Valley News 8/13/2025
It was good to see the story of Noyes Academy summarized recently in the Valley News. A story of the American experience, and one that seems consciously avoided in the popular imagination: white supremacy.
It reminds me of another story. When I was a boy, I learned, not from school but from a local amateur historian, that the people who first lived in the woods where I played were known as the Nipmuc people. The story sparked my imagination and enriched my love for the woods, bringing to life the idea that people could live very close to nature and that my instincts around honoring and respecting the natural world were not wrong.
In school the story of the “Indians” of New England was more about how they helped the colonists but that many of them died from diseases their immune systems were unable to handle. There was mention of conflicts between the colonists and the “Indians,” but nothing that approached the truth I was to find out on my own, as a curious adult, wanting to know more about what happened to the Nipmuc people.
Like the story of Noyes Academy, it’s the story that’s written across the entire continent, and one that continues today. It’s the story of white supremacy. The Nipmuc people of New England quickly understood the duplicitous nature of the English colonists and fought back against the theft of their land and forced christianization. In turn they were slaughtered or sold into slavery. The modern word for it is genocide. Maybe the story is too much for tender ears. But as long as it’s not told, there is nothing to be learned.
If there’s one thing I’m grateful for about Trump, it’s his pulling the veil off the true nature of America. The fantasy of white supremacy is still a stronger ideology than any other in our politics. Trump bet on it and he won. Though people of conscience have tried to rewrite the story of America and turn toward multiculturalism, it is the racist America that prevails, the unconscious, the anything but woke.
Valley News 4/12/2025
The backlash against DEI
What does it mean to remove diversity, equity and inclusion from academic, governmental and corporate policies? The policies that guide the cultural values of government and corporate life are important to us all. The power that those entities exert on society is far reaching.
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the protests that resulted, many schools, businesses and government agencies recognized the need to work for social justice by instituting policies that promoted diversity, equity, and inclusion. The programs developed for the encouragement of those values proliferated rapidly. American leaders wanted to work toward a more just society.
But in the rush to get on board and create the impression that they were doing something, some organizations instituted poorly designed programs that ended up causing harm.
While DEI programs were taking shape, those who felt threatened by these new policies began to speak out and discredit them wherever possible. And they were a powerful group. After all, the systems that wield ultimate power in our country have traditionally honored homogeneity, privilege and exclusivity. The revolution that diversity, equity and inclusion represents to the status quo presents an existential threat.
The backlash has been fierce. The Trump administration has super-charged the effort to retrench the power of white men in our society, even going to the extreme of removing numerous government webpages that celebrate people of color. Many corporations and academic institutions have followed suit. The hypocrisy of the business community and academic administrators is shocking: one day championing a set of values and the next disowning them.
But the need to promote the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion for creating a more just society remain. In order to establish a more perfect union that includes people of color, we need to pay attention to what they bring to the table, and before that, we need to make space for them at the table. A homogenous, privileged and exclusive system prevents this and diminishes us all with its narrow selfishness.
Valley News 3/10/2025
What DOGE misses
The failure of Trump and DOGE is their incapacity to see the caring that’s at the core of being human. They believe that people can be browbeaten into effectiveness or made to fear failure. They also see the world through a lens of money and power. In doing that, they forget about the ones we all rely on: Farmers, and most all of us for that matter. Teachers, nurses, engineers and programmers, don’t see the world through a lens of money and power. And most of us understand failure as part of being human and not something to fear. We work to make a positive difference in peoples’ lives while making a living. There are bean growers and bean counters who are more interested in being helpful than helping themselves to another serving at the expense of others. That is the real blind spot of Trump and DOGE.
Or maybe it’s not a blindspot. Maybe they see that kind of caring as a weakness to be exploited. After all, isn’t DOGE really a farce? To save tax dollars DOGE has gone after everything except the real money — the waste in defense spending on weapons systems that are obsolete even before they’re off the drawing board. Those dollars appear to be far from DOGE’s sight.
