Flint: A lesson in callousness
Flint, Mich., is impoverished. The auto plants have closed. Forty percent of the city’s 100,000 residents live below the poverty level. It is majority minority. It has been in fiscal crisis since 2011, with the state taking over budgetary control …
Dr. King’s principles and voice will guide future generations
On March 25, 1968, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, among the leading theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century, spoke what many historians believe to have been prophetic words about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Only 10 days before he …
Athletes, dollars and progress
As the University of Alabama football team prepares to line up against Clemson University on Jan. 11 in Glendale, Ariz., to decide the national collegiate football championship, it’s worth noting that the Crimson Tide wouldn’t be “rolling” in success and …
Collective goals for 2016
Whenever we begin a new calendar year, it can be useful to make New Year’s resolutions to prioritize and focus for the immediate future. What should be our collective goals and strategic objectives during the next 12 months? Recent academic …
Real ‘Woman of the Year’
Jannie Ligons is an Oklahoma City grandmother who left a friend’s house to drive home. She collided with Daniel Holtzclaw, the rogue police officer who seemed to think it was part of his duty to sexually abuse black women. He …
Vision, not division
Leaders provide vision. They help people understand where they are, how they got there and what they must do to go forward. They help calm nerves and strengthen courage. They are steady in times of trouble, inspiring in times of …
Eloquence and arrogance
On the same day that President Obama gave a stirring and historically grounded commemoration regarding the 150th anniversary of the passage of the 13th Amendment that “abolished” slavery, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia chose to disregard tenets of equality …
The politics of courage
If Donald Trump can thrive politically by throwing meat to the American id, what else is possible? How about the opposite? Mr. Trump’s most recent attempt to reclaim poll supremacy — his call for “a total and complete shutdown of …
AIDS: Getting to zero
“Three decades into this crisis, let us set our sights on achieving the “three zeros” — zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. On this World AIDS Day, let us pledge to work together to realize this …
Wiping away the stain
Despite racist vitriol characterizing African-Americans as “dirty,” most of us were reared in an environment where “cleanliness was next to godliness.” Many, if not most, of us know the virtues of keeping our minds, bodies and belongings clean. With the …
Tips from rags to riches life
Omar Periu is truly a rags to riches story. He came to America at age 7 with his parents who were escaping Fidel Castro's regime. They came with nothing but the clothes on their backs. He has built an amazing …
A ‘kill-and-cover-up’ police culture?
When public officials refuse to release a video that shows alleged misconduct by a police officer, you should only expect the worst. That’s particularly true in Chicago, where one “bad apple” too often has signaled a bushel of coverups and …
The Muslim world isn’t silent
I received a call a few days after the Paris terrorist attacks from a relative. She was, quite understandably, deeply unsettled by the attack. She asked me why it was that the Muslim community was so silent about jihadist attacks. …
Let your spending reflect your values
The buildup began right after Halloween, when the newspapers got thicker, the advertising inserts longer and emails touting shopping bargains coming more frequently.
‘Let us express our gratitude by welcoming others’
President Obama’s 2015 Thanksgiving Proclamation.
