MacArthur “genius” grantee, founder of Repairers of the Breach, and organizer of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, Rev. William J Barber II has made eradicating poverty his life’s work. He sits down with host Mary C. Curtis for a candid and surprising conversation.
What’s in a name? Identity, pride and love. Ask Kamala Harris
Every person’s name is special. It demands respect.
I learned how seriously I felt about that at a pre-coronavirus conference, when a speaker who fancied himself Don Rickles but came off more like the rude uncle at a holiday party, prefaced his remarks with a self-styled roast. It supposedly poked “fun” at the attendees, including, apparently, those he barely knew. (And frankly, except for an occasional greeting at conferences past, I did not know this man from a can of paint.)
Oct222020
The ‘invisible’ people who pay the price for Trump’s COVID malpractice
Despite the late nights and long hours that took my father away more than this daddy’s girl would have liked, he never stopped being my hero. I knew that when he finished his day job, changed clothes and headed to his extra shifts tending bar or waiting tables for local caterers, he was doing it for a reason. Lots of them, actually —my mom, two sisters, two brothers and me.
For someone as proud as he was, it was a sacrifice because of what he had to put up with from people with a lot more money and a lot less character. They treated him like he was “invisible,” or worse, and he put up with it, for us.
What he did not have to do is endure the recklessness of a boss who willfully and deliberately exposed him to a deadly virus in the name of politics.
But others very much like him do.
Oct082020
Shut up and act? Tell that to Donald Trump
After refusing to weigh in on previous presidential contests, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has endorsed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the 2020 race, lending his star power — while looking quite buff after a coronavirus scare — to a video with the Democratic ticket.
Cue the naysayers with the familiar refrain of “who cares” and “stick to acting,” conveniently ignoring the reality show-starring, tabloid-exploiting résumé of the man in the White House. Donald Trump’s Tuesday night debate performance was light on policy, but heavy on drama and fireworks, which is how he and his supporters like it. Though when the president encouraged the far-right Proud Boys to “stand back” and “stand by,” the act became all too real for anyone who cares about the “United” States.
Oct012020
Breonna Taylor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the future of our country with Fatima Goss Graves
In this inaugural episode of CQ Roll Call’s Equal Time, Mary C. Curtis reflects on this moment in time, examining the complexity and history of issues dividing the country in 2020. Today’s episode features Fatima Goss Graves, CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, discussing Breonna Taylor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and what is at stake for the courts, our country and women — especially those of color.
Sep242020
Trump’s ‘good genes’ rhetoric illustrates why the fight for justice never ends
It was one of lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s cases before she took her place on the Supreme Court or in pop culture memes. It is only occasionally mentioned, perhaps because the details illuminated a truth people prefer to look away from, so they can pretend that sort of thing could never happen here.
But something terrible did happen, to a teenager, sterilized in 1965 without fully consenting or understanding the consequences in a program that continued into the 1970s in the state of North Carolina. The girl became a woman whose marriage and life crashed before her story became the basis of a lawsuit Ginsburg filed in federal court that helped expose the state’s eugenics program. While North Carolina’s was particularly aggressive, other states implemented their own versions, long ago given a thumbs up by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1927 decision written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Sep242020
Introducing ‘Equal Time with Mary C. Curtis’
In CQ Roll Call’s newest podcast, “Equal Time with Mary C. Curtis,” award-winning journalist Mary C. Curtis tackles policies and politics through the lens of social justice, illuminating the issues that have been, and still are, dividing the country. After all, the world is not so black and white.
“Equal Time with Mary C. Curtis” will drop its first episode on Thursday, Sept. 24. Listen and subscribe here.
Sep242020