A wall of resistance is forming against these gangsters. Check yourself for what side you’re on because there is a heavy weight of shame that awaits some on the other side of this storm.
Valley News 2/18/2025
Breaking the ICE
As ICE begins its work carrying out President Trump’s grand deportation plan, it’s worth taking a deep breath and considering what is really happening here. The federal government’s ineffectual attempt to control immigration is the result of political gamesmanship. Our country’s immigration problem is not the fault of the people who come here to work and raise families in a safe and free society. It is the result of politicians playing on their constituents’ racial fears as a way of maintaining and consolidating power. Trump’s scapegoating is just another chapter, however, one with added violence and abuse.
The current system is unjust and designed to exploit its victims. Undocumented labor lines the pockets of business owners while families live in constant fear of deportation. This model persists because it is effective profit-making. Even socially responsible business owners are rendered powerless to do the right thing because of the contradictory laws and bureaucracy.
The question for us is, how do we respond to this injustice?
We should not play into the hands of violent oppressors. Deporting people might seem an easy solution, but it will create more problems than it solves. We must see immigrants, undocumented or not, as who they are: our neighbors, friends, schoolmates and co-workers who are seeking a good life like the rest of us. They should not bear the burdens of a failed federal system and we should not let them be treated abusively.
The Trump administration threatens cities and towns that welcome immigrants with lawsuits and withholding federal funds if they don’t comply with his plans. We should reject this blackmail. Our local law enforcement should not be used to carry out ICE’s dirty work, and we should demand of our local authorities that they not be party to the violent abuse of families. Any judicial warrants issued on behalf of ICE should be narrowly defined to prevent the violent apprehension of peaceful immigrants.
Let’s respond to Trump’s authoritarian dreams with awareness and compassion for our community.
Valley News 2/4/2025
A long, but wasted effort
The right wing of this country played a long game quite effectively. I am opposed to their ideology but I admire their steadfastness. It’s ironic then that all their efforts should culminate in the elevation of a cabal of short-sighted bigots. For all the work that conservatives put into remaking the country by gerrymandering districts and promoting conservative judges, they are now faced with what will ultimately be a complete failure of their cause.
Trump and his henchmen are by no means conservative, and the hubris of their efforts to consolidate power by attacking the social fabric of our country may cause a lot of pain in the near term but, if history is any guide, it will end in complete self destruction. The MAGA gang after all are a bunch of dead-enders. Their aim is to hold power indefinitely. But that won’t happen here. If there’s anything true about Americans, it’s that they are very fickle about their leaders. No doubt as you read this, there is some Trump voter who’s saying to themselves, “What? This is not what I voted for!”
Now it’s time for the rest of us to demonstrate our own steadfastness. America is for everybody who wants to make it their home and work for the freedoms that are embodied in its Constitution. Everybody. We may be disappointed by the foolishness of those who handed power to the shallow men and women who spread fear and loathing as they settle into their capital offices, and we will no doubt be disappointed to see others around us cower. But the social fabric of this country can certainly withstand a few wild slashes by a morally bankrupt cur. Fear is their game. We lose if we play it.
Instead, lets heed the words of one of our very own saints, celebrated, ironically enough, on Inauguration Day: “As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation — either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.”
Valley News 8/5/2024
Harris should be the next president
We should rally behind Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States. Think how delicious it will be for a Black woman prosecutor to defeat Donald Trump the felon in the general election. She will win. Harris has been in the room for the last four years. She’s been a welcome face on the world stage. She’s charming, funny and tough. Like many American black women, she has a fierce determination in the face of many obstacles. She will never be liked by a large segment of the American public because she is too female and too black. But those people are of a bygone day that lingers like a bad stench.
When Barack Obama was elected, America was looking for a new direction. The Trump administration sent us off course in a major way, but we know the direction our country needs to take. Despite the awful diversions of Trump and COVID we can turn back in the direction of respect for all people, all colors, all origins. Where Trump and his ilk encourage us to go around calling refugees rapists and murderers, just to have someone to blame, Harris encourages us to care more about each other.
