The Katrina dead. Three years later and we can still see the drowned rooftops, the hospital staffs begging for evacuations, the lines of wheel-chaired sick fading before our eyes. Some of us remember this because we saw it on TV. Some of us remember this because we were there. No...

She will mourn. She will need to take time off to recuperate from the crushing disappointment. At some point she will call Al Gore, the one person who will truly understand both her pain and the possibilities ahead. He is the one who can tell her from experience and by...

During the Clinton era, I lost hope in political life because I couldn't stand political language. I grew to despise how people in power used words only to dictate outcomes -- that the gap between experienced truth and the story spoken out loud seemed to grow into a chasm, dark...

In today's NYT, Paul Krugman writes about the "bitterness" of the Democratic nomination fight, writing that he feels that the most "venom" comes from the pro-Obama voices. He goes on to say that Obama supporters "want their hero or nobody" and that the "Obama campaign is seems dangerously close...

There's one law of physics I return to again and again when I wish to understand the world: for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction.

Look at yourself: you are the sum of all that you've lived and learned up until this point. What we did yesterday, what...

I recently had a "what MLK means to me" moment, and I have to say, it took me by surprise. I suppose I was at an obvious place for it to happen--the National Civil Rights Museum, in Memphis--but there's something about the often department store, herd-them-through vibe of museums that...

Yesterday at work, I snapped. OK, not postal. But I lost my "live and let live" attitude that I try to maintain with others when I'm at work or out socially.

I work for a university. One joy of doing so is being surrounded by smart, politically-engaged colleagues. The...

Mrs. Clinton: with your back smack against the wall, don't you think it might be time to do something so daring, so risktaking -- that yes, the whole world might just crumble around you if you do it, but at least you'll know you used every weapon in your arsenal...

So, the late-night comedians are back (or coming back). For many of us, there are warm places in our hearts and minds for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I think of the darkest times of the post-9/11 Bush years, and how I needed Jon Stewart and his writers to read...

Over the last year, many, including myself, have called for an 8/29 Commission to get to the bottom of what truly happened with the New Orleans levee-breaches and resultant floods. No one has spear-headed this call like New Orleans-based grassroots organization, Levees.org.

Recently, in collaboration with a...

After Oprah Winfrey's weekend with Barack Obama, there's much talk as to how much her support bolsters his cause. I don't know the answer to this. I do know that when I saw the two of them in the same photograph, I saw two people who were powerful in the...

Nothing like a hostage crisis to remind a woman of just how vulnerable she can be in this society.

Female campaign workers could watch the news coverage of Clinton campaign office hostage situation and admonish themselves to be more security-conscious -- to perhaps, be more like their secret service...

ABC News reports that Sen. Obama spoke to a "mostly black audience" last night at the world-famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem. Hmm. From where I sat in the mezzanine, the makeup of the audience was under whispered debate. 1 in 5? 1 in 4? Maybe. No. The guys behind...

OK, who hasn't seen Kathy Griffin tell her rendition of the Oprah v Barbra showdown on Oprah's Show? If you haven't, stop reading and watch now.

The bit culminates with Oprah asking Barbra where she found a white microphone for her performance on the show. Barbra...

In high school, math was not my friend. Things came to a head in trigonometry. A big test was coming. I knew I couldn't pass. Unless. Maybe. Just this time... I'd write a few answers on my arm. I could be stealth about it. No one would see. But my...

So, Lynne Cheney's research reveals that Barack Obama is a distant cousin to Dick Cheney. I love these stories. They bring to light the obvious fact that no matter how much we try to distance ourselves from each other and act like we're all little islands, we're not....

At the Obama rally two weeks ago, I ran into an old reporter friend. He was doing his thing so we didn't talk much. Once in a while, he'd look over, smile, or just give me a look. Later he came over. He teased me about my clapping during...

I'm leaving the Obama rally, thinking, feeling, and exhausted from the struggle between my brain and my heart, my certainties and my dreams. I rush off the muggy platform, enter the uptown-bound A train. The AC's going, but it's crowded. I'm seated, squished between men who type on laptops, read...

So, Bill O'Reilly expressed surprise that a world-famous black restaurant could have the same decorum of a white suburban restaurant. As we all know, O'Reilly revealing ignorance is not news. O'Reilly revealing that he's capable of expanding his understanding of his fellow human beings--well, that is.

I believe we've...

Meet Rick Brennan. Rick is a middle school teacher in Houston, as well as the former head of the Harris County Young Democrats. Rick found himself impacted by Katrina in three major ways: as a public school teacher, as an Astrodome volunteer, and as a homeowner on the Southwest side...