, somewhat bumbling sherriff of Mayberry, North Carolina. I can’t remember whether I was introduced to him first on the Andy Griffith Show or Gomer Pyle. Given my Appalachian roots and the innocuous safety of the shows, the distinction is minor. The shows were increasingly culturally out of step with the country and quickly outgrown.

Eventually, my mom discovered Matlock when I was already in college–so my exposure was minimal: seemed like Andy got older, graduated from law school, and moved to the Big City of Atlanta where he solved Real Crimes that didn’t happen in Mayberry. His sidekicks were (gasp!) a woman and an African American. But it was obviously a show meant for my parents. Full story »

By now Focal Points readers are no doubt aware of the report that Human Rights Watch issued titled Torture Archipelago: Arbitrary Arrests, Torture, and Enforced Disappearances in Syria’s Underground Prisons since March 2011. From the summary:

Since the beginning of anti-government protests in March 2011, Syrian authorities have subjected tens of thousands of people to arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions, enforced disappearances, ill-treatment, and torture using an extensive network of detention facilities, an archipelago of torture centers, scattered throughout Syria.

Based on more than 200 interviews with former detainees, including women and children, and defectors from the Syrian military and intelligence agencies, this report focuses on 27 of these detention facilities. Full story »