Politics
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Why Girls of Color Should Be Included in My Brother’s Keeper
One crisp November morning in 2012, a 14-year-old girl named Maia* grabbed her backpack and rushed out of the house to make the morning bell. She took her normal route to school but picked up her pace when a white van began following her. She ran, but couldn’t outpace the 10 teenage boys who grabbed…
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Ban the Box: A Politician’s Crusade to Get the Felony Question off Job Applications
It’s a common question that appears on almost every job application across the United States. “Have you ever been arrested or convicted of a crime?”—or something to that effect—is usually how the question is phrased. And for some, depending on the employer, it could be the end of the road to attaining meaningful employment and…
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Obama Announces Plans to Encourage Employers to Be More Family Friendly
President Barack Obama will be spending his Monday morning advocating on behalf of working families, announcing steps to create more opportunities and flexibility for families at the first White House Summit on Working Families, according to a press release. Claiming to be representative of a “21st-century workplace,” a presidential memorandum Obama plans to sign Monday is…
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South Dakota GOP Wants to Impeach Obama
Claiming that he has repeatedly “violated his oath of office,” Republican South Dakota lawmakers passed a resolution Saturday to impeach President Barack Obama, according to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. Specifically, the site says, the resolution cites the trade of five Taliban detainees for U.S. Army soldier Bowe Bergdahl, as well as the president’s oft-criticized…
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When It Comes to Voting, Freedom Summer Wasn’t a One-Time Event
In January my father retraced steps he took 50 years ago in Hattiesburg, Miss. As a teenager in 1964, he had locked arms with men and women of goodwill seeking the most sacred and elusive right of citizenship: the vote. Later that year, Mississippi would become the site of the extraordinary Freedom Summer, when students…
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Obama Expands Benefits for Same-Sex Couples
President Barack Obama on Friday granted a number of new federal benefits, including Social Security, to same-sex couples, nearly a year after the Supreme Court struck down a measure prohibiting federal recognition of gay marriage, the Associated Press reports. The provision extends even to couples living in states where same-sex marriage is not legal, the…
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My Brother’s Keeper: Stop Writing Letters, Just Do the Work
Over the past few days my Twitter feed has buzzed about the letter signed by 1,000 women and girls urging President Barack Obama to broaden his My Brother’s Keeper initiative. The letter and subsequent commentaries attack the president, accusing him of any number of sins for not including women and girls in this program. Yes,…
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‘Faith & Freedom’ Are About How We Treat Our Fellow Americans
As an ordained United Methodist Church minister myself, when I speak at home or around the country, I am exceedingly particular about the language I use to express my support for, or opposition to, political or policy positions. I am humble enough to recognize clearly that the voice of God that I hear is sometimes…
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Stripping Teacher Protections Doesn’t Help Children
The AFL-CIO, along with the undersigned civil rights organizations, believes that every child has the right to a high-quality education. Last week the Los Angeles County Court invoked that right, under California’s Constitution, but its decision in Vergara v. California identifies classroom teachers as the one and only problem facing public schools. The ruling unfortunately targets all educators, including…
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5 Things You Should Know About the Koch Brothers—Who Just Gave Black Colleges $25M
You may often hear the words “Koch brothers” during casual flips through tense cable TV talk shows or when a campaign attack ad invades your television screen. But you might also be among that half of all Americans who don’t really know who they are, according to an April Wall Street Journal-NBC poll. But when…