Politics
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Tea Party State of the Union Response Will Air Only on CNN
The Huffington Post is reporting that CNN will be the only cable network to air the “Tea Party response” to tonight’s State of the Union address: “Traditionally, all the networks air the official State of the Union address, followed by the official response from the opposition party. This year, however, there will be a Tea…
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Is Marriage Equality the Right Battle for Gay Families?
In the run-up to the State of the Union Address, LGBT leaders have called upon President Obama to include support for same-sex marriage in this year’s speech. The request makes sense: Last year’s SOTU included a presidential promise to repeal “Don’t ask, don’t tell” by the end of 2010, and — albeit at the 11th…
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From Tucson to Brooklyn: Guns in America
“Annie Christian was a whore always looking for some funbeing good was such a bore, so she bought a gunshe killed John Lennon, shot him down coldshe tried to kill Reagan, everybody say gun control” —Prince, “Annie Christian” (1981) ” … a prayer vigil/press conference at Brookdale Hospital to pray for the 16-year-old girl that…
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George Washington and His Runaway Slave
“I am free now and choose to remain so.” These are the words that haunt the new exhibit, “The President’s House: Freedom and Slavery in Making a New Nation.” Now, directly in front of the famous Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, the President’s House is the first and only federal site designed to memorialize enslaved…
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Broadband Summit: No Escape From Controversy
Over the hum of laptops and the persistent, attention-demanding chirps of a hundred BlackBerrys, the Minority Media & Telecom Council convened its “Broadband and Social Justice Summit” in Washington, D.C., last week, a gathering of industry and government leaders, to discuss how broadband access and adoption can help bridge the digital divide and provide minority…
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Why Obama's Speech Shouldn't Promise Too Much
After his inaugural address; his first State of the Union; his speeches in Philadelphia, Denver, Springfield and Oslo; and the 2004 Democratic convention speech, during which he proclaimed “there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America; there’s the United States of America,” everybody knows that President Barack Obama can give a great speech. If…
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Marian Wright Edelman on Continuing King's Work
Never mind the model of the “Tiger Mother,” Amy Chua’s controversial version of tough parental love pushing sometimes reluctant children to heights of achievement. Marian Wright Edelman’s hopes are far more basic. The founder of the Children’s Defense Fund has always been a fighter. In the week during which the country celebrated the achievements of…
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How to Make Health Care Repeal More Than Symbolic
We have seen stranger things happen, so why not now? Why couldn’t we see real reform for change — change that we can all believe in — when it comes to health care reform? Why can’t this week’s vote be the primer for bipartisan discussions and action? For those who thought this issue was resolved…
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SCLC Says It Will Go on Without Bernice King
The core leadership of the Atlanta-based Southern Christian Leadership Conference insists that it was not blindsided by today’s news that Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter Bernice is turning down the presidency of the organization that her father co-founded back in 1957. “We have not been leadership-less, and we still are not leadership-less,” Dr. Howard Creecy…
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Michael Steele Says GOP Needs 'More Brothers'
Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, recently went on Chris Matthews’ MSNBC show and chatted, among other things, about the lack of blacks in the Republican Party. “We could have used a few more brothers in the house; there’s no doubt about that,” Steele said when Matthews made the ingenious and original…