Archive
Get Wild without Abandoning Common Sense
Minutes to midnight on New Year's Eve, I sat around a fire with friends, discussing plans for 2015. I told them mine: to hike over 200 miles on the John Muir Trail through the High Sierras, by myself. They told me that I’m nuts. “I might do it if I brought my gun,”...
Suffocating Black Wealth
As 2015 Begins, Remember 2014’s Wins
While last year's voters put a pack of reactionaries in charge of the new Congress, let's not forget that bigger majorities of the same electorate leapt at the chance to say “yes” to an array of unabashedly progressive ballot initiatives. For example, even though the...
In OtherWords: Raising the Bar
This holiday season marks my fifth anniversary at the helm of the OtherWords editorial service. I’m proud of how high you’ve helped us raise the editorial bar on our shoestring budget and excited to see more and more newspaper and online editors welcoming our bylines...
Torture Doesn’t Save Lives, It Costs Them
Thanks to the Senate’s report on CIA torture, Americans should now realize that there was nothing “enhanced” about the Bush administration's so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques." These tactics were more than just cruel and degrading — they were also harmful....
Basketball’s One-and-Done Dilemma
It's been nine years since the last high schooler was selected in the NBA draft. That's because back in 2005, the NBA raised the minimum age for eligibility to 19. With this rule in place, the days of high school students going straight to the pros are over. For now....
The Visa Curse
Many American women are still told they have to choose between love and career. But for many immigrants, that outdated dilemma is legally enforced. "I am here legally but I don’t have the right to work or even open an independent bank account," Rashi Bhatnagar, an...
Doubling Down on Dictatorship in the Middle East
For a moment, four years ago, it seemed that dictators in the Middle East would soon be a thing of the past. Back then, it looked like the United States would have to make good on its declared support for democracy, as millions of Tunisians, Egyptians, Bahrainis,...
Washington’s Slow-Motion Thaw
The strangest part of seeing the Cuban embargo officially deemed past its use-by date is how long this took. I first traveled to Cuba in 1995, after convincing my editor that it would become a huge business story once President Bill Clinton normalized relations. Like...
End the Cuban Embargo for Good
What did President Barack Obama mean when he declared that Washington will normalize relations with Cuba? Will they become the same as U.S. relations with any other country? Will all Americans be free to travel there? To do business with Cuba? Or will the strict...
