Rights and Democracy
Obama Promised Open Government, But Hasn’t Delivered Yet
President Obama took office promising to usher in an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability in the federal government. Back in 2009, when he said federal agencies "should take affirmative steps to make information public," he promised that the...
Toppling the Status Quo
A Coalition of the Unhinged
It’s no secret that Donald Trump, the GOP’s all but official new standard-bearer, is a promoter of wild conspiracy theories and harmful lies — from his smear of Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers to his offensive questioning of President Obama’s place of...
‘Bathroom Bills’ Don’t Help Women at All
The time has come for me to play my Woman Card. A male Republican politician in my state of Wisconsin has introduced a "bathroom bill" like the one passed in North Carolina, which requires transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender they were assigned at...
Riding Trump’s Coattails
Cruz Takes the Plunge
A 2-Pronged Assault on Women
We heard a lot about the "war on women" during the 2012 election cycle — mostly over Republican attacks on abortion rights and birth control. While the phrase has faded in this election year go-round, the war on women has not. The only change is that now we’re...
We Live in a Democracy, Not a Theocracy
It wasn't so long ago when one of the most powerful justifications wielded in support of segregation was religious belief. Throughout the American South, state-sanctioned Jim Crow laws legally separated blacks from whites. Schools were segregated. Restaurants were...
Trump’s Bad Ideas Aren’t Un-American After All
Readers of The Boston Globe were recently treated to an unusual spectacle — a parody front page and insert filled with mock stories of how a Donald Trump presidency might play out. "Deportations to Begin… Riots Continue," read one headline, riffing on the candidate's...
Getting to the Point
Food writer Michael Pollan once jammed the essence of his work into seven words: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” His brevity inspired me as the managing editor of OtherWords, a non-profit editorial service that distributes opinion pieces and editorial...
