The “American Dream” may be a problematic concept, but everyone in this country and around the world knows exactly what it means. And truth be told, everyone wants to believe it: If you are determined and work hard enough, smart enough and long enough, you can achieve anything in this land of unlimited opportunity.
Opinion: How Did the FBI Become the Counterculture?
In her 2014 book “The Burglary,” Betty Medsger recounts the barely believable true story of the band of anti-Vietnam War activists (pretty ordinary-to-the-eye citizens, some married with children) who broke into the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, in 1971 and discovered some dirty secrets compiled by J. Edgar Hoover and the agency he ruled.
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That the FBI, then most known for its practice of seeing a subversive under every bed — and placing a tape recorder there — would now be considered a haven for left-wing radicals is astounding.
Feb012018
President Trump’s First State of the Union Address
CHARLOTTE, NC– After a contentious and divisive first year of the Trump presidency, the president and members of Congress have a chance to at least start to move toward the bipartisanship that most Americans want so the government will work for the American people. But is it possible for Democrats and Republicans to come together after so much has happened with so much to do
Jan312018
Opinion: Forgetting What It Means to Be an American
The 2004 romantic comedy “50 First Dates” offered a novel, though somewhat implausible, premise — and I don’t mean that Drew Barrymore would find Adam Sandler irresistible. The heroine of the tale, afflicted with short-term memory loss, woke up each morning with a clean slate, thinking it was the same day, with no recollection of anything that happened the day before.
Who knew the president of the United States, most members of a political party and White House staff would suffer from the same condition?
Jan182018
How Trump became ‘the white affirmative action president’
(CNN) When the Trump administration recently signaled that it was going to crack down on affirmative action, some critics responded with an odd request: Why not start with the man sitting in the Oval Office? President Donald Trump embodies the worst stereotypes conservatives have invoked to describe affirmative action beneficiaries, according to several commentators, political scientists and diversity experts. They say he’s entitled, unqualified and held to lower standards because of racial grievances. They call Trump the nation’s first affirmative action president.
Jan092018
Opinion: Why Oprah in 2020 Is Both Blessing and Curse for Trump and the GOP
It didn’t take long for “Oprah in 2020” to start trending after the one-named icon’s stirring Golden Globes speech on Sunday night.
Perhaps not surprisingly, considering his gift for exploiting political and cultural fault lines, one of the first to connect the media and philanthropic queen to electoral gold was none other than Donald Trump, who has said in the past that the two on a presidential ticket would win “easily.”
Maybe the president really is the “very stable genius” he says he is.
But did Trump also see her as the competition that could be his undoing?
Jan082018
Opinion: Will African-American Female Leadership Move Into the Spotlight in 2018?
It’s kind of a pattern. In tangled tales of the intersection of racism and sexism, women of color are depended upon for the hard work but pushed aside for recognition.
Jan042018
Opinion: Thinking Small When the Big Picture Looks Cloudy
Polls that show a view of Congress mighty low and sinking fast invariably find voters more satisfied with their own representatives. Thumbs-down verdicts for Washington and the “swamp” in general often turn rosier when dealing with particulars.
That fact, plus gerrymandered districts and restrictive voting laws, is reason enough for Democrats to be cautious when predicting a 2018 blue electoral wave. Americans are thinking small these days, preferring to stick with the familiar and close-to-home when confronted with issues that gobble up all the oxygen in the room and the brain.
At the least, taking time for family, home, neighborhood and church is one way to make sense of life and change the things you can, as the famous “Serenity Prayer” counsels. It’s the opposite of traditional advice to look at the “big picture” for perspective when little things don’t go your way.
Dec212017
Senate Passes Largest Tax Overhaul in Three Decades
CHARLOTTE, NC — A New Bill Ends the Year and Transforms the Tax System. It looks as though the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress will get its win, a legislative accomplishment, and a big one. The major overhaul of the nation’s tax system will be passed without any support from Democrats and without one public hearing. Polls show that it and President Donald Trump are unpopular, but will that change as the effects of the bill start to shake out?
Political Contributor, Mary C. Curtis weighs in.
Dec202017
Opinion: The Commandments According to Roy Moore Take a Hit
In the Alabama Senate race, both sides went to church — Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones took their appeals to their faithful, which, for the most part, worship the same God but came to wildly different electoral conclusions.
On Tuesday, Jones won. The miracle of a Democrat winning a statewide race in deep-red Alabama actually happened. It was not the divine intervention Moore had prayed for, perhaps pointing out the danger when you so shamelessly use the word of the Lord to divide.
Dec142017
