To willingly act in unity before we willingly forget in despair

The smoke never really clears. The smell of sulfur and saltpeter lingers, a haze swirling over the blood-smeared floors of schools, churches and movie theaters, a sinking fog kissing the grey, turned ground of fresh graves, seeping into the chasms of breaking hearts. This is what war is – knowing those who have violently died…

Of Torches and Candlelight Vigils

I am afraid and I am fearless. I am a humble wordsmith with ideas and a proud activist with a bullhorn. I am, and plan to always be, an American. I am also a pluralist, a social ecumenicist, if you will. This is my country. Believe what you will. Be whoever you want to be.…

Wanted a revolution, got the wrong one

Bernie Sanders fought for a social revolution with the goal of economic prosperity for every American. Instead, we got an economic revolution with the goal of greater prosperity for wealthy Americans and the global oligarchy, and motivated more by a need for power for some than a call to serve all. That revolution is led by…

Tears for Fears

"Democracy can buckle when we give in to fear. So, just as we, as citizens, must remain vigilant against external aggression, we must guard against a weakening of the values that make us who we are." - President Barack Obama, from his farewell speech, January 10, 2017 There was sobbing, actual wailing, in homes all…

An affirmative case for Hillary Clinton

"It wasn’t lost on everybody—including some in the press—that her principal transgression actually seemed to be that she was a woman who said what she thought instead of quietly receding into the conventionally accepted political staging." - from a Politico article about how a 60 Minutes appearance in 1992 planted in the minds of Americans…

Activism and accountability: a conversation with Cecily McMillan

Sometimes we see injustice in the ugly way we treat each other as human beings, like in an outsider who is shunned by social divisions, and only requires what all people do - love and acceptance. Sometimes injustice is what one sees in a misguided community's visceral reaction to a cultural event or tragedy. While Cecily's undeniable empathy brings her to the side of the former (she almost went to jail for trying help a Hispanic couple avoid it themselves), it is for her communities that her voice is loudest and her defense is strongest. It is there where she had her awakening.

Alienation, silence and revolution at the DNC

I don't know if party politics is supposed to be a zero sum game, where each side gets something it wants and reaches a consensus to ignore the rest, but I have seen that in the hearts of many Bernie Sanders delegates at the Democratic National Convention, last week, there was a feeling of being…

Vote your blue heart out, even in a red state

I live in Georgia, a red state that has had Democrats wringing their hands for almost twenty years. The state legislature has been under Republican control since 2003. There hasn't been a Democrat elected to statewide office since 2008. Yes, there's always talk of the state being in play in a national election, and we…

Hillary’s establishment pragmatic idealisim vs. Bernie’s political revolution

Let's call this fight over now, before we go any farther than we already have. Being a liberal progressive and being an establishment candidate or cause are not mutually exclusive. There is little doubt that groups like Planned Parenthood and the Human Rights Campaign are on the front lines, fighting for progressive causes everyday. There's…

When it comes to voting, it’s not all about that base

Senior citizens and college students, Wall Street bankers and the religious right, Southerners and African Americans, industrial magnates and union workers: if you're in one of those groups, and a handful of others, chances are either Republicans or Democrats think they can already count on your vote on election day. They call those monoliths the…