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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.
Citizens Are Stepping Up to Help Puerto Rico -- The Government, Not So Much
Millions of Americans still face perilous conditions in Puerto Rico. Three weeks after Hurricane Maria savaged the island, over 80 percent still have no electrical power. Forty percent are without running water. Millions are in dire need of food. Water purification systems can't work without electricity.
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.
In Troubled Times, Some Struggle for A Better Nation
On April 4, the 49th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, thousands will join Fight for $15 and the Movement for Black Lives to march in Memphis and in cities across the country in the fight for decent pay and racial justice.
We Don't Need the President's Thugs in Chicago
"Hitler had his Brown shirts and Mussolini had his Black shirts, now Donald Trump has his camouflage shirts." Thus began a statement signed by 15 distinguished interdenominational religious leaders in Chicago that I joined, including ministers, priests, and rabbis.
Winnie Mandela Bore Scars of Battle, Helped Heal Nation
This week, Winnie Madikizela Mandela will be laid to rest and honored at a state funeral in South Africa. To many, she was loved as the "mother of the nation" even in her final days.
A Royal Wedding That Affirms Truly Noble Values
Prince Harry of Wales, sixth in the line of succession to the British throne, will marry the American actress Meghan Markle on Saturday, with all of the ceremony and global hoopla that the British royalty inevitably attracts. Harry is the son of Charles, the Prince of Wales, and the late Princess Diana. What's notable about Prince Harry, however, is not so much the royal blood that he inherited, but the royal values that he has chosen to express.
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.
History Cannot Be Unlived
Last Saturday, three African Americans were murdered by a 21-year-old white gunman at the Dollar General Store in Jacksonville, Florida, who then shot himself. The murderer was motivated, Jacksonville Sheriff T K Waters reported, by an “ideology of hate.” The shooting took place 15 months after 10 African Americans were murdered in another racially motivated shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo. Racial violence against Blacks has scarred America since the first slaves were forcibly shipped to America.
Sessions Opens the Door Again to Privatized Prisons
Next week, March 7, will mark the 52nd anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the historic march and shocking police riot in Selma, Ala., that helped build public support for passage of the Voting Rights Act.
We Americans Must Face Our Addiction to Guns
Fifty-eight dead and counting; 500 sent to hospitals. The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history took place Sunday in Las Vegas, as a lone gunman firing from a window on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel savaged a crowd gathered to watch a country music show. It was, as one observer noted, like shooting fish in a barrel. The automatic rifle fire lasted for minutes. The shooter didn't really have to aim; he only had to pull the trigger.
As World Burns, Trump Adds Fuel to Fire
North Carolina has been hit with a storm of biblical ferocity. Florence has left at least 17 dead there, 500,000 without power, with flash flooding across the state from the coast to the western mountains. Landslides and infectious diseases are predicted to follow. North Carolina is not alone, of course.
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.
White Churches Have Moral Responsibility to Stand Up
In 2019, we will commemorate 400 years since the first 20 slaves were transported by ship from Africa by white slave traders and landed in Jamestown, Va.
Trump Doesn't Understand What Makes America Truly Great
"I am not a racist," Donald Trump found it necessary to reassure Americans. It was a revealing echo of when Richard Nixon told us, "I'm not a crook."
To Choose Not to Vote Is to Surrender Self-determination
Today is an election day in many parts of America. There are key gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey. A single special election in a suburban Seattle district could win Democrats control of the Washington Senate and thus control of the entire state government. Charlotte, N.C., could elect the first black female mayor ever. A record 43 women are vying for seats in the Virginia House of Delegates. Voters in Maine will decide whether to extend Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
Ocasio-Cortez Under Fire -- Because She's Right
The big guns are out for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the charismatic first term legislator from New York.
'I Can't Breathe'
The murder of George Floyd was a lynching in broad daylight. Three police officers stood and watched as a fourth, Derek Chauvin, knelt on Floyd's neck. They watched for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, with Floyd unresponsive for 2 minutes and 53 seconds of that, according to the criminal complaint against Chauvin. They did nothing to stop the murder. Their silence was as much an act of violence as Cauvin's knee. And if there were no video recording of the murder, they likely would have upheld the Code Blue loyalty, and lied about what happened.
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.
Donald Trump's Broken Promise to the Vulnerable
Of all of Donald Trump's broken campaign promises, none is more cruel than his broken promise on health care.
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