Archive
Tongue Tied
In OtherWords: June 14, 2017
Does your community celebrate Juneteenth? Officially observed on June 19 in at least 45 states, it commemorates the final end of slavery in this country, which didn't come until another few years after the Emancipation Proclamation. This week in OtherWords, Jessicah...
Honor Juneteenth by Closing the Racial Wealth Divide
On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas. They carried some historic news: Slavery had finally and completely ended, they declared. All of America’s enslaved people were now free, some two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation...
Domestic Terrorism in the Age of Trump
Harassment, intimidation, and physical violence against religious and ethnic minorities is on the rise. And some experts worry the Trump administration is making things worse. The attack on a Portland commuter train by a knife-wielding white nationalist who was...
Mad about the Climate? Don’t Cheer Up!
On June 1, President Trump announced that he'll withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. If that makes you mad, good. If that makes you outraged and disgusted, even better. We have good reason. Even for a president whose administration has quickly...
Gender Studies at Hogwarts
J.K. Rowling, author of the bestselling Harry Potter series, just made headlines for an epic tweetstorm condemning misogyny. Referring to women politicians, she tweeted, "femaleness is not a design flaw." I love J.K. Rowling. I love her books. I've read the entire...
Trump’s Twitter Bombs
Donald Trump missed his opportunity to become a General Patton-style military commander and glorious war hero back in the Vietnam era. He surely would've been the greatest in history, to hear him tell it. But, alas, he says some unspecified foot problem (or something...
Pinocchio Nose
In OtherWords: May 31, 2017
Donald Trump is recently returned from his first trip overseas as president. Numerous gags from the trip made headlines — some sharp elbows during a photo op, a glowing orb. But a more serious moment occurred during Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia, where he lectured his...
The Unpleasant Impact of an Unserious Budget
Federal budgets, while boring and wonky, can have a serious impact on our lives. They dictate our collective priorities for how we choose to spend our public resources in support of the common good. That is, good budgets do that. But you’d be hard-pressed to call the...
