In January 2013, Gov. Martin O’Malley’s administration announced that it will not build a 180-bed new jail for youths who are prosecuted as adults in Baltimore. Instead, it will spend up to $30 million to renovate an existing adult facility that would hold 60 youths, which is more than enough space to house the declining […]
Category: OPINION
Posted inCommentary
Let’s Honor The Civil Rights Movements Everyday Foot Soldiers
Who was James Armstrong? That’s a very important question, I recently learned. Now, I know, the theme for Black History Month this year revolves around President Abraham Lincoln and Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and Rev. Martin Luther King and the March on Washington in 1963. But then there is “the Barber of Birmingham.” Even though […]
Posted inEditorial
Blacks and Gun ControlBe Careful What You Ask For
It took Harry Belafonte, the esteemed elder statesman, to raise the prickly questions during the celebratory atmosphere of the NAACP Image Awards last month. As the great debate rages about gun ownership and control and white Americans rail and rally in huge numbers against any stricter laws being proposed nationally and locally, the accomplished actor […]
Posted inCommentary
Equality and Justice in America: From Joy to Despair
Let’s just take one day, Feb. 27, 2013, as a snapshot of the state of equality and justice in America. For me, that day started off tense. The Supreme Court was set to hear oral arguments in the case of Shelby County v. Holder-a constitutional challenge to one of the most effective provisions of any […]
Posted inCommentary
Onion Apology Not Accepted
In the midst of Oscar awards night Feb. 24, one of The Onion’s writers (we don’t know who he is; I doubt a “she” would have stooped so low), described the lovely and talented child Quvenzhané Wallis with a filthy word that took her all the way out of her name. Using a very crude […]
Posted inCommentary
“Listen In”
You’re sitting on the bus, near the back, with only a couple of other passengers on board, all out of earshot. You get a call from a family member who is having problems. They want your advice. Or a call from your doctor’s office, and you need to speak with them right away. You should […]
Posted inCommentary
Achieving ‘Balance’ in the Federal Budget
It now appears that, beginning March 1, Republican resistance to the President’s strategy for getting our economic house in order could well take our economy on a painful toboggan ride. We can avoid this dangerous slide – but only if the will of the American people makes itself felt on Capitol Hill. On March 1, […]
Posted inCommentary
“Bayard Rustin: An Unsung Hero for Equality”
A decade before Rosa Parks’ arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus, police dragged Bayard Rustin off a bus in Tennessee for the same act of protest. When pressed about why he was resisting segregation, Rustin gestured to a young White boy seated at the front of the bus. […]
Posted inCommentary
The Wisdom of Dr. Ben Carson
Dr. Ben Carson, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner and legendary neurosurgeon, is now in the spotlight for his keynote address to the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 7. It’s not brain surgery to figure out why. Most notable was his criticism of Obamacare, one of the worst federal laws in decades, and one which, before […]
Posted inEditorial
Tough Love is Not Enough
The fundamental question today is how do you teach children, and even some adults, the value of life, theirs and others? Maybe we wouldn’t have to endure pedantic and polarizing debates about who should get a gun, when and why, if we lived in a society in which civility, decency and sanctity of life were […]
Posted inEditorial
Bungling the Telling of Black History
If you relied on Hollywood’s revisionist historical docudramas, you’d think that White men fought to the death to win freedom for America’s Black slaves while they sat passively and sang spirituals until liberty was granted at the benevolent hands of White folks. Not the case at all. Abraham Lincoln, for example, the Great Emancipator? Not […]
Posted inCommentary
When Politics and Ethics Collide
On Friday, February 15, 2013, the Baltimore City Democratic State Central Committee -45th District (BCDCC) convened at the Oliver Community Center to select a candidate to assume the seat held Del. Hattie Harrison, a longtime political stalwart in East Baltimore, who died Jan. 28. Ten candidates interviewed for the position, including three who are members […]