Bernard Starr

We've heard the mantra over and over. One percent of the richest Americans control 40 percent of the nation's wealth; and the top 20 percent possess 85 percent of the riches. There's no question that income inequality continues to grow, especially for minorities. But...

I had the pleasure of meeting Mike Wallace in 1998 at a dinner sponsored by the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), which was honoring him and his wife, Mary, for their mental health advocacy.

Mike Wallace was best known as the hard-hitting --

American corporations have pretty much written off the middle class. Their actions declare that the middle class is moribund. And they should know since they have been in the front lines shooting down and decimating the middle class. Indeed, American business has dismantled much of its manufacturing and has eliminated...

"Obama? I wouldn't vote for that socialite."

That's what a man in Pennsylvania said when I was making phone calls for Obama during the last presidential election campaign.

If you don't know the difference between a socialite and socialist, you are a prime candidate for the U.S. Republican debate team.

Serge Etele is a 31-year-old cocoa farmer and native African who lives in Sa'a, a small rural village in Cameroon, on the west coast of Africa. He and his family, as well as a thousand others in his village, were members of...

Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum will no doubt deny that they endorse a caste system. They will insist that they love the plain folks and will enthusiastically point to their family histories as they compete for blue collar credentials. Rick Santorum, spiffy in his sweater vest, will tell...

In my last article I made a bold proposal: Bring our nation's workers up to competitive speed by offering a free college education to all qualified applicants. The crippling cost of higher education is fueling a frightening college dropout rate in the U.S. while China and...

New York City provided it during the Great Depression. America offered it to veterans after World War II. We need it today: Free College. Yes, I mean a tuition free college education for all qualified students. And there's a way to do it without a government...

If you saw David Gewirtzman and Jacqueline Murekatete standing together it would be hard to imagine that they had anything in common. David, 83, is white and Jewish, a retired pharmacist who owned a large suburban drugstore. He and his wife, Lillian, lived in the peaceful community of Great Neck,...

We last left Lillian and David Gewirtzman as they were about to meet the Mayor and townspeople of Ulm Germany for the opening of Lillian's DP camps exhibit.

But first, let's go to the back-story of the DP camps and what the townspeople of Ulm were about to...

When I visited New York's Museum of Modern Art's retrospective of celebrated Mexican painter Diego Rivera I was reminded of Yogi Berra's quip: "It's déjà vu all over again." Rivera's murals span Mexico's history back to the Spanish conquistadors and powerfully depict class inequality and social injustice. They dramatize the...

Since 1994, Steven Spielberg's Shoah Visual History Foundation has collected more than 50,000 videotaped interviews with Holocaust survivors. The Foundation, now run by the University of Southern California (USC), is currently expanding its mission to include stories of survivors of other genocides. The Institute recently began training five...

Last week I waited more than 45 minutes for a number 11 bus on Amsterdam Avenue in NYC. As a disgruntled man in front of me climbed aboard he grumbled about the deterioration of bus service -- some routes have been cut entirely and others have longer and longer wait...

An emotionally charged debate on immigration is sweeping the country. The wrenching question: What to do with the millions of illegal immigrants, many of whom have lived here for years, if not decades, and have children who are U.S. citizens? Immigrants currently account for a big chunk...

In a stunning display of spin that far exceeds even Rush Limbaugh, Herman Cain has transformed Jesus into uber-capitalist and individualist Ayn Rand. Every person for himself -- "the poor are responsible for their poverty."

Add to that Mr. Cain's pronouncement that Jesus was killed by a...

Bill O'Reilly called the Occupy Wall Street protesters "a bunch of crackhead drug dealers." Glenn Beck chimed in saying that protesters were "animals" lured by drugs. I wonder how they reached their conclusions.

Last weekend I made my way through the broad swath of protesters...

Lost your job, afraid you might be downsized or laid off? Worried about skimpy savings? Scared that you might default on your mortgage? Dipping into your 401K to pay your grocery bills? Terrified of losing your pension as bankruptcy looms for many cities and counties? Frightened about catastrophic...

If it weren't disturbing it would be amusing that politicians and policy makers are glibly assaulting -- almost on a daily basis -- programs and entitlements for older adults. It's as if seniors were a passive group of neuters that have no say in matters of their own lives, or...

AARP Wakes Up to Reality

In a dramatic announcement on June 17, 2011, AARP, the giant advocacy organization, declared that they would be willing to consider reduced benefits for future retirees. Although AARP waffled upon confronting the explosive media response, by then pundits were all over...

On June 1, 2011, I posted an alert that the pandemic disease of the 21st century was on the rise. That disease -- Posterior Alimentary Canal Syndrome (PACS) -- continues to gain traction. Frankly, it looks like it's out of control.

The chief symptom of PACS resists...