Our Constitution offers us “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, but we can’t pursue anything if we are unhealthy.
In this 2012 election, most of the focus is on the top of the ticket. Can President Obama maintain, or increase his lead over Republican nominee Mitt Romney?
The national support for the victims of last week’s Aurora shootings is great. However, if we believe in the equivalency of life, what about the lives of young men in Chicago, where there have been more deaths than in Afghanistan so far this year. While the hospitals in Aurora say they will cover hospital bills […]
George Zimmerman, the Florida man who killed Trayvon Martin, told Fox News personality Sean Hannity that the events that occurred on February 26, 2012 were “God’s will”. What a cynical manipulation of our Creator, to suggest that the massacre of an African American teenager by a crazed vigilante is the will of God. Actually, if […]
Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill) has been away from Congress on medical leave for so long that his colleagues have been clamoring to know what’s wrong, and NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported that the Congressman was receiving treatment for addiction. The truth, according the Rep. Jackson’s staff, is that the Congressman is being treated in a […]
The unemployment rate has hovered above 8 percent for several months, most recently holding ground at 8.2 percent, the same as last month. Meanwhile the African American unemployment rate went up, technically to 14.4 percent, and we all know that means the real rate is even higher, in excess of 25 percent. Republican Presidential candidate Mitt […]
CONGRESS BOTH GIVES AND TAKES AWAY OPPORTUNITIES TO COLLEGE STUDENTS Cheers to the Congress for holding interest rates on college loans down. Instead of doubling to 6.4 percent, the interest rate on federal college student loans will remain at the 3.2 percent level. However, this proviso is only in effect for one year. This time […]
Ai-Jen Poo leads the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and she is a powerful and passionate advocate for the rights of domestic workers. Who are these folks? They are the private household workers (maids) who propped up inept women in the movie The Help. They are the home health aides who take care of our elders […]
The most conservative Supreme Court in the past four decades is poised to overturn the already limited affirmative action provisions in the latter part of this year (after October 1) unless good sense visits one or two of them and they vote in favor of student body diversity instead of against. Since Bush-appointed justices John […]
Congress is on fire to balance the federal budget, and they don’t care who they take as prisoners in the process. There are at least two proposals to freeze federal salaries for yet another year (they have been frozen since 2011), and to continue to demonize federal workers as do-nothing folks who don’t need raises. […]
In April the unemployment rate was 8.1 percent. In May it rose, just a tiny bit, to 8.2 percent. A tenth of a percentage point does not seem like a big deal. Indeed, the Department of Labor descries the unemployment rate as “essentially unchanged”. And compared to this time last year, when the rate was […]
When you leave the United States, you’ll often find “cultural tourism”, or the opportunity to enjoy a culture and also purchase trinkets or more substantial items in markets around the world. In Ghana, we look for kente cloth, statues, and masks. In other African countries, the offerings are often similar, but Zimbabwe is known for […]