What’s so [small-d] democratic about this year’s [capital D] Democratic and Republican caucuses? Not much. The first time I caucused–back in 1972, in Missouri–I
Category: Civil Rights
Trash/recycling pickup on MLK Day: Ironic & wrong
On Martin Luther King Day this year [2016], I was surprised to see the trash and recycling trucks clanking down my street in suburban
Dr. King’s dream, and the hijabi women who dream it, too
Standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial before a throng of civil-rights activists in August of 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his
What we’ve learned from right wing reaction to Obama, and now Trump
On January 27, 1998, in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky revelations, Hillary Clinton appeared on the Today show and said, “The great story
All the Way (with LBJ)
All the Way, the Tony-Award-winning play focusing on Lyndon Johnson’s first year as President, demands a bravura performance by its lead actor. In the
Voting rights watch: Is the pendulum swinging back toward democracy?
It has been very disconcerting to watch voting rights erode in America over the past 30 years or so. For those of us naïve
The Ferguson dilemma: When keeping up appearances is not enough
A recent article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that described the way that the small St. Louis County municipality of Pagedale was condemning inhabited,
Kiss Cam: The new social barometer
When do you know that a social trend has gained full traction in America? One way is to listen to the pronouncements of pundits,
Since I became a “hijabi:” What it means to wear a Muslim headscarf
I decided I wanted to don the hijab last summer. It’s been almost a year now since I became a hijabi (someone who wears
This church – state thing gets curiouser and curiouser
Republican legislators and Governor Mike Pence in Indiana have presented us with the latest incarnation of church – state relations in the United States.