Rights and Democracy
Reviving Government of, by, and for the People
Here we are, 150 years after President Abraham's Lincoln's address at Gettysburg. Now, our democracy is imperiled not by guns and bullets, but by the greed of the rich. The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in the McCutcheon v. FEC case struck down federal limits on the...
The Immigration Waiting Game
The Martinez family's generosity toward their community harkens back to a bygone era. They're quick to help their neighbors when they need a hand. They pass warm food and tools to neighbors across the fence as if they were family. Neighborhood kids love going to their...
Buy a Box of Cereal, Waive Your Rights Goodbye
Buying a cell phone plan could make you powerless to sue your phone company if it defrauds you. Using a coupon to buy a box of cereal may mean you give up your right to sue if the food is tainted. Checking your grandmother into a nursing home could prevent you from...
Brown’s Bittersweet Legacy
What a bittersweet 60th anniversary: On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling declared "separate but equal" school systems inherently unconstitutional. After making great progress toward integrating public schools, our nation...
Smart Glasses Won’t Magnify Rick Perry’s Brain
Rick "Oops" Perry is back, pitching himself for another presidential run. This time, he's sporting eyeglasses. What fun. Who can forget the Texas governor's nationally televised pratfall during a 2011 presidential debate, when he couldn't remember the third federal...
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...
