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Harvey, Noah and The Floods
It is too soon to know the extent of the damage done by Hurricane Harvey. Estimates are that over a million people have been displaced. As I write this, 49 are feared dead -- a number that will continue to climb. The governor of Texas estimated that his state will need "far in excess" of $125 billion in federal funding to help rebuild. Harvey broke the U.S. record for rainfall from a single storm. Houston, the fourth largest city in America, was hit with 50 inches of rain.
Democracy in Peril
Our democracy is in peril, but we the people can preserve it. The Senate Intelligence Committee last week startled the nation with a democracy shaking report entitled "Russian Efforts Against Election Infrastructure."
Georgians Will Have a Clear Choice On Jan. 5
On January 5, Georgia will hold a run-off election for both of its Senate seats. The races capture national attention because control of the Senate is at stake. If the two Democratic challengers, Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock. both win, the Senate will be effectively split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie. If one or both lose, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell will retain his ability to obstruct the incoming president.
It's Time for President Biden to Deliver
Listen up Democrats in Washington - from the White House to the Senate to the Congress: it is time to deliver. Biden's popularity among African Americans is slipping. Blacks provided the president with 22 percent of his votes in 2020, putting him into the White House. African American turnout, particularly in Georgia, was crucial to the Senate victories that brought Democrats a 50-50 split. In his campaign, Biden named systemic racism as one of the fundamental crises facing the country.
Georgia's Gubernatorial Race Soiled By Conflict of Interest
What if Georgia played Alabama in football and the lead referee was playing quarterback for Alabama? Would we assume that the rules would be enforced equally? Would Georgians worry that the fix was in?
Georgia Voters Will Decide
On January 5, Georgia voters will decide the runoff for their two U.S. Senate seats. Their votes will determine whether Republicans retain control of the Senate or whether Democrats gain a 50-50 tie, with Vice President Kamala Harris the tie-breaking vote. The race is a microcosm of America's struggle to find a way forward and of Georgia and the South's struggle to build a new South.
UAW Auto Workers Will Get a Fair Deal Only If They Fight for It
Five days ago, 12,700 United Auto Workers Union (UAW) workers walked out in the first strike wave against the Big Three automakers – GM, Ford, and Stellantis (the company that took over Chrysler). Every worker in America – union and non-union, young and old, female and male, Black, brown and white – has a stake in this strike. At issue is not simply whether autoworkers can gain a living wage, but whether this country can begin to rebuild a middle class and curb the extreme inequality that undermines our economy and our democracy.
Hope Must Drive Turnout in Mississippi Race
Now Mississippi must decide - between the future or the past, between coming together or dividing even more. The special election for the U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday is reportedly a very close race. Much will depend on who turns out to vote.
Party of Lincoln Wouldn't Recognize Trump's GOP
Last week, President Trump, in a rambling stump speech in Montana, bizarrely compared his oratory to that of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, arguing (incorrectly) that Lincoln was "ridiculed" for the speech.
The New Jim Crow
In Georgia, Donald Trump's big lie that the election was stolen has now been turned into bad law -- an election law designed to make it harder for minorities and the young to vote. This is, as President Joe Biden stated, the new Jim Crow a blatant attempt by Republicans to suppress votes so they can hold onto power.
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.
Injustice of Emmett Till's murder resonates to this day
"The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine," goes the saying. For the brutal killing of Emmett Till in 1955, just how fine those wheels will grind remains to be seen even to this day.
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.
Texan Taliban Wing of the Republican Party
American papers are filled with pundits speculating about the horrors the Taliban may inflict on the people of Afghanistan, particularly its women. Less attention has been paid to the horrors Texas Republicans - the Taliban wing of the Republican Party - are inflicting on the State of Texas. In total control of the state, Republicans have a free hand that they've used to enforce extremism.
To Fulfil Dr. King's Vision, We Must Lift Up the Poor
Dr. Martin Luther King's final mission was to build and launch a Poor People's Campaign across lines of race, religion and region. He called for a "revolution of values" to address the "triplets of evil" -- militarism, racism and economic injustice. People should not die from poverty in the richest nation in the world, he argued. It was time to speak out; silence was a betrayal.
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.
An Unconscionable Republican Health Care Bill
How devastating would the Republican health care legislation be if enacted? Leighton Ku, a leading health care expert and director of director of the Center for Health Policy Research at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, told NBC that, based on the Republican House bill, cuts in funding for Medicaid and health subsidies would trigger "sharp job losses and a broad disruption of state economies."
The Poverty Crisis 50 Years After King Assassination
April 4 will mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, shot down on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn.
Selma, the Birthplace of Modern Democracy in America
This weekend, political leaders from across the country gathered in Selma, Alabama, to commemorate "Bloody Sunday," the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where peaceful demonstrators, attempting to cross the bridge, were violently driven back by Alabama State Troopers, Dallas County Sheriff's deputies and a horse-mounted posse wielding billy clubs and water hoses to savage the crowd. The horrors played on TV sets across the country generated a national outrage that provided the final impetus for passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
No Doubt Global Warming Is a Reality
Record fires in Oregon and California. Floods in Houston and New York. Deadly winter storms in Texas. Droughts across much of the west. Flash floods in England and Germany. Blinding dust storms in China. 100-year cyclones devastate Fiji and Indonesia. Deadly droughts across sub-Saharan Africa. Wildfires in Greece and Italy. The year is not over yet, but in the United States and across the world, the toll in lives and destruction is growing in storms of biblical proportion.
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