Rights and Democracy
Creating a Constituency for the News
There’s a crisis in journalism. Rapidly changing consumer habits have slashed demand for the print editions of newspapers and magazines, squeezed advertising dollars, and made thousands of media jobs vanish. The news industry’s downturn has created another crisis:...
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...
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...
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...
Still No Justice for Military Women
The Senate has done it again — blocked a vote on a bill that would make it safer for sexual assault survivors in the military to report their attackers. Introduced by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the Military Justice Improvement Act would take the decision about...
I Won the Housing Lottery
I grew up in an affluent corner of Loudoun County, Virginia, where the median household income is nearly $120,000. In September, I’ll be a junior at Harvard University. Coming from the richest county in the United States, where I graduated from a competitive magnet...
Five Laws That Made America a Better Place
Our country has no shortage of big problems. While big challenges are nothing new for Americans, how we deal with them has changed. Fifty years ago, rising social unrest forced Congress to deal with big things — like voting rights, immigration, and access to health...
Throwing Public Education under the Bus
Public education used to be, you know, public — an essential societal investment for the betterment of all, paid for by all through school taxes. In addition to privatization schemes to turn education over to corporate profiteers, public schools themselves have...
Hard Knocks U
In the 1960s, I attended the University of North Texas. It was a public school blessed with good teachers and an educational culture focused on enabling us students to become socially useful citizens. And it was affordable — with close-to-free tuition and a part-time...
