Thank you for your interest in these blog posts! Here is a listing by topic for posts since October 2022. (Some posts appear in more than one category.) Social and Racial Justice, Diversity Resources and Some Good News For Black History Month 2023, 2/10/23 Celebrating Women’s History Month: A Reading List, 3/24/23 Science Meets Religion: […]
Bernie Sanders
Barber, Sanders and Raising the Minimum Wage: Making the Moral and Practical Arguments
The Rev. Dr. William Barber II, known to Americans as the co-leader of the Poor People’s Campaign, a modern resurgence of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr’s final campaign, has founded a new center at Yale Divinity School, the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy. The Center’s mission is “to prepare a new generation […]
Quotes from the 2020 Democratic National Convention
For all intents and purposes, the first-ever virtual Democratic National Convention, held August 17 to 20, was a great success (at least according to many pundits). Among the comments heard in the aftermath included kudos for holding two-hour sessions during prime time, the wide diversity of speakers, the creative manner in which delegates’ votes were […]
The House Financial Services Committee: A Report Card for 2019
After Democrats won the House of Representatives in decisive fashion in the 2018 election, committee chairs shifted radically. Rep. Maxine Waters of California became the first woman and first black lawmaker to serve as chair of the important House Financial Services Committee. Waters, at 81 years young, took a strong hold of the Committee in […]
The Legacy of Slavery, Part I: A Look at Reparations
The issue of reparations has lately become a fairly significant part of our national conversation. The fact that we are even discussing this in 2019 shows that the legacy of the enslavement of African Americans still persists – 156 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, 154 years after the end of the Civil War and the […]
Elizabeth Warren and Capitalism: She’s in Favor
As the 2020 presidential election already heats up (too soon, for some of us!), it is important that we are clear on where candidates stand on the important issues. We also need to beware of strident propaganda that distorts the truth, raises irrational fears, and blurs the picture. Here we will focus on Massachusetts Senator […]
Updates on Issues Previously Raised
We have commented on a number of issues in the past which we can now update. First, we noted in “Hillary and Helen: Women ‘Deleted’ by the Texas Board of Education,” posted on September 21, 2018, that the Texas Board of Education had voted preliminarily in September 2018 to delete several significant figures from the […]
Myths, Lies and Truths about Single-Payer Health Care as the Midterms Approach
With the midterm elections looming, it is becoming clearer that health care is very important to Americans across the country. A Gallup poll conducted in March 2018 found that 55% “of those polled said they worry ‘a great deal’ about the cost and availability of health care in the U.S. . . .This is the […]
Gun Laws in Vermont: Actions Taken in the 2018 Legislative Session
Rural Vermont with a culture of hunting, although generally left-leaning politically, has not been in the forefront of gun control legislation or other progressive measures on the gun issue. When he ran for President in 2016, Independent Senator Bernie Sanders came under great scrutiny from Hillary Clinton and others on the left for his stances […]
“What do you Pay for Health Care?”
“Employer-provided health care is the biggest obstacle to grassroots movement for single-payer in America. Because if you ask most Americans, ‘What do you pay for health care a year?’ They’ll go, ‘I don’t know. My employer provides it. I just have a little bit taken out of my check.’” This was former Vermont Governor Peter […]