Archive
Julian Bond Never Stopped Agitating
The late civil rights activist Julian Bond, who passed away this month, lived his life as a tireless champion of the oppressed and maligned, a battle-worn warrior for civil rights, equality, and social justice. Bond fought the good fight, and at the still-youthful age...
In OtherWords: August 19, 2015
This week in OtherWords, Cecilia Velasco responds to the latest fear-mongering over undocumented immigrants and I weigh in on the diversity you'll find in our nation's op-ed pages. Do you want to make sure you don’t miss the latest from OtherWords? Please subscribe to...
Who’s the Real Troublemaker in the Middle East?
Except for maybe the Affordable Care Act, nothing gets Republican politicians fired up like Iran. In the first GOP debate alone, Scott Walker promised that he’d tear up the Iran nuclear deal on day one of his presidency. Carly Fiorina blamed the country for "most of...
Scapegoating Immigrants Isn’t the Answer
About three years ago, my dad was driving the truck he uses for his landscaping business in Phoenix, Arizona when he was pulled over. Two patrol cars cornered him for making a wide right turn. Yes, you read that right: Multiple police officers went out of their way to...
Ethanol: A Love Story
It’s a timeless story of teenage romance: pledging love, abandoning reason, rebelling against authority. No, this isn’t the plot of a John Hughes movie. Instead, I’m talking about Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s love affair with ethanol. While Vilsack is tasked...
Summer Spells Hunger for Kids in Small American Towns
Metropolis, Illinois, population 6,465, isn’t much of a metropolis. But when Reverend Orlando McReynolds moved to that small town on the Kentucky border two years ago to become the pastor at the First Missionary Life Center, he found the same thing he left behind in...
Byline Inequality Matters
Anna Quindlen relayed an eye-opening and hair-raising experience to her readers in 1990. “A newspaper editor said to me not long ago, with no hint of self-consciousness, ‘I'd love to run your column, but we already run Ellen Goodman,’” the New York Times columnist...
When Travel Means Putting Your Life on the Line
Millions of Americans travel overseas every year, whether it’s across the border to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls or Tijuana or to more exotic locales. But nobody expects to die violently while abroad, and especially not a 17-year old. That’s what happened to...
Do the Rich Rule America?
Is America's political system controlled by a small financial elite? One former president thinks so. Almost 40 years after he was elected, former President Jimmy Carter commented recently that our political system is now “an oligarchy with unlimited political...
Bear This in Mind
On August 7, an experienced hiker was found dead and half eaten by a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park. The offending bear was later euthanized. A week later, a black bear injured a man near Yosemite National Park. The man had left a bag of trash outside his...