There are other good Democrats who could serve as president, and might one day, but none has thrown their hat in the ring and right now, we have a crisis and a way out of that crisis. Kamala Harris may be an unlikely president but she will carry on the good work of President Biden while challenging the status quo that is changing the rules to consolidate their power.
Don’t be distracted by the coming onslaught of misogyny and racism that will try to sow doubt about Kamala Harris. She will be the next President of the United States and she will treat the office with the dignity and respect it deserves.
Valley News 7/11/2024
Nothing shocking in immunity ruling
The SCOTUS decision to create an unaccountable presidency should not surprise us. The patriarchy that supports the majority of the court has always wanted it this way. In fact, they’ve always played it this way. They play by the rules provided they are not hindered in their pursuit of wealth and power. But when it looks like things aren’t going their way, they quickly bend or change the rules as they’re able. They still don’t have enough. They have immense wealth and power and yet still, they are unhappy. So unhappy that they’re willing to stand with a character like Donald J. Trump. Here is a man who has swindled his way to the top, leaving behind a wake of bankruptcies and unpaid contractors only to be made a fictitious hero by Hollywood. Now this hollow man has charmed the establishment, which willingly changes the rules in his favor.
From Citizens United to Roe v. Wade, the court has been shaping America to remain subservient to the powers of a corporate oligarchy. Now they have their perfect front man and eventual fall guy. Someone so foul he will be easy to cast aside when things get bad and they need to retreat into the shadows.
Regarding the debate: what is most surprising is that the people around President Biden really thought they could put one over on the American public. Biden’s mind may be sharp for an 80 year old, but he can’t even communicate to the American people what is in it! Is everything scripted? We don’t know. Biden had the opportunity to speak to the American people clearly about his policies and he wasn’t able to do it. He should not be running for president. The Democratic Party itself threatens democracy by keeping him in place. The party factions should get together quickly and work on a slate of candidates to put forth at the convention. God save our country.
Valley News 11/6/2023
GOP’s collapse endangers the nation
Republican lawmakers (if they can even be called that) continue to line up behind Donald Trump, caving to his bullying. At the same time, former Trump loyalists peel off one by one in the face of a justice system that threatens to put them behind bars. What a show! It appears the Republicans in the House are betting on a Trump victory that will rewrite the rule of law in this country and give them the power to subvert the Constitution. And I thought the hubris of Bill Clinton inviting an intern into his private office was shocking.
For a brief moment, I hoped reasonable Republicans might work with minority leader Jeffries to bring the House out of the ditch and back to doing the peoples’ business. Apparently there are no reasonable Republicans. Instead another right-wing zealot with a pretty face and dubious pedigree will lead the charge in the war on marginalized people everywhere.
The death thralls of the Republican Party are proving long and painful and a real threat to our republic. Even an old leftist like me recognizes the importance of having a loyal opposition. We can all have opinions, but in the end the nation needs to be governed. Differing factions need to find common ground and work out compromises. The rule of law and the Constitution provide the framework for our common ground. Our founding enslavers, for all their faults, at least understood the importance of that premise, the need for a framework on which to build a nation. And they were wise enough to give us the ability to expand that common ground to meet the reality of our time. Trump and his ilk do not respect either the rule of law or the Constitution. There is no common ground to be found in Trump World, only obedience.
When Trumpism eventually dies in a bunker somewhere, its many adherents will deny ever being enthralled by its false promise. Before then, lets hope that its damage is limited. The hurt is real and we will all experience it in some way.
Valley News 9/11/2023
What’s the racist bone connected to?
