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For me, history, the study of it and the making of it, has been an essential part of life. Growing up in the underground of the poor black community, reading became my salvation, and reading about great historical developments, as well as hearing the soul stirring voice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the radio, was my inspiration. I remember the first black history class I took in college and the professor asking the students why they had chosen the course, I said I wanted to understand why

But will Republicans listen? If there was an annual award ceremony like the Emmys for politicians, but called the Indys and awarded to a politician for exemplifying reason, principle, and independence instead of the typically irrational, unprincipled, cult-like partisan loyalism that has made absolute hypocrites of most party politicians in Congress... Well Rand Paul would definitely be nominated for 2018's Indy Awards. And unless Justin Amash does another interview literally saying he hopes

With the new year, begins a new legislative session. Legislators have the opportunity to use this time to introduce bills to empower voters in their state. Ranked choice voting (RCV) continues to expand as new bills have been introduced in the Missouri, Virginia, Indiana and Utah legislatures. On Jan. 3 Missouri State Representative Dan Stacey introduced HB 1346: Requires all state and federal offices to use ranked choice voting, adding one new section relating to ranked choice voting. The prov

In the last week of 2017, the Washington Post published an article highlighting perhaps the biggest winner from the the new GOP tax plan: accountants. The bill’s passage on partisan lines, along with the rhetoric that’s followed, is yet another indication that the two parties and their enablers in the media are more interested in staying in power than being honest with the American people or truly doing what’s best. Many Americans have been debating this topic and as has sadly become the norm,

It was such welcome news this week when a vote taken by a small portion of the student body took aim at the San Diego State University mascot. The goal of the vote is to "finally" retire the university's Aztec Warrior Mascot. The images of the "Aztec Warrior" memorializing traditional Indian culture at sporting events and school functions, has been just too much to take these many years. The move jostled my mind to think about all the other collegiate schools who have yet to understand the ra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YuReziwss0 Sen. Bernie Sanders is currently fighting to transition the US to a single-payer health care system – a system whereby the government provides one plan for insurance coverage to every single American. While it may struggle to gain traction at the national level, California may offer Sanders an ideal starting point. Both Sanders and California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom have separately discussed the idea of guaranteed health care for all, and the benef

I love baseball. I really love baseball. I love that when I turn on a game I see the same players every day and the images of thousands of people in the stands whom I will never see again. I love bearing witness to the joy on a young girl’s face as she catches a foul ball unexpectedly in a life changing ‘dream come true’ instant. I love the role weather plays in a game, the umpires who often frustrate me, and the fact that the players hit a ball in the hope to get “home.” Baseball happens in r

Earlier this month, we reported on the uncertain fate of a ballot access reform bill in North Carolina. That bill has now passed, liberalizing ballot access laws in North Carolina, but also carrying with it controversial elements related to judicial elections. The bill began as a bipartisan effort to ease North Carolina's excessively harsh ballot access laws. However, it was amended to make other changes to election law, most notably the elimination of judicial primary elections in 2018. This d

As already noted on October 5, the North Carolina legislature passed the ballot access bill, SB 656 -- titled the "Electoral Freedom Act." There is a danger that Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, will veto it. There is a provision in the bill, unrelated to ballot access, that cancels the 2018 primaries for state judicial elections, and Democrats are opposed to this. Ballot access reform bills have been proposed in North Carolina for 31 years, and this is the first time one has passed the legisl

The statement "all politicians are corrupt" has as much truth to it as "all Muslims are terrorists" and "all Christians are ignorant bigots." But here’s the trap in American politics: there’s one political party that makes nearly no attempt to disguise its duplicity. Many of them lie so badly and so often most of us are numb to it. The other political party does only a slightly better job representing the people. The trouble is, the average voter can no longer tell which is which. As a result