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Guns and the democrat's replacement theory
It happened again. This time it was a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, of 19 second-, third- and fourth -grade students, along with two teachers, killed by a teenager who had just turned 18 and bought himself a gift of two high-powered military weapons designed to kill people in war and 375 rounds of ammunition for $3,500, which he used to shoot down his mostly young victims like rabid dogs.
Voter Suppression Alive and Well in Arkansas
The Solid South used to be Democratic. Today, the Solid South is Republican. What happened? President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Public Accommodations Act on July 2, 1964. As a result, South Carolina's Dixiecrat segregationist senator, Strom Thurmond, switched parties in September and vowed to lead fellow Dixiecrats to the Republican Party.
We Can't Afford to Let Hate and Lies Win Again
When Payton Gendron, an 18-year-old white teenager opened fire on shoppers in the Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., on Saturday, he knew exactly who he was aiming at - African Americans. Ten were murdered and three wounded in the attack, 11 of the victims were Black.
Biden Can Be the North Star the World Needs
The horrors inflicted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine continue to mount, an agonizing toll of the dead and wounded, cities and crops destroyed, civilians dismembered. Few think the worst is over. The dangers of escalation continue to grow. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ramped up the use of bombs and missiles demonstrating Russia’s capability to wreak further havoc.
People of Color MUST Get Out and Vote!
Republicans are already gloating about the elections coming this fall. With Joe Biden lagging in the polls, Trump's Big Lie rousing the Republican base, inflation distracting from the remarkable jobs recovery, Democrats look to be in trouble. Much can change in the months left before the election -- and one central question is whether increased registration and voting among African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans will begin to turn more districts and more states blue, particularly those in the South.
Putin's War Crimes Must Be Exposed
The mass graves of civilians murdered and mutilated in Bucha, Ukraine, are stark evidence of the horrors of war - and of war crimes. Putin's invasion of Ukraine - itself a violation of international law - raises a profound challenge to the world. How can a dictator armed with nuclear weapons be held accountable for the crimes of war?
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and Ginni Thomas
Last week, two events involving the U.S. Supreme Court occurred. First, four days of hearings surrounding the nomination and possible elevation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the nation's highest court.
Now Is the Time When People of Conscience Must Stand Up
GuiYing Ma was assaulted as she swept up the sidewalk in front of her Queens home, her head beaten with a rock so that she ended up in a coma for weeks. Christina Yuna Lee was fatally stabbed more than 40 times by a stalker who followed her to her apartment in Chinatown. Michelle Alyssa Go was pushed to her death at a Times Square subway station. In Atlanta last March, eight people were killed at mass shootings at three Asian spas.
Anniversary of Selma Reminds Us of How Democracy Is Defended
Politicians for both parties loudly praise the courage of Ukrainians defending their democracy from the Russian invasion. Yet, bipartisan defense of democracy disappears when the question is democracy at home. March 7 marked the 57th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when the police attack of a peaceful march of Blacks seeking the right to vote in Selma, Alabama, stirred the outrage that led to passage of the Voting Rights Act. Today the right to vote is once more in question.
What's Needed Now Is a Push for Peace
“When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers,” an old African proverb teaches. Sadly, we now witness its truth in the horrors visited upon Ukraine by Russia’s invasion. The elephants – Russia and the U.S. with its NATO allies – fought over Ukraine, and now Ukrainians are paying a horrible price. As in any modern war, civilians suffer the worst casualties. Nearly 400,000 Ukrainians have already been forced from their country, refugees fleeing the violence. While sanctions may hit the Russian elites in their pocketbooks, it is young, often befuddled Russian soldiers whose lives are at risk in the face of the inspired and fierce Ukrainian resistance.
Voting Rights Now!
For African Americans, freedom, citizenship and the right to vote are inextricably linked. With the victory of the Union in the Civil War, the Civil Rights Amendments to the Constitution -- the 13th, 14th and 15th --were passed, freeing the slaves, requiring equal justice for all, and protecting the right to vote against discrimination. Those rights were trampled by segregation, an apartheid regime shamefully ratified by a reactionary Supreme Court. It took 100 years and the civil rights movement to end segregation and pass the Voting Rights Act once more enforcing the right to vote.
