Greening Spring Cleaning

Greening Spring Cleaning

What’s that smell in the air? It’s fresh and floral — and probably filled with formaldehyde. It’s spring-cleaning time once again. And in the name of cleanliness, people everywhere are dousing their homes and workplaces with dangerous, even toxic, cleaning...
Apartheid America

Apartheid America

What do you think when you hear the word “apartheid”? For most folks, it evokes images of Nelson Mandela’s fight to integrate South Africa in the face of extreme racial segregation and brutal violence. Maybe it’s a word you associate with the...
Brown’s Bittersweet Legacy

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...
Milking Public Education

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...