In a recent story in the Valley News (“Trump pulls from familiar racist script,” Page B3, Aug. 23), Donald Trump’s campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung was quoted as saying, Trump “doesn’t have a racist bone in his body.” This led me to wonder what is the ‘racist bone?’ Is the racist bone something people are born with? Can people have it removed? Did Donald Trump have his racist bone removed? There is definitely evidence of Donald Trump acting in racist ways. For example, as a landlord back in the ’70s, Trump was sued by the government for violating the Fair Housing Act of 1968. For years he and his father refused to rent apartments to African Americans. The Trumps were forced to sign a consent decree. Perhaps that is when Donald had his racist bone removed.
But more recently, in kicking off his first presidential campaign back in 2015, Donald said, “They’re rapists,” when referring to Mexicans coming to the U.S. Many people thought this generalization of Mexican people was racist. Many other people didn’t think so, and as Trump might say, there were “some very fine people” in that group. Regardless, Trump got elected with or without his racist bone intact.
I generally think of racism as something that comes from someone’s mind, or more specifically, the workings of their brain. When he says, “Trump doesn’t have a racist bone in his body” is Mr. Cheung actually referring to Donald Trump’s brain? Perhaps we should examine the messaging of the Trump campaign more closely. In light of all his recent indictments, are they laying the groundwork for a defense of mental defect by suggesting the former president is bone-headed? Considering the power and success that Donald Trump has enjoyed, it’s hard to imagine such a defense could work.
It’s true, though, that everyone does stupid things from time to time, even rich and powerful people. However, you might say being racist is a more calcified level of ignorance than just being bone-headed. Either way, Donald Trump’s racist bone is something worth watching out for, lest he hit you or one of your friends with it.
Valley News 3/29/2023
Lessons in free speech
The controversy of the racist wall mural at Vermont Law and Graduate School has brought forth a ‘Kumbaya’ moment in the pages of the Valley News. William Wittik and Steve Nelson agree that hiding the painting is running away from an important teachable moment.
Wittik (“The Fifth Freedom?” March 26) and Nelson (“Law school wrong to hide the uncomfortable,” Feb. 26) agree that just because ‘some’ people feel uncomfortable about their ancestors’ depiction in the mural, that shouldn’t justify its censoring. Apparently the folly and ignorance of white people for depicting oppressed people in grotesque caricature is a lesson that Black and brown people must continue to learn every day. The lesson of white supremacy is too important to deny, and VLGS students should be reminded of it whenever they open their law books to study. They might be afforded a space where the constant drumbeat of racism is quieted a little but Wittik and Nelson agree that’s too expensive an accommodation for the freedom of white speech.
Isn’t it nice that two old white guys on opposite sides of the political spectrum can come together and agree that it’s best to continue making Black and brown people uncomfortable in order to stimulate what Wittik calls a “healthy interaction between people”?
Valley News 3/6/2023
Racism’s roots run deep
When we reduce racism to the individual, it almost disappears. Maybe we know someone who is racist but we avoid them or at least avoid subjects that allow their racism to show. We may never encounter racism among our friends and neighbors. But racism is not just what happens between individuals. Racism is hard-wired into our society and the systems by which it functions.
Black, brown and Indigenous people do not fare as well in our society as those who consider themselves white. Why is that? Some people believe this is the natural order — that white people are better in some intrinsic way. Most of us recognize this as ridiculous. But that way of thinking has actually been dominant in this country for longer than it hasn’t. And that previously dominant way of thinking, called white supremacy, is what formed our current society. That is why when we look to dismantle racism, we must look beyond the individual and to the very system and rules by which we live.
Some systemic racist history: Black G.I.s who served in WWII were denied home mortgages and thus unable to take advantage of one of the pillars of the G.I. Bill. The work that thousands of Black women performed as housekeepers was not considered work by the Social Security Administration.
But if society is treating you well, why start pulling on the wires that keep it humming? The incentive to keep things humming is what currently drives the attack on public education and the fight against teaching a thorough and honest American history. Politicians claim they don’t want children to feel guilt or shame about who they are. But isn’t that really a projection of the guilt and shame adults feel about the failure of their society to treat everyone fairly? Failing to address the roots of this real guilt and shame will only serve to pass it on to the next generation.
