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FROM AP: 10 Things to Know for Friday
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FROM AP: The next steps in Jodi Arias case
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If young Lauren can be thinking of the President and others as she lies in a hospital bed awaiting the removal of a half of her brain, then it is the very least we can do to fight as hard as we possibly can for her and so many others.
So can we expect the president to take the sort of leadership on the climate that many have hoped for since his 2008 campaign? In particular, will he stand up to the pressure of the fossil fuel lobby?
With one thundering line President Obama gave recognition to the commonality of our civil rights struggles, from women's suffrage to African-American civil rights to LGBT equality. He took the LGBT community's fight for equality and folded it completely into the fabric of what America means.
Not surprisingly, people have tended to hear Obama saying things consistent with their ideological predispositions. Liberals were thrilled with his explicit references to gay rights and climate change, and conservatives have taken the speech as a pledge to defend the status quo.
We have truly entered a new era. Prior to the inauguration, the National Organization for Marriage and the Family Research Council condemned any strides forward by the gay community, but now they have waved a magic wand to make our struggles disappear! It is so nice of them!
To say government must be small is nonsense. Government must be the size necessary to make a society and economy work, and that is not fixed -- nor could it possibly have been known by farmers in the late 1700s.
If you type "Michelle Obama style" into Google, 209,000,000 results come up. If you type in "Michelle Obama education," 183,000,000 results come up. This says a lot about our cultural obsession with fashion and celebrity.
Americans intuitively know that it will take a collection of small steps to put the nation and their lives on a better path. There is no quick fix. And yet so many people lack the belief that the nation is even capable of coming together to take those steps.
I have to admit I felt more emotion than I expected during President Barack Obama's Second Inauguration. The congruence of so much history moved me.
How many times have you, have I, have we all collectively said, felt, or muttered under our breath, maybe at dinner, maybe sitting next to conservative or hyper-Christian family members over the holidays -- oh dear God, can you imagine if McCain were president right now?
I am encouraged that some legislators have proposed pay for results via a "no budget, no pay" provision as the modus operandi for the next three months. Why not make this the norm going forward?
A top first 100 days recommendation is for President Obama to sign an executive order to prohibit companies that receive contracts from the federal government to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications has revealed a passion within me for journalism and reporting that reached its highest peak this past weekend in Washington, D.C.
Is Mr. Obama -- in his inner core -- a transformational philosopher or a partisan politician? Did he change his mind over the past four years? Did he figure out the realities of D-versus-R on Capitol Hill? Does this mean all-out war with the Republicans?
Those subjects were not part of my high school curriculum in the 1990s. With the exception of black history, women's history and especially gay history remained virtually absent from my graduate training at Columbia in the 2000s.
As much as the constant of death remains the same, how we think about it, how talk about it and what we do after it continues to change.
