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This Week in OtherWords: November 28, 2012
This week, OtherWords is running three commentaries that highlight three electoral milestones: African-American turnout reached record levels, marijuana-legalization ballot initiatives passed in Washington State and Colorado, and voters in a small Ohio town approved a measure declaring that “corporations are not people and money is not speech.”
A Pension Deficit Disorder
While America’s CEOs are fretting about the government’s so-called “fiscal cliff,” millions of American workers face a financial disaster that gets much less media attention. There’s a half-trillion-dollar deficit in the nation’s worker retirement benefits.
The New Normal for African-American Voter Turnout
African Americans turned out to vote in record numbers on Election Day, many of us waiting in long lines and going through plenty of red tape to do so. One of these determined voters was a 100-year-old “Church Mother” in Elmhurst, New York who didn’t want any favors and stood in line and in solidarity with her fellow citizens.
Washington and Colorado Voters Opt for a Smarter Drug Policy
After four decades and billions of dollars in spending, the U.S.-led “War on Drugs” has failed.
To Move Forward, We Must Learn from Our Progressive Past
Our contemporary billionaires, most Americans would agree, are exploiting our labor and polluting our politics. Can we shrink our super rich down to a less powerful — and more democratic — size? Of course we can. We Americans, after all, have already done that before.
Shortchanging Our Future
More than 5 million young people are looking for work. College is increasingly unaffordable, while youth jobs are few and far between. For years lawmakers have been cutting programs that help young Americans find a productive path. And as if that weren’t enough, budget cuts scheduled for 2013 may hollow out what’s left of federal education and training programs.
Democracy Outbreak in Ohio
Some scrappy citizens in the burg of Brecksville, Ohio produced one of the proudest progressive victories on Election Day.
The Sleazy League
Once upon a time, most college kids plugged away in high school, saved their babysitting money, took practice exams, settled for a rebuilt clutch in the family car, and worked summer jobs waiting tables.They studied like crazy, read far into the night, and had a good shot at a decent job. Rich kids attended private universities, poorer kids went to state schools. Part-time, vocational, and waitlisted students opted for community colleges.
The Ant and the Grasshopper
This Week in OtherWords: November 21, 2012
We will continue to feature under-debated angles of the growing conversation about how to balance the nation’s budget and avoid what could prove a “fiscal swindle.”
