Articles by James Spurgeon

On Sunday morning, I walked into work and immediately saw the news: 49 dead; 53 wounded at a mass shooting in Orlando that is being called a domestic terrorist attack. I felt numb and was shocked. For hours I sat still, wondering what there was to even say. Some words by Robert F. Kennedy came to mind from a speech he gave the night after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. "It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and ol...

Author's note: The following is an op-ed. Working in the media, I once again get to watch the aftermath of a terrorist attack in a European city. This time it is Brussels. It should be noted that there was barely a mention in American media of the terrorist attacks in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey; Maiduguri, Nigeria; Mastaba, Yemen; or Grand-Bassam in Côte d'Ivoire. There was no changing of Facebook statuses for the other places or a public outcry of grief. While we publicly announce that we s...

" [...] and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, [...]" Article 2, Section 2, Clause 2 of US Constitution Word broke late Friday of the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The death of the conservative justice during an election year is bound to have great ramifications. Even before the Supreme Court had officially announced the passing of Justice Scalia, S...

The primary season has begun. The field of candidates is dwindling faster now than it has over the past year. There have been numerous televised debates, town halls, campaign rallies, and news stories. We have heard countless questions from moderators and from voters themselves. But in all this time, there has been one question that I have not heard asked that should be asked of every candidate that is running: How do they plan to govern with the other side?It essentially doesn't matter which c...

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” The above appears on the Statue of Liberty and is part of a larger poem by Emma Lazarus. With its location near Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty became the symbol for new immigrants and refugees entering the United States in search of a better life. Even though the massive immigration ...

ROWAN COUNTY, KY. -- At the end of June, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that state bans on same-sex marriage violated the 14th Amendment and were thus unconstitutional. This led to same-sex marriage being legal throughout the country. The majority of places began to make the necessary changes within the coming weeks. There was no more uncertainty about where the law stood. But in Rowan County, Kentucky, elected clerk Kim Davis decided to take a stand and defy the court’s ruling...

Rarely do I heap any praise on a politician. I always keep a skeptical eye toward them and am not afraid to call them out when necessary. But today, that praise is necessary. U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky (who is also a 2016 presidential candidate) was a wrecking ball in the past couple of weeks when it came to allowing certain provisions in the Patriot Act to expire. The Patriot Act was passed by Congress out of fear in the days after the 9/11 attacks. The way it had been interpreted by t...

There is an old axiom that history repeats itself. Some may dispute this claim, but it is hard to argue with what a person can witness happening right in front of them. One just has to pay attention and know history to know what the outcome of certain things will be. After the Reconstruction period ended following the Civil War, southern states (the old Confederacy) began enacting Jim Crow laws. These laws mandated that all public facilities be segregated. They were also used in an attempt to k...

There's nothing like a slight treasonous scandal to pull a political writer out of a little sabbatical. When hearing of the controversy revolving around the Iran nuclear deal, I couldn't just sit on the sidelines. So here I am immersing myself in a political debate that should have bigger ramifications than it probably will. Treason is defined in the dictionary as: 1. The offense of acting to overthrow one's government or to harm or kill its sovereign. 2. A violation of allegiance to one's s...