Naseem Rakha's Blog

• Do Executions Bring Closure?

  November 10, 2009

  • Muhammad and the 'closure' myth By Naseem Rakha Tuesday, November 10, 2009   Of all the arguments in support of capital punishment, perhaps the most emotionally compelling is that it provides "closure" for the loved ones of murder victims. Prosecuting attorneys, politicians and journalists commonly refer to how executions allow family members to "move on" from their ...
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• Writing Through Music

  September 30, 2009

  • Before I knew much about the characters in or the plot of my novel The Crying Tree, I knew how the book would end. I don’t mean the end as a specific scene, but rather the end as a feeling. In other words, I knew what emotions I wanted my readers to have as they closed the final pages of my novel, and those emotions were precisely the ones I would experience each and every time I’d listen ...
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• An American Story

  August 4, 2009

  •  I had the humbling experience of hearing documentary filmmaker Ken Burns speak last night at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. All I can say is there have been very few occasions when I have been in the presence of true genius. Monday evening, beneath a nearly full moon, was one. Ken Burns’ fidelity to the human spirit, its history and stories, captivated the audience of ...
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