News Day

Never has the promise of the Statue of Liberty seemed more hollow than this summer, as mobs scream invective at frightened children fleeing their home countries to what they hoped would be safe haven in the United States. The contrast between the poem at the Statue of Liberty and the continuing Republican blockage of immigration reform, coupled with the angry hostility toward the waves of Central American child refugees could not be more stark. Continue reading →

Long ago and not so far away, I celebrated the Fourth of July religiously each year. I was a wholehearted patriot, deeply convinced that my country was committed to liberty and justice for all. Even after the news intruded, with realities of segregation and racism and war, I wanted to believe that the real United States was the country of Martin Luther King, Jr., and not the country of Strom Thurmond. I believed that we would win the struggles for civil rights and for fair pay for workers and farmers and farmworkers and for an end to wars. Continue reading →

Need more than sunshine to get the week off to a good start? Try these four good news stories:  Continue reading →

Alberto Monserrate has it right:  Continue reading →

Henry Louis Gates Jr. watched Freedom Summer on television from his hometown of Piedmont, West Virginia. He was thirteen years old that summer. I was, too, and I also watched Freedom Summer on television, from another rural community half a continent away. Continue reading →

End homelessness — a couple of years ago, that sounded to me like an impossible project. Now it seems within the realm of possibility. Continue reading →

More than 10 years ago, whistle-blower Courtland Kelley told GM about the safety problems and was forced out of his job. Yes – GM, whose failure to recall vehicles with ignition switch failures have cost at least 13 lives. Continue reading →

Weddings feel like this — a crowd of people fizzing with happiness, dressed up for the occasion, coming together to celebrate a life-affirming commitment.  Coming together on June 21 at the Minnesota History Center — 128 immigrants from 44 countries, making their promise to protect and serve this country, the United States of America, as they become naturalized citizens. Continue reading →

Broken bones, bloody noses, dark closets, duct taped wrists — all part of U.S. schools’ restraints of unruly children, as documented in a June 19 Pro Publica report. Children with emotional disabilities make up the majority of those subjected to restraints and seclusion. Federal data shows that restraint and seclusion were used more than 267,000 times in 2012. The federal numbers understate the practices, because only one-third of the nation’s school districts reported any instances of restraint or seclusion. Continue reading →

Need some hope to start the week? In case you missed them, here are four stories of things going right in the world.  Continue reading →