Dr. King's Work Is Not Yet Done
Yesterday, we celebrated the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King. It is an extraordinary national tribute to a leader who did not amass a fortune, nor command an army, nor hold elective office, and yet transformed America. In the U.S., we too often love martyrs and not marches. We honor those who sacrifice - after they are dead. Yet, Dr. King's example when he was alive holds lessons for us today.
Best Outcome Would Be for Children to Be Back in School and Safe
The shutdown of Chicago public schools - the third largest school district in the country with 350,000 students - is headed into its second week. Everyone involved - the mayor, the school district officials, the teachers, the parents - agree that remote learning is bad for students and for parents, particularly those from lower income families. Everyone agrees that the best outcome would be for children to be back in school and safe. And there is where the problem arises.
It Is Time for Congress to Act to Defend Free Elections
Jan. 6, 2022 marks one year since the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, incited by a president voted out of office by the vast majority of the American people. What is now clear is that Donald Trump and his tong of zealous aides and complicitous right-wing legislators were deadly serious about overturning the results of that vote and keeping Trump in office. They failed but have since launched a systematic campaign in states across the country to make it possible to succeed the next time.
Here's How Young People Can Save America
A new year is a time for reflection on the past and hope for the future. My new year's wish this year is that across the country, every high school give each graduating student a diploma and a voter registration card, and every center of education and training - whether community college or four-year university, technical training or business school - insure that every entering student is registered to vote.
Should We Hold Parents Responsible for the Terrorist Acts of Their Children?
When Ethan Crumbley, a troubled 15-year-old, shot and killed four students at Oxford High School, in Oxford, Michigan, he was charged with terrorism and murder. In a virtually unprecedented step, the prosecutor, Karen McDonald, also indicted Crumbley's parents for involuntary manslaughter, arguing that they should have known their son was a danger to his school and should have revealed that he had access to a handgun that was an early Christmas gift from his parents, and stored in an unlocked locker in their bedroom.
Omicron Travel Bans Won't Work
Omicron - the new COVID-19 variant - is now on the march. While southern Africa appears to be its epicenter, countries across the world, including Britain, Canada, Australia, Israel and many others, now report cases of the new variant. Dr. Anthony Fauci calls it "inevitable" that it will come to or is already in the U.S. We know the variant is very contagious, but still unknown is how severe it is, or how resistant to vaccines it will be.
It's Time for President Biden to Deliver
Listen up Democrats in Washington - from the White House to the Senate to the Congress: it is time to deliver. Biden's popularity among African Americans is slipping. Blacks provided the president with 22 percent of his votes in 2020, putting him into the White House. African American turnout, particularly in Georgia, was crucial to the Senate victories that brought Democrats a 50-50 split. In his campaign, Biden named systemic racism as one of the fundamental crises facing the country.
Historically Black Colleges Deserve Better
At Howard University, one of the leading historically black colleges and universities in America, dozens of students are sleeping outdoors in a tent encampment to protest conditions in dormitories that they describe as "unlivable." and dangerous to their health. The students complain of mold, rodent and roach infestations, leaky ceilings, and flooding - all things that could put their health at risk.
Biden's Trillion-dollar Plan
After much drama last week, President Biden made it clear that his core legislative package - the American Jobs Plan, which would begin rebuilding our decrepit infrastructure and the American Family Plan, which would address essential needs - will pass together or not at all. Now Democrats are moving to negotiate the scope of the Family Plan so they can unify behind it.
U.S. Needs to Make Its Asylum Policy Clear
Today, the makeshift migrant border camp in Del Rio, Texas, is virtually empty, cleared of thousands of Haitian refugees who came there seeking asylum in America. State troopers now line the border area to discourage others from gathering.
Jesse Jackson: Immigration rules should be clear and the playing field even
In one of the largest, fastest, most abrupt mass expulsions of refugees in modern U.S. history, the United States has begun flying some 12,000 Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to Haiti. Invoking executive authority asserted by Donald Trump, the Biden administration is enforcing the Donald Trump immigration policy when it comes to Haitians.
Immigration Rules Should Be Clear and the Playing Field Even
In one of the largest, fastest, most abrupt mass expulsions of refugees in modern U.S. history, the United States has begun flying some 12,000 Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to Haiti. Invoking executive authority asserted by Donald Trump, the Biden administration is enforcing the Donald Trump immigration policy when it comes to Haitians.
