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‘I Do Not Believe You Are a Racist’
At the Miami Democratic Presidential Debate, Kamala Harris questioned Joe Biden about his opposition to integrating the schools through court-ordered busing. Biden responded: “I did not oppose busing in America. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education.” After the debate, Biden spoke at the Rainbow Push Convention in Chicago. He said, “I want to be absolutely clear about my record and position on racial justice, including busing. I never, never, ever opposed voluntary busing.”
Best Outcome Would Be for Children to Be Back in School and Safe
The shutdown of Chicago public schools - the third largest school district in the country with 350,000 students - is headed into its second week. Everyone involved - the mayor, the school district officials, the teachers, the parents - agree that remote learning is bad for students and for parents, particularly those from lower income families. Everyone agrees that the best outcome would be for children to be back in school and safe. And there is where the problem arises.
The Movement for Justice Will Not Be Deterred
The result will open the floodgates even further to the wave of partisan laws that Republicans are pushing in states across the country to suppress the votes of African Americans and other people of color. The right-wing justices continue their assault on the meaning and power of the Voting Rights Act, a triumph of the civil rights movement that Justice Elena Kagan, writing in dissent, noted represents the "best in America."
'America is not a racist country'
“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 Biden’s address to the Congress. Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican weather vane, echoed him, as did Republicans across the country. Scott went on to accuse Democrats of dividing the country by using race as a “political weapon.”
Trump and His Big Lie Pose A Clear and Present Danger to Our Democracy
The Jan. 6th committee hearings have shown how Donald Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost. But Trump’s efforts are far from the most serious threat to our democracy. Across the country, Republicans have spread Trump’s Big Lie that the election was stolen, and used it as a weapon to justify a range of restrictive legislation that makes registration and voting more difficult, and gives partisan officials greater scope to overturn the results of elections where they don’t like the result. Worse, these efforts have been bolstered by a series of Supreme Court decisions – written by activist right-wing judges – dating back long before Trump that undermine free and fair elections in the United States.
Simple justice: The Tulsa Massacre, Restitution and Reparations
On its 100th anniversary, the 1921 massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma has finally come to national attention. The history of the massacre is now known. The damage inflicted clear. The question is what is to be done to repair the damage?
Do Trump's Actions Meet the Test of Treason?
Will Donald Trump be held accountable for the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and what was a multi-layered conspiracy to overturn the results of the presidential election?
Trump's Big Lie Is a Threat to American Democracy
On Thursday evening, the House Select Committee investigating the sacking of the Capitol on January 6 will hold the first of its primetime, public hearings. The committee has done an exhaustive investigation, interviewing a thousand witnesses, looking at tens of thousands of documents. The hearings will reveal new information about what was in fact a multi-layered effort to overturn the results of a presidential election, driven by the White House and involving Republican legislators, operatives, state officials, and donors. The hearings will ask every American to understand how vulnerable our democracy is, and how close we came to losing it.
Sessions Opens the Door Again to Privatized Prisons
Next week, March 7, will mark the 52nd anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the historic march and shocking police riot in Selma, Ala., that helped build public support for passage of the Voting Rights Act.
Callous Politicians Turning Backs On Children at Border
The Trump administration has separated 2,000 children from their parents, most of whom have come to the United States seeking asylum.
Time for Democracy to Work
The right to vote is fundamental to a democracy. Today in America, however, that right is under partisan attack across the country. If it is to be defended, nonpartisan reforms must pass across a partisan divide. The question now is whether Democrats will join together to protect the right to vote from the assault it faces from Republicans at every level of government.
Why Are a Few Democrats Blocking Biden's Bold Recovery Agenda?
This is the week that will tell whether Washington will act to address the growing crises that threaten our democracy.
'Have you no sense of decency, sir?'
Texas is suffering from record high temperatures, with heat indexes topping a staggering 120 degrees.
We Americans Must Face Our Addiction to Guns
Fifty-eight dead and counting; 500 sent to hospitals. The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history took place Sunday in Las Vegas, as a lone gunman firing from a window on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel savaged a crowd gathered to watch a country music show. It was, as one observer noted, like shooting fish in a barrel. The automatic rifle fire lasted for minutes. The shooter didn't really have to aim; he only had to pull the trigger.
Georgians Will Have a Clear Choice On Jan. 5
Leave it to Donald Trump to run brazen subversion -- refusal to accept the decision of the voters in the presidential election -- as a clown show, marked by wingbat lawyers, delusional tweets, and hailstorms of lies. The noise, however, should not delude us: Trump is leading an American counter-reformation right to the edge of secession, if not beyond. And at the core of this is America's continued struggle with race.
Reversal Over North Korea Summit Impulsive, Astounding
President Donald Trump torpedoed the summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in a letter he dictated that was virtually incoherent.
Remembering Brown v. Board of Education
Last Sunday marked the 66th anniversary of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. the Board of Education. The Brown decision addressed consolidated issues from four different cases involving racial segregation. The issues emanated from Kansas, South Carolina, Delaware, and Virginia. The unanimous opinion of the court was written by Earl Warren, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower's newly appointed chief justice. The Court declared that forced segregation of public-school children violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and was therefore unconstitutional.
Trump Doesn't Want Immigration Solution; He Needs Issue to Divide Us
"Yes, if we don't get what we want, one way or the other ... I will shut down the government," said President Trump to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi, referring to his demand for $5 billion to build his border wall.
The Right to Vote Is Fundamental to Any Democracy
The right to vote is fundamental to any democracy. Protecting that right -- and making it easier to exercise it -- ought to be a priority across partisan lines. Instead, in states across the country -- particularly in the five years since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act -- it has become a pitched battle.
The Hope of a Way to Peace Through Talks with North Korea
President Donald Trump's decision to meet with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un opens new possibilities.

