For the purposes of this discussion, let’s think of Congress as a fetid pool of ideologues. In frosty February, many weeks before mosquito season, President Obama foresaw an emergency and acted on it. He requested $1.9 billion in funds to combat a disease seen as threatening Americans. Time was on our side. Came spring’s thaw,…
Details“Don’t let anyone ever tell you that this country is not great, that somehow we need to make it great again. Because this right now is the greatest country on Earth.” So said Michelle Obama in a speech so powerful as to have no rejoinder, aside from Bill O’Reilly’s attempt to commend slaves’ dining options…
Details“Don’t let anyone ever tell you that this country is not great, that somehow we need to make it great again. Because this right now is the greatest country on Earth.” So said Michelle Obama in a speech so powerful as to have no rejoinder, aside from Bill O’Reilly’s attempt to commend slaves’ dining options…
DetailsFrom a mass media perspective, let’s look at what brought us Donald Trump. Once upon a time we had television networks that were truly mass media – they had something for everybody, and none of it patently offensive. Things changed with cable, satellite and online programming, many choices – some good, and a lot of…
Details“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” – Hosea 8-7. Recent events remind me of the only lasting memory remaining from having poked my head inside a long-ago gun show at the Astrodome: Metal detectors were at the entrance Yes, even a gathering of gun nuts didn’t want…
DetailsOh, Dallas. Oh, boy. Once more you are in the spotlight in the worst possible way – and you are impressing the hell out of us. Book-ended days of infamy? Yes, but, compare. In one, 1963, death in Dealey Plaza was presaged by character assassination — in the Dallas newspapers and in…
DetailsA barnstorm tour of Texas on a soggy week in May deposited me at a treasured place: a particular tennis court, opposite a particular racquet-bearing friend. It’s where we had gathered weekly for years, the essence of effort being the sweat and not the score. And so we perspired once more, though more from the…
DetailsArchitects of the anti-abortion restrictions struck down by the Supreme Court this week are about as concerned about women’s health as a Texas football throng is about head injuries between each whistle. They want their team to win. They want to march down the field to their goal of burying the foe in the turf.…
DetailsTexas didn’t need a federal court to know it couldn’t do this. Neither did Indiana, Alabama, or any states seeking to excuse themselves from what America has always done. We welcome refugees in life-or-death straits. “Oh, no, we don’t,” said those states. “Not if they’re Muslim.” Oh, yes, you do, if the…
Details“This is the year of jubilee/Send them angels down/The Lord has come to set us free.” The words of the Negro spiritual are celebratory, but the truth of them is in the title: “My Way’s Cloudy.” A long struggle was ahead. Many who sang it would never know freedom. Emancipation launched a…
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