Politics

If you’re a through-and-through progressive, or maybe even the Speaker of the House, and you’re still counting on a far-left agenda from President Obama, you should think again.  If you’re part of the Republican leadership, or a maybe a rank-and-file Rush Limbaugh “Dittohead,” waiting for Obama to enact a flurry of “socialist” regulations on the…

On Feb. 12, 1909, the centennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, a “call” went out inviting all “believers in democracy” to a national conference dedicated to “the renewal of the struggle for civil and political liberty.” Thus began the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The impetus for its founding occurred five months…

Just before Christmas 1776, colonist Thomas Paine published the first of a series of essays on early American values that would come to be known as “The American Crisis.” In it, Paine, a strong voice for the American colonies’ independence from Britain, wrote of setbacks on the path to liberty as “the times that try…

Now that the inaugural celebrations are over, we’ve moved into that difficult phase of the presidency called governing. To say that President Barack Obama faces unprecedented challenges is practically an understatement. At the very least, he faces greater challenges than any president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. On the international front alone, he must grapple with…

We heard barking as we approached the four-bedroom bungalow on a tidy suburban cul-de-sac near West Palm Beach. A 30-ish white man with sandy brown hair opened the door. “Is there a dog?” my mom asked with her Caribbean lilt. He caged the dog. We stepped inside, and my mother delivered the grim news: She…

Black History Month has barely begun, but some columnists are calling for an end. It’s time, they say, to abolish the month-long observance because of—you guessed it—the election of Barack Obama. His presidency proves that African Americans are fully intertwined into the American experience. So why relegate our history to a month of “rote and…

Just in case you missed it, the president of the United States wants you to know that the country is in an unprecedented crisis, “the most profound economic emergency since the Great Depression,” and that he is on the job for you. To that end, a stern-faced and grave-toned President Obama went before the American…

The hopeful conveners of the “Good Jobs, Green Jobs” conference held in Washington this week are convinced that they have a solution to the twin problems of a shrinking U.S. job market and the existential threat of climate change. Their answer? Green-collar employment for millions of Americans. We’ve heard of white- and blue-collar work—but green…

Barack Obama stood, jacket off and sleeves rolled, straining to be heard over the roaring crowd that had welcomed him home to Kenya. It was Aug. 26, 2006, and the world was already watching. The young senator was just a few months away from launching his improbable bid to become the 44th president of the…

So now you know—the State of AIDS in Black America is dire and getting worse. Moreover, over the past eight years Washington has done little to nothing about that fact. So what are you going to do about it? We’ve got some ideas.  First and foremost, you’ve got to make sure you’re taking personal responsibility…