(11 comments) SHARE        Monday, May 18, 2015
White Racism Matters! As the Black Lives Matter movement gathers force and continues to grow, heralding a new era in the fight for civil rights and social justice, there is an education occurring in society. The enduring specter of racism is being increasingly exposed and challenged by a new, multi-racial generation of young activists, for whom it is understood that social justice begins in the streets.

SHARE        Monday, September 22, 2014
The Mystery of Robin Williams: Reflections on Depression in a Troubled World It's always struck me how incurious many people are after someone commits suicide. How incurious to delve into the roots of pain. It's as if something so inexplicable has occurred that it's too uncomfortable, too futile, to even attempt to understand. Is it possible to explain what happened to Robin Williams?

(4 comments) SHARE        Thursday, July 24, 2014
The Progressive Sensibilities of James Garner Actor James Garner was a lifelong progressive, a critic of war and a man who believed in fair play for "the little guy." Reflections on the life of a Hollywood legend.

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, November 23, 2013
Bush vs. Clinton in 2016? How is that the names Clinton and Bush keep coming up? Some pundits are now talking about a possible Jeb Bush vs. Hillary Clinton race in 2016. But the more important question is why do the corporate politics represented by these names persist?

(6 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, May 23, 2012
NATO in Chicago: Protests Are Here to Stay, and the Warmakers are Afraid The all-out police presence in Chicago in response to the NATO protests reveals fears of the rich that mass unrest is just below the surface.

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, April 19, 2012
Sinead O'Connor: Music's 'Uncooperative' Celebrity What are we to make of Irish singer Sinead O'Connor? She's back with a new album, "Why Don't I Be Me (And You Be You)?" and it's some of her best music in years. She also remains as outspoken and honest as ever, an artist whose sensitivity to the plight of oppressed people continues to resonate with her many fans.

(2 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Mitt, Mormons, and Money While Tea Party conservatives criticize Romney for the blatant opportunism of his shifting political views, at another level Romney is the most consistent of politicians, at least when it comes to serving his class.

SHARE        Tuesday, October 11, 2011
'Here Comes Trouble' Indeed Michael Moore's "Here Comes Trouble" offers equal touches of the bravado, humor, and passion that have made Moore a household name. But as remarkable as his contributions have been, I suspect the emerging popular social movement we are seeing unfold today in opposition to Wall Street's destructive polices will make an even more profound impact on the radicalization of American politics. Here comes trouble, indeed.

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, September 29, 2011
Obama's 'Class Warfare'--Doing the Math In Italy, Britain, Greece, and elsewhere the rallying cry in the streets now is to reject the idea that working people should pay for a crisis caused by the rich and powerful. It is a stance that reverberates now among the young heroes of the growing Wall Street protests. The AFL-CIO and everyone who cares about social justice would do well to make that sentiment equally real in this country, to spread it far and wide.

(4 comments) SHARE        Friday, August 12, 2011
Obama's Misdirected 'Courage' The tipping point in progressive illusions that President Obama is "one of us" may finally have been reached with the new bipartisan deal on the debt ceiling.

(4 comments) SHARE        Thursday, January 20, 2011
Tunisia's Cry for Justice The people of Tunisia have taught the entire world that the cry for justice is more powerful than the tanks and torturers of despotic regimes. Who would have thought a month ago that Mohammed Bouazizi's desperate act setting himself on fire would eventually set an entire nation on fire? Such is the power of a people who are no longer afraid.

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, January 1, 2011
Ringing in the New Year: From Austerity to Revolt? Sometimes the true state of our nation's affairs is revealed less in the lofty rhetoric of political leaders than in incidental news items. That's the case with the news that "austerity" is Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2010.

(4 comments) SHARE        Friday, August 6, 2010
Planet Hiroshima 2010 The threat of nuclear annihilation remains real. Yet the irony of our age is that for the first time in human history the science, technology, manufacturing and agriculture exist to eliminate all want. But in the context of a world also driven by the acquisition of corporate profits and entrenched class and nationalist divisions, the world's people instead face an increasingly uncertain and violent future. Or even the possibil

SHARE        Friday, January 29, 2010
Are The Democrats Capable of Giving Us Anything? An analysis of why the Obama luster is wearing thin, and the crisis this poses for the progressive movement.

SHARE        Friday, May 15, 2009
Swine Flu Threat Highlights Need for Single-Payer Will the day come when the list of great medical advances is expanded to include the wisdom that health care is something too sacred to be sullied by the dark brush of the profit motive?

(2 comments) SHARE        Thursday, April 30, 2009
As Long As We're Talking About Socialism The Fox News/Republican right has high hopes the ensuing "tea party" protests inspired by Santelli's rhetoric will serve as a rallying cry for rousing the right-wing faithful against President Obama's economic recovery plan. Instead the public protests against "taxes and spending" turned mostly into a transparent exhibition of the Republican Party's desperation. But as long as we're shedding illusions, what about also divestin

(5 comments) SHARE        Sunday, October 12, 2008
Where Are the Slander Merchants Taking Us? The recent FoxNews investigative report on Barack Obama's "ties to controversial people and radical groups" on Hannity's America was a reminder of the almost startling degeneration of the American media in recent years. With a worsening economy, it's not such a stretch to see the ugly, violent rhetoric of the right-wing devolve even further into more direct, organized assaults on "liberal America."

SHARE        Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Bill Ayers and the Talk Media Circus The Obama-Ayers "issue" is just more spritzer water in the face of serious politics. It's more evidence of the media circus show U.S. politics has become. But why talk about unaffordable health care or spreading home foreclosures or a war with no end in sight? If you're one of the "great Americans" of the airwaves and you have no real solution to anything, why indeed?

SHARE        Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Where are the Candidates Who Embrace These Six Words? The recent best-seller, "Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure," is an inspired compilation of six-word life stories. It makes you wonder. Where are the candidates who embrace these six words? "Bring All The Troops Home Now!"

(5 comments) SHARE        Sunday, February 24, 2008
What Makes Someone a Campus Murderer? Murderers are made, not born. Yet as a society we seem remarkably uninterested in addressing the root causes of crime. Reflections on the NIU killings by a former NIU student.