On Courtesy, Race, Gender and the 45 Defensive
June 16, 2017Courtesy flew out of the window in Washington parlance a long time ago. The minute a deranged Congressman stood up and hollered, “you lie” at a sitting President (this was South Carolina Republican Congressman Joe Wilson yelling at President Barack Obama), we knew that courtesy had taken a vacation. Courtesy took more than a time […]
White House cuts funding as Sen. Durbin pleads ‘Give struggling students a fair chance’
June 9, 2017No one ever said that higher education wouldn’t cost money. Across the country, tuition is steadily rising and students are taking longer to pay off their student loans. Today, 44 million consumers share $1.4 trillion in borrowed student debt – more than double what it was in 2008. On average, graduating seniors with a bachelor’s […]
Leadership silence on domestic terrorism
June 1, 2017Twenty-two people died and more than 50 were injured when a terrorist jihadist released a bomb at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England on May 22. The heinous act of terrorism was condemned worldwide, as it should have been. Our 45th president was full of condemnation, although his very limited vocabulary only allowed him […]
Climate change is creating climate refugees
May 30, 2017Have you ever heard of the Marshall Islands? They are 1156 islands that constitute a republic in the South Pacific. Major battles during World War II were contested on those islands and, following the war, nuclear tests were conducted there, too, from which there was significant radioactive fallout. The capital city is only three feet […]
Devoid at Bethune Cookman University: We Must Be the Resistance
May 19, 2017I could not be more proud of the students at Bethune Cookman University (BCU) than if I had raised them myself. Responding to the university’s very late selection of Betsy DeVos (hereafter referred to as DeVoid, as she is devoid of good sense, history, literacy and even courtesy) for the spring commencement speaker, graduating seniors […]
A tiny, petty victory
May 12, 2017After months of “repeal and replace” rhetoric, Congress has finally passed a pitiful little bill designed to eliminate the Affordable Care Act. To watch Republicans gather in the Rose Garden to “celebrate” the narrow passage of their paltry bill, you would have thought that 45 was about to sign ground-breaking legislation. Instead, changes to the […]
Confusion about Trump statement on HBCU funding
May 11, 2017Is President Donald Trump standing by his stated earlier commitment to support historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), or is he backing off, using some oblique constitutional reason not to do so? Last Friday afternoon, the Trump White House issued a statement upon signing H.R. 244, the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2017, which was recently passed […]
Who’s afraid of a shrill conservative?
May 5, 2017The shrill conservative Ann Coulter has made headlines because the University of California, Berkeley, wouldn’t let her speak at the end of April. Invited by college Republicans, her appearance threatened to incite violence, as activists on the left and on the right prepared to either protest or support her appearance. In the end, the university […]
Lessons from Fox and O’Reilly
April 27, 2017Former Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly, the man whose lofty ratings were responsible for the growth of the network, is no longer on the air. Revelations that $13 million had been paid, either by O’Reilly or the network, to women who said they had been sexually harassed repelled millions, some of whom protested outside Fox […]
Texas I.D. law struck down a fifth time
April 21, 2017“No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live. Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined.” – Hugo Black,United States Supreme Court Justice. A […]