A blue-collar blueprint for the nation’s infrastructure
July 23, 2021As the country continues to increase COVID-19 vaccinations, businesses and consumers alike still struggle with evolving versions of daily life. At the same time, there is little disagreement that sustained effort is needed for a return to stability – not only in public health, but in personal finance and the larger economy as well. By […]
Still Riding
July 16, 2021“Boarding that Greyhound bus to travel through the heart of the Deep South, I felt good. I felt happy. I felt liberated. I was like a soldier in a nonviolent army. I was ready.” — Congressman John Lewis In 1961, my dear friend and late Congressman John Lewis was a 21-year-old student leader from American […]
The insurrection and the lost cause
July 8, 2021A violent insurrection engulfed the U.S. Capitol just six months ago. One United States Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died and other Capitol police are still healing. Investigators are still going through video and social media documenting the attempt to disrupt congressional affirmation of President Joe Biden’s victory. Just six months ago. But many Republican […]
The Child Tax Credit: Here to Help
July 2, 2021For millions of American families struggling to make ends meet, help is on the way. The Child Tax Credit (CTC) was created in 1997 to help families meet their everyday expenses raising children but often failed to reach the poorest families who needed it most. Happily, that has been changed with the American Rescue Plan […]
Rebirth of a nation
June 25, 2021Some of my “vintage” or “experienced” readers may remember or actually saw the movie, Birth of a Nation. Not the 2016 Nate Parker version, I refer to the 1915 silent film, originally called The Clansman, by D. W. Griffith. In short, it glorified the KKK and denigrated civil and human rights for formerly enslaved persons […]
Juneteenth is an opportunity to confront the nation’s “Hard History”
June 18, 2021“Slavery is hard history. It is hard to comprehend the inhumanity that defined it. It is hard to discuss the violence that sustained it. It is hard to teach the ideology of white supremacy that justified it. And it is hard to learn about those who abided it. We the people have a deep-seated aversion […]
Tulsa, Namibia, Hitler, January 6: History Matters
June 11, 2021“I wish I had the flexibility to teach a lot of things.” That was the response of my tenth-grade history teacher to my request to learn more about Black history. It was February of 1968. The civil rights movement was still going strong. Two months later, Dr. King would be assassinated. Significantly, I was raising […]
The False Republican Mantra: ‘America is not a racist country’
May 13, 2021“America is not a racist country.” This is quickly becoming a Republican mantra. Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, used it in his rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s address to the Congress. Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican weathervane, echoed him, as did Republicans across the country. Scott went on to accuse […]
The question
May 7, 2021QUESTION: “To defund or not to defund?” From my perspective, I see that question as a distraction from the ‘real’ issue which is, “How do we reform ‘policing’ into true public safety?” I concur with those who advocate a realignment of law enforcement budgets to incorporate the employment of mental health and counseling personnel. De-escalation […]
A deal too good to pass up
April 29, 2021We have an increasingly beneficial deal at our doorstep to close North Carolina’s health insurance coverage gap for hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians – just the kind of fuel our economy and pandemic recovery efforts need. The federal government’s new $1.9 trillion stimulus package makes significant additional funding available for states that close their […]
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