Category: OPINION

Michael D. Smigiel, Sr. Maryland Rep. Harris (R) exemplified the worst in big government overreach by interfering with D.C. voters’ attempt to follow Colorado, Washington State and others in exercising political autonomy with Initiative 71, which would have established procedures for the production and sale of marijuana in the District. The initiative appeared on theballot […]

Warren Shadd Warren Shadd is making history while making beautiful music. He’s a third generation musician; a second-generation piano technician; and now the first African American piano manufacturer.  The “Shadd Pianos” are not only being played at the Vatican, but are the pianos currently used on the set of the massively successful Fox television show, […]

Marian Wright Edelman Amidst the shameful dysfunctional legislative gridlock of the U.S. House of Representatives, it was a great joy last week to celebrate a time and a leader – former Minnesota Senator and Vice President Walter Mondale – when bipartisanship, common sense and a national moral commitment to children and families almost became the […]

Shirley A. Jones My mother was murdered when I was three years old. No, that’s not the first line of a book I’m reading. That’s a fact. The fact is my life was touched by domestic violence at a very young age when a man my mom was once involved with waited until my dad […]

Lee A. Daniels Add another line to Hillary Clinton’s qualifications for the presidency: “Faced down the latest Republican Party attempt to wreck the Democratic Party and the two-party system in America.” The woman who would be president – whose public career includes being First Lady to a governor and a president, winning election to the […]

House Republicans’ Benghazi Hearing last week was designed to further lower Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers in her quest to become president. But the Republican strategy backfired as the televised hearing became an 11-hour infomercial for Hillary Clinton.  George E. Curry Instead of a weakened opponent, Clinton emerged stronger than ever in the wake of Vice […]

Marc H. Morial “This is not a moment, but a movement.” – Black Lives Matter Organization –   (October 24, 2015) While it is obvious to many of us that all lives matter, it is not so obvious that in our great nation founded on the principles of equality and justice that Black lives matter.  […]

Oscar Blayton One weekend, in 1966, I was traveling with some Marine buddies from Eastern North Carolina to Myrtle Beach, S.C.  After night fell, we began to see roadside signs advertising a “Fish Fry” taking place that evening near the South Carolina border. It was late, we had not eaten dinner; and fried fish sounded […]

Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. Each Monday in Chicago, we gird ourselves for the most recent score. Not on how well the Bears, Bulls or Blackhawks, Cubs or White Sox have fared, but on how many new victims of guns have been racked up.  Two weekends ago, three were killed with 17 other shooting victims, according […]

Linda Spradley Dunn wants women to network their way to success as entrepreneurs. (Courtesy Photo) Every day, more and more women are realizing their dreams of leaving their 9-to-5 lives, opening their own businesses, and setting their own hours to follow their passion, or strike gold with one great idea.  Alongside them are, of course, the tens of thousands of women who already own small businesses, but might feel stuck, or have […]

Dr. E. Faye Williams TriceEdney— I remember a time when the worst thing you could call an African American was BLACK.  I’ve witnessed people angered to the point of fighting because someone called them BLACK.  I grew up where a paper bag could determine your place of acceptance in a social environment.  Stories abound, even […]

In late September, John Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House, after years of battling Republican extremists in Congress, stunned the political world by announcing he was giving up that position and leaving Congress altogether at the end of October.  Lee A. Daniels A substantial segment of GOP officeholders in Congress and their echo chamber […]