The nation awaits decisions by the Supreme Court that could undo much of the progress achieved during the last 50 years for civil and equal rights in our country. This will occur if the Court declares either the "pre-clearance" -- Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 --...

The public disclosure about the extent to which our government has initiated programs "to protect us from terrorists attacks," has precipitated a media firestorm. Presumably, some of these efforts have in fact protected us. Others appear to have infringed upon our cherished concepts of constitutionally protected zones of privacy.

The...

With so many news stories competing for our attention: Congressional investigation of the IRS, the bloody attack of a British soldier by alleged Islamist militants in London, President Obama's redefinition of our "War on Terrorism," the penalty phase of the Jody Arias trial, the debate about a pending proposed Immigration...

During the past few months I have been very concerned that the Second Amendment was being misused, and its historical application distorted, as an offensive shield against any effort to encourage and require only the smart and responsible ownership and use of guns in our nation. Thus, like an overwhelming...

Monday marked the 70th anniversary of the Holocaust. I was 12 years old when this horrific event occurred. During the ensuing years, like some other persons, I have had difficulty understanding why so many "good" people of Germany said they did not know at the time about Hitler's policy and...

Forty-five years ago today, Robert F. Kennedy was in Gary, Indiana, as part of his participation in the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries. As he was about to mount a flatbed truck to speak to an almost exclusively African-American audience, he received word that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King,...

As I watched part of President Obama's speech in Israel to an audience of young people and students, I reflected back on the 2012 presidential election campaign in the United States.

Had Governor Mitt Romney won, could I envision him delivering a similar speech?

I also remembered the consistent pre-election...

OK, Sequester Armageddon has occurred. And the sun continues to rise in the East and set in the West; clocks, watches, buses, trains and airplanes are still running throughout the nation. Congress, as usual, in the midst of an urgent domestic fiscal crisis works a short week, adjourning for the...

In a previous blog I noted that the inauguration of President Obama's second term coincides with our national commemoration of the 84th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It also coincides with a national conversation about gun violence following the tragic events in Newtown, CT and the NRA's call...

This year the nation's commemoration of the 84th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr occurs during the week of the second inauguration of America's first African-American president, three weeks after the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and during the 50th Anniversary year of Dr. King's August 28th, 1963...

"Obama to Give Congress Plan on Gun Control Within Weeks."

Senators and members of the House, previously opposed to any proposals to restrict the sale, resale and/or use of guns are now publicly speaking out. Several suggest that, in the wake of the massacre of 20 kids and six adults...

Every time a horrific national tragedy occurs involving the killing of school children or adults by the use of guns, the National Rifle Association immediately becomes the national whipping boy and the source for causation blame. Repeated finger pointing of responsibility at the NRA for its fierce defense of individual...

Unlike Stella Payne, in Terry McMillan's bestselling novel How Stella Got Her Groove Back, President Obama did not have to travel to Jamaica. His re-election on the basis of a clear national agenda has enabled him to get his "groove" back and exercise presidential leadership more boldly and decisively. Similarly,...

In a college classroom earlier this week I witnessed the moral clarity of the so-called "Millennial Generation." The "MG" has been described as people born around the early 1980s and afterward, for whom technological savvy is the norm and constant communication the expectation.

The post election results of the...

This upcoming presidential election has been described as the most important election in a generation. Depending upon one's political point of view, the forecast for our nation is either bleak or full of promise and opportunity.

There is one issue, however, notwithstanding the paramount importance of the economy, that continues...

Like many other bloggers during the past several weeks, I have been preoccupied with the presidential election contest between President Obama and Governor Romney. An African-American person in the audience at the town hall debate at Hofstra University last night asked what the candidates were going to do to make...

Sometimes optics and appearance triumph over substance. Except in a national election, when the state of the economy and the level of joblessness can color the optics with the grey of uncertainty.

Media pundits continue to concentrate on who "won" or "lost" the Biden-Ryan debate. Was Vice President Biden's "performance"...

Watching the Obama-Romney debate last night reminded me of that terrible feeling on October 30th, 1974 while watching, eighth row ringside, the Muhammad Ali-George Foreman heavyweight boxing championship in Kinshasa, Zaire (now, the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

An avid Ali fan, I sat there with a sinking feeling in...

The recent death of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, former publisher of the New York Times, provoked memories of the Times and its coverage of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. Last week I participated in the continuing Centennial Celebration of the University of San Francisco's Law School. In my speech...

Forty-nine years ago today, August 28, 1963, a 34-year-old Baptist preacher from Georgia, stirred and summoned the conscience of our nation to share his "Dream." The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to an estimated 300,000 white and black Americans who had assembled at the foot of the Lincoln...