Rights and Democracy
Flagging Hate Speech
I’ve spent my whole life in the Northeast, but I have Southern roots. My late grandfather came from a long line of sharecroppers who toiled in the fields of Decatur, Georgia for generations. Their history of hardship was common in the South. Where my grandfather grew...
Obama’s Amazing Grace
If Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream speech is the 20th century equivalent of Abraham Lincoln’s magnificent Second Inaugural — and I think it is — then what President Barack Obama gave us in Charleston, South Carolina is our century’s Gettysburg Address. He gave a...
Losing Their Grip
Rainbows illuminated the White House, the Empire State Building, and other landmarks after the Supreme Court affirmed the right to marry from sea to shining sea. As most Americans basked in this milestone’s afterglow, conservative leaders stomped their feet,...
A Summer Storm is Brewing
Droughts in California, floods in Texas, tornadoes in Iowa and Nebraska — the summer storm season started early this year. And hold onto your baseball caps and flagpoles, because there’s another storm brewing that may leave your community reeling for years to come. On...
Buy Your Way into Scott Walker’s Circle
If you think that none of today's presidential candidates care about people like you, check out Republican Scott Walker. The Wisconsin governor not only cares, he wants to sit down with you, get your ideas, and stay in close touch. No matter who you are, Walker wants...
The Inequality Rainbow
A Crime Against Humanity Sent Me to Harvard
When I say publicly that I'm descended from slave owners, I almost always hear a gasp. I let the tension hang a moment and then I break it: "Well, someone has to be, right?" This usually gets a laugh, or at least a humph of recognition. Because many of us white...
Donald Trump Distinguishes Himself
We live in a time of stunning transformations. In recent weeks we’ve seen Bruce Jenner transition from a male Olympic medalist to Caitlyn Jenner, a self-assured woman gracing the cover of Vanity Fair. Then there’s Rachel Dolezal, the ex-president of the Spokane,...
The Wheels Come off Jeb’s Victory Wagon
A funny thing happened to Jeb Bush on his way to the White House. He was rolling assuredly toward his coronation as the next GOP presidential nominee. He was sacking up millions of dollars in campaign cash from his dynastic family's extensive coterie of reliable...
Snake Oil Won’t Cure Inequality
At last, America's political leaders now feel the pain of the poor and empathize with the millions of working families slipping out of the middle class. For years, politicians paid no attention to the ever-widening chasm between the rich and the rest of us. But it's...