No Doubt Global Warming Is a Reality
Record fires in Oregon and California. Floods in Houston and New York. Deadly winter storms in Texas. Droughts across much of the west. Flash floods in England and Germany. Blinding dust storms in China. 100-year cyclones devastate Fiji and Indonesia. Deadly droughts across sub-Saharan Africa. Wildfires in Greece and Italy. The year is not over yet, but in the United States and across the world, the toll in lives and destruction is growing in storms of biblical proportion.
Texan Taliban Wing of the Republican Party
American papers are filled with pundits speculating about the horrors the Taliban may inflict on the people of Afghanistan, particularly its women. Less attention has been paid to the horrors Texas Republicans - the Taliban wing of the Republican Party - are inflicting on the State of Texas. In total control of the state, Republicans have a free hand that they've used to enforce extremism.
Why Are a Few Democrats Blocking Biden's Bold Recovery Agenda?
This is the week that will tell whether Washington will act to address the growing crises that threaten our democracy.
The Olympic Spirit Shows Us the Way Out and Up
The 32nd Summer Olympics that just ended in Japan was held in a bubble but could not escape the calamities of this time. Rows of empty seats paid sad tribute to the pandemic that is spiking in Japan and elsewhere across the world. Athletes competed under severe, even crippling heat, harsh testament to the extreme weather that is the product of heedless human impact on our climate.
Time for Democracy to Work
The right to vote is fundamental to a democracy. Today in America, however, that right is under partisan attack across the country. If it is to be defended, nonpartisan reforms must pass across a partisan divide. The question now is whether Democrats will join together to protect the right to vote from the assault it faces from Republicans at every level of government.
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Ignorance is Death
We live in ignorant times. By now, surely this is obvious beyond argument to anyone who's been paying attention. From the Capitol insurrectionist who thought he was storming the White House to Sen. Tim Scott's claim that "woke supremacy is as bad as white supremacy" to whatever thing Tucker Carlson last said, ignorance is ascendant.
It's Time for Patriots to Stand Up
America's democracy is under assault -- systematic, unrelenting and unhinged. The assault is waged by one party -- the Republican Party. It is largely driven by the lies and racism of Donald Trump, who simply will not accept that he lost the last election. To deny that unacceptable reality, Trump has spread -- and Republican officials across the country have echoed -utterly fraudulent claims of fraud to justify measures to make voting more difficult.
The Movement for Justice Will Not Be Deterred
The result will open the floodgates even further to the wave of partisan laws that Republicans are pushing in states across the country to suppress the votes of African Americans and other people of color. The right-wing justices continue their assault on the meaning and power of the Voting Rights Act, a triumph of the civil rights movement that Justice Elena Kagan, writing in dissent, noted represents the "best in America."
Time for a New 'Good Neighbor Policy'
“America is back,” President Biden announced repeatedly in meeting with allies in Europe. The question, of course, is back for what? Biden has sensibly insisted that we must “build back better” at home and abroad. Our neighbors to the south in Latin America offer a clear opportunity to show that is true. Now more than ever, it is time for a new Good Neighbor policy toward Latin America.
Juneteenth Celebrates the Continuing Struggle for Equality Under the Law
"Great nations don't ignore the most painful moments. ... They embrace them," said President Biden as he signed the Juneteenth National Independent Day Act - passed unanimously in the U.S. Senate - to make Juneteenth - June 19th - a federal holiday.
Sen. Manchin Has a Chance to Make History and Benefit His State
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin stands at the bridge. He has immense influence - virtually a veto - on whether and how this country makes progress in the Biden administration.
Simple justice: The Tulsa Massacre, Restitution and Reparations
On its 100th anniversary, the 1921 massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma has finally come to national attention. The history of the massacre is now known. The damage inflicted clear. The question is what is to be done to repair the damage?
No Matter the Issue, Republicans Always Say No
Just say no. That seems to sum up the position of Republicans in the Congress these days. For all the talk about bipartisan compromise or about the two parties working together, at the end of the day, the Republican position is simply to say no.
