Category: Commentary

The summer travel season has started and many air travelers are planning ahead for what they may encounter. Unfortunately, over the years air travelers have become all too familiar with the additional fees that are often tacked on for traveling. From the cost of food to headphones to blankets, the number of amenities that often […]

Was it only yesterday that professor Frances L. Murphy made a fateful call on my behalf to her sister Bettye Moss, then general editorial supervisor at this paper? While it might seem like just yesterday, it’s been 40 years since that afternoon in May 1970. Sitting in Frances’ news bureau office at Morgan State, I […]

(NNPA) — People often ask me to deliver words of comfort and strength during some of their most challenging moments in life. Throughout the decades, I have stood side by side with family members of those that have been wrongfully killed in acts of violence – whether those acts were committed by police or from […]

The CNN cable news program “Anderson Cooper 360°” recently aired a four-part series devoted to the subject of race in America. The program, “Black or White: Kids on Race,” featured a new study based upon the research of Dr. Kenneth B. Clark’s infamous doll test of the 1940s and ‘50s. In the new study, young […]

(NNPA) — Like everyone else who read Professor Henry L. Gates’ piece in the New York Times asserting that Africans were just as responsible for slavery as Europeans, I was aghast because he is one of the most acclaimed scholars in the country and his position lends credibility to those who oppose an historical corrective […]

My position on illegal immigration is very public – I DO NOT SUPPORT AMNESTY under any circumstances. So, with the new illegal immigration bill signed into law in Arizona and the volume of phone calls seeking my opinion, I have decided to share my thoughts on this issue. But this time, I want to try […]

This year, Dr. Harold A. Carter Sr. celebrates 45 years as the principal shepherd of Baltimore’s New Shiloh Baptist Church. In his own words, he is above all “a God man,” the primary trustee of his congregation’s spiritual life. Yet, at a time when our urban areas are in danger of crumbling under the stress […]

At a time when our economic recovery is just beginning to gain speed, it has become clearer than ever before that economic success truly requires a national effort.  The stimulus funding provided by the federal government has been essential – but so, too, have been the efforts in local communities all across our great country. […]

Every year around this time, fear and panic begin to set in across the state for thousands of Marylanders, who realize that the tax deadline is approaching and they have yet to file their returns. Even in the best of circumstances, tax season can be a complex and confusing time, so my number one piece […]

“Repeal and replace” has become the battle cry of Sarah Palin and the bulk of Republican Senators after the passage of comprehensive health care reform. They’re rousing fears, threatening those with health insurance that their costs and taxes will go up. As if everyone would keep their insurance at the same costs if there were […]

Colleges prepare all year for the lucrative chance to send a team to the basketball championship tournament commonly known as “March Madness.”  But, when it comes to making sure that student athletes are academically prepared for the game of life, madness quickly turns to insanity. Education Secretary Arne Duncan agrees. Recently, in response to the […]

We are stuck, been stuck and will remain stuck if we don’t reframe the challenge and embrace a new perspective. I offer one that is as old as it is new. How is a parent able to forgive the murderer of their child? How could the Tutsis or Hutus in Rwanda reconcile with the perpetrators […]