The movement to deny the history of Black, brown, and Indigenous people in our society has a long history itself, and it is a racist one.
Valley News 2/23/2023
The arithmetic of racism
Robin Carpenter’s letter (“Competence before concepts,” Jan. 26) tries to dismiss an honest teaching of American history as “novel theories of social construction” in his weak attempt to apologize for the so-called “divisive concepts” legislation. That law (HB 544) was vomited out of the last legislative session and signed without remorse as part of the last state budget by our happy governor. In response to the uncomfortable reality of racist American history, Mr. Carpenter advocates reducing education to reading, writing, and arithmetic — a decidedly reactionary approach to equipping our youths for the 21st century.
This attempt to run from the problem of our white supremacist history and all its corruptions is familiar. In fact running from the problem is exactly what HB 554 does by stifling educators’ attempts to teach history. White Americans have centuries of practice at denying the disgusting aspects of their past and the disgusting aspects of their present for that matter. Why should folks in New Hampshire be any different?
A little history: For hundreds of years, one group of Americans was raped, tortured and murdered while being enslaved by another. A bloody civil war and a constitutional amendment ended the slavery, but the murder, rape and torture continued along with subjugation through mass incarceration for at least another hundred years.
Now some scholars and educators are trying to break the cycle of white supremacy and systemic racism by facing up to this history, not white-washing it or running from it. And a growing number of citizens are finally understanding that the race problem in America is owned by white Americans and their complicity in white supremacist culture and its corrupting influence. Too many Americans, however, are still in denial, looking for easy answers, or simply happy to run laughing from the scene of the crime.
Until we allow our students to read and write the truth of our history, the arithmetic of racism will stay the same. For now, as Gov. Chris Sununu might say, “That’s the New Hampshire way.”
Valley News 7/5/2022
Choose sanity in NH; vote Democrat
The words “We the people” and the short prologue that introduces our founding document should haunt us now. So many of us claim distrust in our government. So many point to the greed and selfishness of politicians and their cronies. So many blame the powerful and connected for the corruption that has brought us to the state we’re in today— a state of paralysis on climate change, a state of wanton killing of innocents, a state of intractable systemic racism, a state of growing poverty and profiteering through health care and housing. But as long as we continue to cast votes for those who fail to address these problems that threaten the future of our republic we have only ourselves to blame.
Right here in New Hampshire, voters continue to ignore the larger problems that confound us, choosing instead to vote for the empty promise of “small government” and “lower taxes.” Look at the mess that is our state Legislature. The radical Republican sideshow that has turned Concord into a right-wing carnival is no accident. It’s a result of “we the people” greedy for lower taxes and selfish in some quasi-libertarianism that benefits from all the good public works and infrastructure built by past generations but refuses to invest (or regulate itself) for those coming. Instead we get laws that infringe on a woman’s privacy, laws that promote lies of election fraud and laws that weaken public education.
We need to look no further than the tip of our own noses to understand why the words “insure domestic tranquility” and “promote the general welfare” ring hollow against the backdrop of our current civic life. That we should reward Gov. Sununu and the Republicans this fall with continued power would only be a shameful reflection of our own corruption.
Jan. 6 has removed the veil. The only sane choice is to vote for Democrats and force a reckoning within the Republican party. Are they Trump or are they of their own sound mind?
Valley News 3/9/2022
Leave schools out of partisan politics
School’s out for New Hampshire Republicans. Whether it’s Commissioner Frank Edelblut trying to de-core the curriculum, House Majority Leader Jason Osborne accusing our teachers of being Marxists, or Governor Sununu signing laws that stifle difficult conversations, Republican leaders are revealing their disdain for our public school system and the hardworking people who keep it running.