The Mark of History Scars Tulsa
Memorial Day marks one year since the murder of George Floyd by the hands of the Minneapolis police. This week also marks the 100-year anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre - a brutal government-aided leveling of a prosperous African American community for which there still has been no accounting and no justice. Few even know about the massacre. It hasn't even been taught in the Tulsa public schools until this year. Although 100 years old, the massacre poses questions of justice and of decency that America cannot avoid.
COVID-19 Is A Risk To Humanity
COVID-19 knows no national boundaries. It does not discriminate by race or religion or ideology. The pandemic poses a threat to humanity, not to any one country. Our response must be as encompassing as the threat: we cannot end the threat here without ending it everywhere.
COVID-19 Is a Global Threat That Requires a Global Mobilization
India is now ground zero for COVID-19. Saturday, it suffered a new record of more than 335,000 new infections and over 4,000 deaths in one day, while hospitals run out of oxygen and beds, and as morgues and crematoria are overwhelmed. In total, a staggering 22.6 million people have been infected, with 246,116 deaths.
'America is not a racist country'
“America is not a racist country.” This is quickly becoming a Republican mantra. Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, used it in his rebuttal to President Biden’s address to the Congress. Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican weather vane, echoed him, as did Republicans across the country. Scott went on to accuse Democrats of dividing the country by using race as a “political weapon.”
The Case for 'DC' Statehood Is Clear
Last week, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 51, a bill that would make Washington, D. C., the 51st state of the union. It would finally end the denial of voting representation to its more than 700,000 residents, the majority of whom are black or brown.
Republicans Posture As The Party Of Working People
The debate over Joe Biden’s $2 tril- lion American Infrastructure Plan is heating up – and getting more and more unhinged. Republicans are railing against the president for asking for too much. They promise a filibuster against the bill unless there is a bipartisan agree- ment – on their terms.
George Floyd Justice in Policing Act Would Set National Standards for Police Behavior
Even as Derek Chauvin is on trial for the murder of George Floyd, police 10 miles away fatally shot an African American man, Duante Wright, after pulling him over for an alleged traffic violation. That triggered protests that led to confrontations with police, despite Wright's family pleading for non-violence. The Washington Post reports that 985 people have been shot and killed by police in the past year, with blacks more than two times as likely to be shot and killed than whites. Fundamental reform is long overdue.
Has America Come Any Closer to King's Dream?
Last weekend marked the 53d anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination. Over half a century. Has America come any closer to his dream?
The New Jim Crow
In Georgia, Donald Trump's big lie that the election was stolen has now been turned into bad law -- an election law designed to make it harder for minorities and the young to vote. This is, as President Joe Biden stated, the new Jim Crow a blatant attempt by Republicans to suppress votes so they can hold onto power.
The Right to Vote Is the Essential Foundation of Democracy
The right to vote is the essential foundation of democracy. Yet today, across America, there is a systematic campaign by one party to curtail the right to vote, targeted particularly at minorities and the young. As the Brennan Center for Justice reports, Republicans have introduced more than 250 legislative bills in 43 states that would make voting more difficult.
New Wave Of Anti-Asian Racial Violence
"Asian Americans confront wave of racial violence - turning pain into power"
Now Is the Time to Raise the Minimum Wage
While calling themselves "populists," in 2017 Republicans passed President Trump's only significant legislation, a nearly $2 trillion tax cut that sent 82 percent of its benefits to the top 1 percent of wealthy Americans and 63 percent to the top one-tenth of that 1 percent while driving the nation's debt through the roof and accomplishing little purpose other than exacerbating America's unjust income and wealth divide.
The Right to Vote Again Under Siege
The fundamental right in a democracy -- the right to vote -- is once more under siege. In state after state, across the country, Republican legislators have introduced literally hundreds of bills designed to suppress voting.
Americans Can Take Pride in the Super Bowl
Last night, millions of people across the world watched the Tampa Bay Buccaneers win the Super Bowl over the Kansas City Chiefs. They saw great athletes performing at the top of their profession. They saw a game marked by hard tackling and blocking, fierce runs and complex plays. It was a big night with a big audience. The obvious question is how was the National Football League able to pull off playing the season with 32 teams and then the playoffs and the big game in the midst of a pandemic?