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What’s behind the attack on Black history? Fear, of course.
This commentary originally appeared in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. It’s tough to decide what’s more odious: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ racist, authoritarian, and nakedly political power play rejecting an Advanced Placement course on African American studies, or the College Board’s cowardly decision to revise the course in the face of this thuggish criticism. The board’s decision […]
No, guns do kill people. And the solution is glaringly obvious.
This commentary originally appeared in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. My Nhan, 65, immigrated to the United States from Vietnam in the 1980s, and made her home in California’s San Gabriel Valley, in a community called Rosemead. Her niece, Fonda Quan, said she was ready “to start the year fresh,” and celebrate with her friends, according to the CBC. […]
Senate same-sex marriage vote still a step on long road toward full justice
This commentary originally appeared in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. It’s difficult to overstate the importance of last week’s U.S. Senate vote codifying protections for same-sex and interracial marriage as both a triumph of bipartisanship and fundamental decency. It’s also difficult to overstate, sadly, how much further we have to go to ensure full equality for LGBTQ […]
Pennsylvania voters sent the GOP a message on Tuesday. They need to listen.
This commentary originally appeared in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Though their reasons and motivations may have differed, when they came out to the polls on Tuesday, Pennsylvania voters were sending a clear message about the people they want representing them in Washington and in Harrisburg. They wanted someone who heard the voices of the state’s Black […]
Dog whistles, scare tactics and what Pa.’s U.S. Senate candidates aren’t saying about crime
This commentary originally appeared in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. F. Scott Fitzgerald once famously observed that the truest test “of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” But the sage of the Jazz Age never had to run for office. And, […]
Still think everything is awful? Here are three reasons for hope
This commentary originally appeared in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Step away from Twitter. Stop doom-scrolling. Yes, I know, American democracy is under assault. Russian President Vladimir Putin is muttering dark warnings about nuclear weapons in the face of heroic and historic resistance by Ukraine. Dozens of people are dead and large swaths of Florida have been […]
Biden’s Philly speech was a challenge to all of us. We have to step up.
This commentary originally appeared in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Returning to the state where he launched his candidacy — and the one that handed him the White House in 2020 — President Joe Biden on Thursday called on Americans to join him in a fight to preserve democracy and to beat back the forces of extremism. […]
The Dems’ 2022 momentum just shifted. GOP overreach on abortion helped power it
This commentary originally appeared in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Has the right’s electoral gamble on abortion failed? With the midterms a little less than three months away, there’s some reason for encouragement. Consider these three developments alone: The results of a recount in Kansas this week reaffirmed that voters overwhelmingly rejected a constitutional amendment that would […]
How Pennsylvania is fanning the flames of the next insurrection
This commentary originally appeared in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Here we go again. In the last week, two men from Pennsylvania each made headlines for attempting or threatening violence against the FBI after it executed a search warrant at the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump. One of the men, Adam Bies, 46, of Mercer, […]
Here’s how broken Washington is: Democrats agreeing with each other is big news
This commentary originally appeared in Pennsylvania Capital-Star. In an ideal world, the landmark compromise on climate change, Medicare, and energy spending that U.S. Senate Democrats announced earlier this week would barely require a second glance. That’s not to diminish the magnitude of the agreement that U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., struck with […]
Trumpism is fascism, American-style
This commentary originally appeared in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. If you want to know what the slide into fascism looks like, go back and review Tuesday’s session of the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. It was a tragic parade of public servants relaying the vile acts of harassment […]
Our national pathology over guns is no longer insane. It’s inhuman.
This commentary originally appeared in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Want to know what rage feels like? It’s waking on a Wednesday morning on a school day as the cable news talking heads sift through the latest on the shooting at a Texas elementary school that left 21 people dead, most of them children, and looking at […]