4 Organizing Trends You'll See in 2014
Community organizing is changing. It's more social media driven and younger. Immigration advocacy alone has brought a new sector of young leaders into organizing: the DREAMERS. The field also seems to...
View ArticleThe Problem With Petitions: Muslim Edition
If you're a part of the Muslim American community, you have likely heard of the cause heard 'round the world: a petition, put together by three homeschooled Muslim middle school students in Virginia,...
View ArticleWho Can We Believe? Dr. Ekman's Not-So-Magic Cure
Sometimes I use the weekend to catch up on my reading. Sometimes I regret it. A partial sample from last weekend: BusinessWeek tells me that: "After agreeing to pay $23 billion in penalties and...
View ArticleObama Must Do What Congress Won't: Protect Our Iconic Public Lands
In the State of the Union address, President Barack Obama said he would use his authority to protect more pristine federal lands. This was a welcome statement given Congress' failure to protect these...
View ArticleSOTU: Obama and the Business of Climate Change
I have become a single-issue voter. It may not be best for democracy, but I have come to measure all actions through the lens of whether we are doing everything possible to address climate change. For...
View ArticleCities Tackle Inequality
After Bill de Blasio was elected mayor of New York City on a promise to narrow the gap between rich and poor, former Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (D) lectured him on the facts of local government...
View ArticleThat's How the Light Gets In: I Wish I Was American
To begin with, for all the evident, timeless reasons countless people from all over the world and from all walks of life have flocked to America's shores, land borders and airports: because it is...
View ArticleRather Than Jobs Creator, TPP is the Biggest Corporate Power Grab
Of all the recent hostage-takings and betrayals of working people by Washington, the most profound corporate power grab to date takes the form of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a so-called...
View ArticleWill Palestinians Accept Jewish Settlers in Palestine?
Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are illegal. The whole world has said so. When the International Court of Justice in the Hague was asked for an opinion on the Israeli wall built deep...
View ArticleState of the Union: Addressing the Foreign Policy Challenges of 2014
The State of the Union is a speech aimed mainly at a domestic audience, but was certainly dissected late last night by embassies along Massachusetts Ave. in Washington, and in capitals from Beijing to...
View ArticleObama Gives a Simple and Compelling State of the Union Speech
President Obama's State of the Union speech was clean and simple but compelling for those like me who are partisan Democrats. It was a speech mainly geared to the base of the party and reinforced the...
View ArticleThe GOP Listens to All the Voices in Its Head (and What Is Governor Christie...
Not unlike the endless parade of self-congratulatory award shows the movie and music industries lavish upon themselves during "awards season," last night's State of the Union address will perhaps be...
View ArticleState of the Union: A Great Speech that was 3 Years too Late
After the State of the Union Address last week I asked myself, "Where was that President Barack Obama, say, three years ago? He was clear, passionate, and engaged. Stylistically, I thought it was his...
View ArticleThe Time Is Now to Bring the Fight to Dementia
My great-aunt Edna joined us for Christmas this year. She's 96 years old. She was lucid at the dinner table, but on a bad day, she will call me forty or fifty times and not remember having done so. The...
View ArticleTrans Woes
As though it weren't tough enough being trans, this month New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill -- passed by big margins in both houses of the state legislature -- that would have allowed...
View ArticleWhat Rouhani Didn't Say in Davos
Very few people paid attention to what Iranian President Hassan Rouhani actually said as he took the stage at the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s annual meeting in Davos. Given his elegant robes, turban,...
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Imagining Obama's Next State Of The Union
Last night, President Obama gave his annual address to Congress and the American people. Reactions, as usual, were all over the map. Listening to some of them, though, I found myself wondering what...
View ArticleThe Cold Truths About America's Foreign Policy Vortex
The early weeks of 2014 have me pondering vortexes, but not the kind that continue to bring bone-chilling temperatures to much of the nation, including my home state of Indiana. I'm thinking of what...
View ArticleDespite Best Efforts, Wendy Davis Is Still Standing
A valiant champion, a female warrior, and a fearless leader -- the woman in reference: Wendy Davis, and even after much controversy, she is still the most popular woman in Texas. A year ago, Wendy...
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Wendy Davis and the Hallelujah Choir
From the beginning of her campaign, Wendy Davis has exhibited an interest in "controlling" her message. Subsequent to the Dallas Morning News story about her climb out of difficult circumstances, she...
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