OpEd

David L. Horne, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Jul 7 2011

Practical Politics

Imagine a well-dressed African American man and woman driving through Death Valley on the way to Vegas to party with some of their disposable income. They are chatty, enjoying each other’s company, and hurrying to get through the Mars-like landscape of the California desert. Abruptly, there is an awful moan from under the hood of their automobile, and the engine of their expensive foreign car simply quits, the car rolling to a stop on the side of the road.

David L. Horne, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Jun 30 2011

Practical Politics

Next week, America will celebrate its most hallowed of holidays, its July 4th Declaration of Independence. One hundred forty-five years after the ratification of the 13th amendment legislation that ended legal slavery in America, 143 years after the ratified 14th amendment made Black Americans citizens of the USA, and 141 years after the 15th amendment (with a lot of help from the civil rights-era Voting Rights Act, 1965, with amendments) enfranchised us, do the vast majority of us finally feel real about being free and independent in America and that July 4th is our favorite holiday too?

Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Jun 30 2011

Between the Lines

President Barack Obama’s re-election bid has posed some interesting dilemmas for those who helped push the “change we can believe in” agenda.

Since the election, the change agenda has evolved into a manipulation agenda, where everybody has a new demand for the president. The new demand is an extension of the old demands of classic “stakeholder” politics—what did the president promise versus what did the president deliver on, with a little “what have you done for me lately” added in.

Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Jun 23 2011

Between the Lines

The California Redistricting Commission, the first civilian redistricting effort in the state’s history, has released the first map after of the 2010 census reapportionment.

The commission’s effort to address federal and state representation, while keeping out major party partisan politics of the usual manipulation and gerrymandering, immediately came under fire from without and within.

David L. Horne, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Jun 23 2011

Practical Politics

On Monday morning’s FrontPage discussion on Stevie Wonder’s KJLH radio station, I mentioned to Dominique Diprima that Congressional approval of American military action against Libya under the 1973 War Powers Act, would not automatically mean that Congress had declared war against Libya.

In fact, Congress could approve military operations along a continuum from a limited and time-sensitive engagement all the way to a full-scale declaration of war.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.