Whatever the cause of their disdain for public education, our children and their teachers shouldn’t be scapegoated. The education laws proposed by the current Republican legislature are supported solely by conjecture and anecdote. Where is the evidence of teacher disloyalty to the United States other than the fears of some vocal parents? Where is the evidence that teachers are teaching Marxist doctrine or even concepts that are divisive aside from the rantings of right-wing radicals? Is there evidence that removing art and music from the curriculum will be of educational benefit, or is it only the desperate need of a politician to shrink the cost of a 21st century education by looking backwards?
The Republicans are hell-bent on passing new laws that are red meat for their base; solutions looking for problems. Many Republicans of late have been guided by fantasy. Voting out those who capitalize on misinformation would benefit us all. Meanwhile, New Hampshire legislators of good faith need to pass legislation that helps and supports our teachers, not laws that disrespect their training and holds them in suspicion. Passing HB 1090 to repeal the divisive concepts law that was slipped into last year’s budget would be a positive start.
Valley News 1/26/2022
Keep King’s dream alive
Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day is bittersweet. Knowing that King’s life’s work earned him the recognition of a federal holiday will always be reassuring. But knowing also that his dream has become, in his own words, a nightmare makes any kind of celebrating difficult at best.
Here in New Hampshire, politicians work to rewrite racist American history by threatening teachers with lawsuits and loyalty oaths. They redraw voting districts to stymie the democratic process and force women to undergo invasive medical procedures should they try to end an unwanted pregnancy — a dilemma that disproportionately affects women of color.
There is a long tradition in this country and in this state of old white men in ill-fitting suits making oppressive laws. Thankfully, the same is true for the fight for civil rights and voter access. The latter is usually instigated of course by the African American community, whose patriotism is of an order unknown to most white people. Despite more than a century of racist abuse, it is the African American community that holds most steadily to democracy and our republic as the hope for the world.
Look around and see the ones who violently attack or silently try to dismantle democracy. You’ll see people who have had privileges granted to them through a system of racial oppression, people who are deluded about what liberty means and people who hold the individual above the very community that supports them.
You might say our republic was recently saved by the efforts of African Americans who stepped up in greater numbers than any voting group to elect our current president, a man they had reason to distrust but one who was sure to prevent another four years of lies and racist charlatanism.
As we celebrate the birth of Martin Luther King Jr. and the message of peace and justice he dedicated his life to, we should remember and be thankful to those who continue to believe in America and its promise for all people, especially when there are so many ungrateful flag wavers who consider America only for themselves.
Valley News 9/29/2021
The right-wing antics of Sununu, Executive Council
Watching the members of New Hampshire’s Executive Council behave like Keystone Cops would be funny if real lives weren’t being hurt by their shenanigans. They voted to defund women’s health services, and then a few days later performed what amounted to a finger-pointing backward moonwalk trying to excuse their bad policy vote by blaming the Department of Health and Human Services for not providing enough information.
Meanwhile, Gov. Chris Sununu is getting tongue-tied having to explain their antics and his own. The self-proclaimed “pro-choice” governor signed what he called “common sense” anti-abortion legislation, and now his double-talk has him sputtering “we can fix it!” The fact is, he doesn’t have a club big enough for all the political whack-a-mole problems he and his friends have created for themselves.
What I want to know is, why are a bunch of old white men so opposed to funding women’s health? Is it really about abortion? Or is it about providing services to women in general, and especially women of color who are disproportionately affected by those cuts?
I think the abortion controversy is a right-wing proxy war on people of color. Similar to President Richard Nixon’s “war on drugs,” white supremacists have a new, divisive distraction that can make them appear virtuous while oppressing and “othering” our sisters and our daughters.
I think the people of New Hampshire need to wake up to the Republicans in Concord. Whether it’s women’s rights, teaching truth in schools or trying to do the right thing for life on the planet, New Hampshire is moving backward while our more progressive neighbors are engaging in the present and looking to the future.
