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U.S. Needs to Make Its Asylum Policy Clear
Today, the makeshift migrant border camp in Del Rio, Texas, is virtually empty, cleared of thousands of Haitian refugees who came there seeking asylum in America. State troopers now line the border area to discourage others from gathering.
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.
The GOP's Attack On Women
Alabama -- led by utterly clueless male legislators -- just passed the most restrictive ban on abortion in the country, with Georgia and Missouri piling on. Other states dominated by right-wing Republican politicians are jockeying to join in. Their aim is to get the courts, newly packed with right-wing judges appointed by Trump, to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark precedent that established a woman's right to choose in the early months of pregnancy.
Now Is the Time for Citizens of Conscience to Act
Racism is not natural. Babies -- black, brown, white -- explore the world and each other with wonder, not hate. Racism has to be taught. It is learned behavior. To assume that a person is inherently superior or inferior to another based upon race is unnatural and ungodly. Racism is used for political manipulation and economic exploitation. In a land founded on the belief that all men are created equal, slavery could not be justified without a racism that depicted slaves as sub-human.
The Case for 'DC' Statehood Is Clear
Last week, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 51, a bill that would make Washington, D. C., the 51st state of the union. It would finally end the denial of voting representation to its more than 700,000 residents, the majority of whom are black or brown.
Who gets the gold and who gets the shaft?
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.
Our Most Vulnerable Live in Poverty
Our news is driven by scandal, crisis, and tragedy. A bridge falls in Florida. Trump insults someone in a tweet. Stormy Daniels sues the president, and his lawyers file motions against her. Facebook allows the personal data of 50 million people to be used without their knowledge. And so on.
Basic Democratic Value Under Attack
The talk shows are filled with the latest rumor about WikiLeaks and Russian interference in our elections. What was done still remains a mystery. But Republican tricky leaks -- the systematic efforts to suppress the vote -- are an established fact, and a far greater threat to free elections.
SCOTUS Guarantees That Poor Women Will Suffer
In their decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the six right-wing judicial zealots on the Supreme Court scorned legal precedent and mocked history to deprive women of equal citizenship under the law.
Anniversary of Selma Reminds Us of How Democracy Is Defended
Politicians for both parties loudly praise the courage of Ukrainians defending their democracy from the Russian invasion. Yet, bipartisan defense of democracy disappears when the question is democracy at home. March 7 marked the 57th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when the police attack of a peaceful march of Blacks seeking the right to vote in Selma, Alabama, stirred the outrage that led to passage of the Voting Rights Act. Today the right to vote is once more in question.
Will Trump receive a get out of jail free card
The federal indictment of Donald Trump – the first federal indictment of a former president in U.S. history – poses the question. Trump’s enraged reaction – calling it the “greatest witch hunt of all time” and denouncing special counsel Jack Smith, a career prosecutor, as a “deranged lunatic” – makes the question unavoidable. Obviously, Trump deserves a fair trial, his guilt or innocence determined by a jury of his peers. But every candidate for president should be asked if they would pardon Donald Trump if they were president. As Gerald Ford proved when pardoning Richard Nixon, a presidential pardon can be issued before a trial, or even before formal charges are brought, so the question needn’t wait on the trial.
Coronavirus Draws Attention to the Cost of Racism
The media has just discovered that the coronavirus is far more deadly to blacks and Latinos than to whites. Twice as deadly in New York City, according to the New York Times. Seventy-two percent of the fatalities in Chicago are blacks who constitute about 30 percent of the population. The news is treated as a shocking revelation on the BBC, CNN and CBS and in newspapers across the country.
Donald Trump, Again, Fails to Lead
Donald Trump's ignorance and incompetence have cost American lives in the pandemic. Now his failure of leadership will add to the misery of millions of Americans force onto unemployment, the hunger of children at risk, the homelessness of families facing eviction. At a time when bold action is imperative, the president offers posturing and gestures. Having failed to produce a deal on a much needed rescue program, he issues a showtime executive order and series of memoranda that will do more to foster confusion than to aid those in distress.
The Trump Administration's Lies Are Starting to Hurt
For many of his supporters, Donald Trump's casual relationship with the truth was at first amusing, part of his brash, anti-establishment appeal. He says what he thinks, went the argument, and if it isn't true, so be it. His voters, we were told, have learned to take him seriously but not literally.
John Lewis, a founding father of American democracy
When John Lewis left us, editorials and columns paid tribute to his leadership, his courage, his moral example. The praise was well deserved. A broader context helps understand his true contribution.
House Democrats Need to Lay Down Agenda for Change
With majority control in the House of Representatives, Democrats have an enormous opportunity -- and face a distinct peril.
Donald Trump's Symbols and The Substance of Division
Symbols are important. Donald Trump, whose fortune is built upon a brand, and whose presidential campaign brandished symbols far more than reform ideas, knows that well.
President Donald Trump Succeeds in Trashing Civil Rights
The reviews of Donald Trump’s first 100 days have generally focused on his failures, flip-flops and follies. We’ve heard a lot about what he’s failed to achieve, but far too little about what he is intent on doing.
Trump's Damaging Start
The reviews of Donald Trump's first 100 days have generally focused on his failures, flip-flops and follies. We've heard a lot about what he's failed to achieve, but far too little about what he is intent on doing.
George Floyd Justice in Policing Act Would Set National Standards for Police Behavior
Even as Derek Chauvin is on trial for the murder of George Floyd, police 10 miles away fatally shot an African American man, Duante Wright, after pulling him over for an alleged traffic violation. That triggered protests that led to confrontations with police, despite Wright's family pleading for non-violence. The Washington Post reports that 985 people have been shot and killed by police in the past year, with blacks more than two times as likely to be shot and killed than whites. Fundamental reform is long overdue.
