I could have called this blog Reparations but I didn’t, fearing that even enlightened readers might click delete. Few subjects are more touchy in our country than talking about what might be owed to descendants of the formerly enslaved. Even liberals quake at the enormity and complexity of the issue. The usual reasons that ...
I’ve been having trouble making myself put pen to paper. My reluctance has nothing to do with a lack of things to write about. Options abound. But every possibility I turn over in my head threatens to take me down a very dark road. Not wanting to depress myself or put my readers in a ...
An opinion piece in The Guardian caught my eye recently. It was entitled “Why was there no water to fight the fire in Maui?” and written by Naomi Klein and a law professor at the Ka Huli Ao Native Hawaiian Law Center. They documented how powerful entities in Maui — plantation owners, developers, luxury resort ...
For the last 6-plus years, I have regularly railed against the evils of the plutocrats who rule this country. They include but are not limited to the following: Republicans, oil companies, the Koch coterie, spoiled athletes (think male professional golfers), arms merchants, gun lovers, white evangelical Christians (WECs), and anyone who has supported Trump for ...
Almost four years ago, on September 23, 2019, I posted a blog entitled My Southern Education: A Confession. It was prompted by a book I’d just read, Disunion, by historian Elizabeth Varon. I re-read my blog this spring and found it weak stuff indeed. It wasn’t much of a confession and it badly understated the ...
I’ve rarely come across anything more arresting than a sentence that caught my eye last week in The Guardian’s weekly environmental newsletter, Down to Earth: “Eating just one billionaire would do more to prevent climate change than going vegan or never driving a car for the rest of your life.” Who wouldn’t read on? ...
Louis Michael Seidman, Georgetown University law professor and former clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall, wrote a compelling article for The Nation recently. I was particularly struck by the opening paragraphs of the article, The Long, Troubled History of the Supreme Court and How We Can Change It. They begin this way: “By ...
The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District vexes me, but not because of the legalities or the arguments pro and con. No, I fear for religious seekers of all faiths and creeds. I fear the decision will tempt them to abandon their search for God because it ...
About 20 years ago, I stood on a train platform in Brewster, N.Y., awaiting a train bound for Grand Central Station. Beside me stood a diminutive Haitian nun, about 75 years old, who carried no luggage save a large purse-like bag. She was a dear friend who had been visiting my family. Her final destination ...
Who Killed the Two Party System? In my first blog of the New Year, I promised more on Joe Manchin, the Super Senator who rules Congress. You probably expected me to say nasty things about him. But you were wrong because I come to praise Joe Manchin, not to bury him. (What?!?! Is Buck ...
