Archive
The Modern Movement for Civil Rights
The racial picture in America has improved remarkably in my lifetime, so much so that a black man has been elected and re-elected President of the United States — an unthinkable development just a few years ago. But paradoxically, Barack Obama's victory in 2008...
Michigan’s Snappy Innovation
The Farm Bill's recent defeat in the House of Representatives opens up a second chance to get food policy right — including the food aid we give struggling individuals and families. A Michigan and Ohio program could provide some inspiration. The legislation would have...
Today’s Mad Men
I remember when I first started watching Mad Men. Like most of America, I got hooked. How could I not? The glitz and glamour of 1960s Manhattan was irresistible. But from the very first episode, I knew there was something deeply wrong with this world — the...
Giving a Big Story the Cold Shoulder
It's summer — time for barbecues, family vacations, and July 4th fireworks. Unfortunately, summer has also become a time for wildfires, drought, triple-digit heat waves, catastrophic storms, and other deadly reminders of the impact climate change has on our planet....
Where Would We Be Without Social Security?
Nearly every single American is intimately connected with the earned benefits of Social Security and Medicare — as either a contributor, a recipient, or both. In fact, a recent national poll indicated nearly 90 percent of us favor taking strong measures to preserve...
An Endangered Species Up in Arms
As many of you already have intuited, I don't know everything. Nobody does, I suppose. More importantly, I don't know everything about anything. I'm what used to be called "a generalist," someone whose knowledge in any direction is a mile wide and a quarter-inch deep....
Runaway CEO Pay Gets a Free Pass
Only 10 percent of Americans now have confidence in Congress, Gallup informs us. No other major American institution has ever had an approval rating this low. But public confidence in Congress would probably sink even lower if average Americans knew more about what...
The 2013 Corporate Chutzpah Award
What's simply delicious, even if it's genetically engineered? Irony. For years, advocates of growing crops with genes from other species spliced into their DNA have claimed that this newfangled farming increases crop yields, reduces pesticide use, and provides a host...
A New Housing Emergency
Folks, there's a serious housing shortage in America these days. The stress it's creating for needy families is approaching heart-attack levels. Did you know, for example, that the inventory of million-dollar homes in Carmel, California, dwindled to only four...
Fair Elections, RIP
Voting rights are under attack again — this time it's the Supreme Court's turn. The majority's ruling in the Shelby County vs. Holder case gutted key Voting Rights Act provisions at a time when minority access to the polls faces new obstacles. As Justice Ruth Ginsburg...
