Rights and Democracy
A Disappointing TV Breakthrough
I'm legally blind. Like most blind people, I don't take cars for test drives, chop down trees with a chainsaw, or keep my blindness a secret. You wouldn't know this from watching the new NBC show, Growing Up Fisher, a TV show about a blind lawyer named Mel and his...
Fasting to Pierce the Silence from Congress on Immigration
"My deportation date is April 18," I overheard a woman say next to me in the large white tent where we were both fasting. Due to a simple miscommunication with her lawyer, Lupita received a deportation order that now threatens to send her back to a country she has not...
This Voting Measure Has Got to Go
No one can deny that voting is a civic duty, right? Well that depends on who you are. The reality is that many powerful people don't want certain folks to vote. They go to extremes to discourage those folks from voting and even harass them to keep away from the polls....
Milking Public Education
The building stood facing me, the windows staring ahead like hundreds of scrutinizing eyes. It was larger than I thought it would be. I looked around as I dug my hands into my pockets, struggling to retain heat. Across the street was a public housing development that...
Death by Stalling
Compassion for the dying is gaining traction. It's about time. In 1948, 37 percent of Americans supported the idea behind the “death with dignity” movement. Last year, 70 percent of us did. While that number leveled off two decades back, how big a majority does an...
When Campaign Cash Equals Speech
Rigging the Electoral System for the Rich
A poll conducted late last year found that more than seven in ten voters think our election system is "biased in favor of the candidate with the most money." While nothing about this number is surprising — except, perhaps, that it's not even higher — it does reveal...
Billionaires Score Big Win with McCutcheon Decision
The Supreme Court's McCutcheon ruling dealt another 5-4 body blow to our democracy. To justify striking down limits that cap aggregate campaign contributions during a single election cycle, the Roberts Court ignored the way the world really works and made it far more...
Tech Titans Must Do More than Criticize NSA Snooping
In the 21st century, technology companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Yahoo are the ubiquitous faces of corporate power. In the last quarter of 2013 alone, these five companies totaled $104 billion in revenue and made $17.5 billion in profits — with...
I Think They Can
Like that little choo-choo in the classic children's book "The Little Engine that Could," Moral Monday is the little movement that says, "I think I can" and keeps chugging up the hill. This new progressive coalition became a full-throttle citizen uprising in North...