Valley News 6/19/2021
Protest abhorrent NH budget
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, in his usually boyish and cheery way, says, “there’s a lot of good stuff” in the budget legislation that the Republican majority has created. But his seeming good nature can’t disguise the fact that his GOP colleagues have committed a mean trick.
Republicans like Bob Giuda in the Senate looked out of the kitchen where they were creating the budget. They saw women and people of color sitting in the dining room and decided to spit in the soup.
They have coughed up a big lunger in creating language that will prohibit schools from teaching the truth about our founding slaveholders and the failure of subsequent generations to address the legacy of slavery. And they have coughed up another one in banning abortions with no exceptions after 24 weeks, an idea that Sununu, with his deep understanding of the medical needs of women, calls “common sense.”
Besides those two disgusting ingredients, the Republicans have created a budget that cuts services important to the care of the people of New Hampshire while including spending that favors wealthy tourists from out of state.
There are many people in New Hampshire who find this budget abhorrent. We plan to gather in Concord on June 24 at 10 a.m. in protest. The cooks may have spit in the soup, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t send it back.
Valley News 8/15/2019
Peaceful society is threatened
Does New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu really care about the health and safety of our children, or does he just have his finger to the political wind — waiting to know the fate of the corrupt and disintegrating National Rifle Association?
Recently, a group of people carrying firearms entered the Statehouse during public testimony as a show of force against their neighbors who were advocating for reasonable gun legislation. Could anyone be sure that none of those individuals was going to start shooting?
“Open carry” laws put our police in the untenable and dangerous position of having to determine whether someone carrying a gun is an urgent threat to others. We should end open carry in New Hampshire now.
Gun licensing, background checks and a ban on military-style assault weapons should have been the law of the land all along. Anything less begs for continued mass murder.
We have tolerated too long those who believe the answer to their personal safety is the right to carry loaded weapons without having to face scrutiny of their ability, character or mental health. Currently in New Hampshire, if a man gets out of his car with a loaded pistol strapped to his side and starts walking determinedly toward an elementary school, the police can do little to stop him.
Thirty seconds is all it took for the shooter in Dayton, Ohio, to kill nine people.
For years Republican leaders like Sununu proved themselves incapable of standing up to the unreasonable demands of the NRA. Now they are proving themselves incapable of standing up to a racist and dangerous president.
The combination of lax gun laws and morally corrupt Republican leaders has become an existential threat to our peaceful society.
Valley New 2/25/2018
An Opportunity to Make a Choice
Celebrating Black History Month during the Donald Trump presidency is bittersweet. Bitter in the knowledge that white Americans could be so ignorant and careless of guarding the civil rights for which their ancestors fought. And sweet in knowing even a brief survey of African-American history provides a window into the richest aspects of American cultural achievement.
Make no mistake, though, every racist or xenophobic innuendo coming from the White House causes lasting damage. Recent immigrants and Americans of color feel the threat keenly and add that experience to their historical knowledge of America and its white majority.
In his 1967 book, Where Do We Go From Here, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote: “The majority of white Americans consider themselves sincerely committed to justice. … They believe that American society is essentially hospitable to fair play and to steady growth toward a middle-class Utopia embodying racial harmony. But unfortunately this is a fantasy of self-deception and comfortable vanity.”
Today white people might examine what that vanity and self-deception has wrought — not just in terms of race relations but in threats to civil rights in general and our standing in the world.
Despite its disastrous incompetence, the Trump presidency provides a real opportunity. Our generation should see a clear choice of the kind of America we want going forward. Will we be a nation of people who care about each other and see our differences in a positive light, or one that jealously guards the crumbs of financial success at the expense of rights for others and the rights of our own progeny?
For most of my life, the U.S. has been a beacon for hope and justice throughout the world. Despite our original sin of slavery and the systemic racism that’s followed in its wake for over a century, our ideals have slowly steered us toward a more just society. The forsaking of those ideals will be the legacy of this generation unless we act individually and together to change course. Are we willing to work for the dream?