So many things of interest happened this past week that it’s hard to know where to begin. We’ve had the Hunter Biden case of lying on a gun application and not a word from the gun owners who defend any and every kind of gun ownership. They never care about how people got them or […]

A job for all. Everyone ready and able to work will get a job – a good job that pays enough to bring a family above the poverty line –guaranteed by the federal government. At a time when our political leaders seem more intent on driving us apart rather than bringing us together, a federally […]

As we endure one mass shooting crisis to the next, it illustrates the nation’s void in leadership. We look to our elected officials to fulfill their oaths of office to protect the public because a person is only as good as their word. Words also have consequences—good and bad. Following a mass shooting, politicians often […]

While listening to National Public Radio the other day, I was stunned to hear a former State Department official say that the United States is spending more than $2 billion a month on the war in Ukraine and that it is anticipated that a certain amount of those funds will be lost to waste, fraud […]

The 2024 presidential race is taking shape. It looks like a choice between the sensible, the mad and the missing. Joe Biden seems intent on running on his record, a sensible route for the incumbent. His major challenger, the inescapable Donald Trump, is replaying his madcap candidacy – his program a mixture of resentment, racism, […]

We need to watch our language. The debacle at the Montgomery Pier, where enslaved people were once offloaded and sold, is described as a “brawl.” The dictionary says a “brawl” is a “fight or quarrel in a rough and noisy way.” The Saturday, August 5 attack on a Black dock worker, Damien Pickett, who attempted […]

Our history involves both hard facts and interpretation – the context in which the hard facts are presented. Interpretation inevitably is political and contested. How we see the past reflects how we live in the present and what we hope for in the future. That’s what makes Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ efforts to impose a […]

On July 16, Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson announced that he would pivot from his role as President of the National Rainbow Coalition to become a university professor and advisor to his successor, the Reverend Frederick Douglas Haynes III, an activist and the pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas. This announcement, accompanied by a laudatory […]

As a child in Pinpoint, Georgia, Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was hazed by his classmates with the monicker “America’s Blackest Child.” Such hazing may have had long-term effects, rendering Thomas incapable of transcending his background. It may have given him an inferiority complex that expresses itself in his self-hatred, hatred of other Black […]

“Decades of research indicate that racism undergirds our public institutions and shapes various aspects of our contemporary society, including public policies. These policies, in turn, shape local school practices that impact the day-to-day experiences of students in classrooms. Even as schools are shaped by broader trends of racial inequality, they serve to maintain – or […]

On Juneteenth 2023, the nation enjoyed the new national holiday celebrating the freedom of the slaves at the end of the Civil War. This week marks the 10-year anniversary of Shelby v. Holder and now the decision of the Supreme Court to eliminate affirmative action in college admissions. The juxtaposition is a stark reminder that […]

At first glance, the numbers don’t make sense. At one point there was approximately 700 Confederate monuments spread throughout 31 states and the District of Columbia. Yet, there were only 11 states which formed the Confederate States of America. Historians have noted that most of the Confederate memorials were not built with the intention of […]

Just two years ago, in 2021, The Senate unanimously passed legislation to make Juneteenth (June 19) a federal holiday. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the legislation with just fourteen holdouts, mostly among Southern Republicans. It is unlikely that this legislation would get such overwhelming support today, as so many oppose teaching truth, opposing “critical […]

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been touted as the presidential candidate who offers Trump without the drama, a Trump who can win rather than lose. He was supposedly able to forge a majority by uniting Trump’s MAGA base with disaffected Republican suburbanites. In recent weeks, he’s rolled out his presidential campaign platform, promising Americans a […]

One of the most important questions a “thinking and responsible” citizen must ask is, “Who governs me?” Active participation in the governance of others is a solemn responsibility of which only a few are worthy. Without question, to present oneself for such a position requires a well-developed sense of self-esteem AND the humility of acknowledging […]

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott (R) has joined the throng of Republicans seeking to unseat the former President as the frontrunner of that party. So far, he is polling in the single digits, but he has $22 million left from his last Senatorial race that he can use for his Presidential race. Other than the […]

Whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, or Independent, President Joe Biden needs to be re-elected regardless of whether you like him. During the 2020 presidential election, many people voted for Biden simply because he was not Donald Trump. The upcoming election in 2024 looks to be a rematch between Biden and Trump, with the risks and […]

Over the next few weeks, the manufactured crisis over the “debt ceiling” will reach its boiling point. But this is pure melodrama, badly overacted with the outcome already known. The real question is about our priorities – and about who gets the gold and who gets the shaft. On the debt ceiling, President Biden says […]

Two things happened last week — one public, the other personal — that made me reflect on how far we’ve come as a nation, how we got here, and what it will take to keep that journey moving forward. Maryland, my home state, inaugurated its first Black governor, Wes Moore. It’s a description I thought […]

The theme for the 53rd Earth Day last Saturday was a timely one: Invest in Our Planet. This country has just begun to do that through the infrastructure and clean energy packages that President Biden and Congress approved in 2021 and 2022. More money than we spent getting astronauts to the Moon will be spent […]