Inside from the Inside

Over the past couple of weeks, two friends of mine had tasks that took them traveling to places in the southern USA. In both instances they expressed their reluctance to be in that part of the country. While they joked about it a bit, it was also pretty clear they were uncomfortable with the idea [...]

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I came across the sad story of Officer Omar J. Edwards the other day.

It could be on Anystreet U.S.A. A guy comes outside to find someone going through the belongings in his car. Naturally, he gives chase and the thief (as they always do) escapes his grasp.

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Death penalty statistics in North Carolina are fairly typical- black defendants twice as likely to get the death sentence, defendants whose victims are white get the big sleep three and a half times more than those with non-white victims.  To their credit, the NC senate just passed The Racial Justice Act, which would prevent the [...]

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Here’s part of an invitation for a book discussion in Washington, D.C. today: With author Karen Greenberg, Executive Director, Center on Law and Security, New York University School of Law Thursday, May 28, 2009, noon to 1:30 p.m. “Legal scholar Greenberg covers the period from December 2001 through March 2002, when Camp X-Ray opened to [...]

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Jeffrey Toobin profiles John Roberts in the New Yorker and says that race has becomes a defining issue for the chief justice: [Roberts] has not yet embraced one particular judicial principle as his special interest—in the way that Rehnquist chose federalism and states’ rights—but Roberts is clearly moved by the subject of race… His concerns [...]

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“Why does Rice play Texas?” – President John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1962 Do what is right because it is right – sometimes.  That’s on a personal level.  At a group level, it happens a little less frequently.  As a society, it’s getting pretty tough to pull off [unless there's a related benefit to be [...]

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I read this story about Cordish County in Kansas that has created a ban on “baggy pants” in an area referred to as Kansas City Live a few weeks ago; I wasn’t quite sure what my thoughts were. And, then it came to me…

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Meandering through the World Wide Web, a headline – “A Child’s Questionable Arrest” caught my attention. Written by Marian Wright Edelman in 2007, the story of a 7-year-old black child unfolds. The young man was arrested (7 year old) for riding a dirt bike on the sidewalk. He (a 7 year old) was taken into [...]

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Many of the tributes to John Hope Franklin included his statements on the need for apologies and reparations. I think its time for some gratitude because the only uniquely American contribution to world culture is  the blues and her many children. It is said that Louis Armstrong singlehandedly created the  instrumental improvised solo and the [...]

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Mahatma Ghandi, the man in the picture, has been one of the most profoundly positive influences on mankind in the last century. I suspect that his teaching of passive resistance liberated more humans non-violently than were been liberated by war.

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