What’s the vaccine for hate?
Charleston, 2015. Nine Black churchgoers killed.
Your Views for May 18
Dark past
Your Views for May 17
Support for ban
Abortion debate is really about love v. misery
It has been around for half a century, Roe v. Wade has, and besides this Supreme Court ruling facilitating something like 62 million abortions, it has generated a vast number of arguments in its defense. One of the most frequent insists that a woman has the irrefutable right to control her own body.
Protesting for Roe at justices’ homes is self-defeating and wrong
The apparently pending Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade is an affront to women’s rights to biological self-determination and to all Americans’ rights to privacy. This is why wide majorities of the country oppose the coming reversal of Roe.
With Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s son in power, anti-corruption advocates in Philippines need support
It was a warm spring morning 36 years ago when millions of people swarmed the streets of Manila, demanding the ouster of a kleptocratic president from power. Subsequently, Ferdinand Marcos Sr. fled the Philippines with 24 gold bricks, luxury clothes enough to fill 67 racks and gems hidden in diaper boxes — merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of his ill-gotten wealth.
Your Views for May 15
Save the center
Celebrating an important transition
Spring on a university campus used to be a time of celebrations. Both joyful and exhausting, the events marked meaningful transitions of all sorts. And then for two years it just wasn’t the same.
Abortion ruling empowers states
The expected Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade is an affirmation of America’s beleaguered federalist system.
One way to save democracy? Invest in young people running for office
Democracy finds itself not simply in a precarious state but on the verge of collapsing. Almost half the country now has laws in place that would effectively end safe access to abortion once the Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade, as is expected. More than a dozen states are seeking to prohibit LGBTQ+ discussion in the classroom. And more than 250 bills from state legislatures across the country would place restrictions on voting access. As historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on authoritarianism, said on the “iGen Politics” podcast I co-host, what is happening in Republican states is a real-time formation of “mini-autocracies.”
Now it’s Democrats painting GOP as too extreme
In the 2020 election, Republicans enjoyed substantial success in their efforts to demonize Democrats by labeling many as socialists and assailing those seeking to revamp or defund local police departments.
Taking on the masters of war
At the 2021 annual shareholder meeting of the U.S. weapons manufacturer General Dynamics, shareholders turned out to confront the company’s board of directors, asking how they justify the destruction and death they’ve helped cause.
The case for free-range chickens
Most “feral” chickens are actually “free range” because they also eat cat and dog food, stale rice, fallen fruit, and wild bird food with sunflower seeds, millet, wheat and sorghum, a far healthier diet than that of supermarket chickens fattened on GMO corn, ground up dead chickens, and pellets of other deceased awful offal. In many neighborhoods, perhaps not Diamond Head, someone is eating free “free range” stew, far more nutritious than takeout nuggets or chicken cooked in one’s own kitchen.
Complaining, whining isn’t the way to win, Dems
It wasn’t so long ago when Missouri was a purple state, up for grabs by whichever party did the best job capturing voters’ imaginations. The state was split down the middle politically as recently as 2000, and even in 2016 Democrats held a U.S. Senate seat and the offices of governor, attorney general and state auditor. While Democrats watched helplessly, Republicans went for the political jugular by focusing on hot-button inspirational issues like gun control and abortion rights.
Your Views for May 11
‘Stop being lazy’
Government growth puts liberty at risk
Two years ago, as the pandemic descended, I think most of us were startled by how much power it turned out governors and administrators had to rule our lives.
God is not on Russia’s side in invasion
The Russian Orthodox Church and its head, Patriarch Kirill, have appallingly defended President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and are urging Russians to support the war as well.
Your Views for May 10
Masks ruling
Rainy Side View: Merrie Monarch normal?
The Merrie Monarch Festival is back, yeah! It’s been a long drought. But before I go any further, am I the only one who thinks that the Edith Kanaka‘ole Tennis/Multi-Purpose Stadium should be renamed the Edith Kanaka‘ole Hula Stadium? Sports are fine but hula is Hilo’s claim to fame.
Tech allows Ukraine to identify war criminals
Much of the world reacted in horror at Russian atrocities in the town of Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, one month ago. After the Russian army retreated, Ukrainians found the bodies of hundreds of civilians, and the full extent of the terror became known.
