Medgar Evers would be pleased to know that all public schools are technically available to all children, but he would be dismayed to learn that even so, many black children are still getting a separate, unequal, and failing education. We must not let all he lived and died for recede on our watch.

Although the U.S. accounts for less than 5 percent of the global population, Americans own an estimated 35 to 50 percent of all civilian-owned guns in the world. We can free our nation of this scourge of gun violence.

Assault rifles are designed to kill -- not mice in your attic, not deer in the field, not even a damned buffalo that wanders in from the plains. They're designed to kill people. And with a growing crowd of extremists in this country, they're likely to be used more frequently, too.

It's time for new resolutions backed by urgent and persistent action. In 2013 the United States celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and of the Birmingham movement. Our first African American president will be inaugurated for a second term, in a public ceremony that will take place the same day as our national holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., our prophet of nonviolence. How will we honor and carry forth our long struggle towards freedom and equality? Let's resolve not to make this another year of platitudes and remembering the dream, but make this a year of action to end child poverty and violence as Dr. King called for.

As we approach next's year's 50th Anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech, whether you oppose or support President Obama, we should finally elevate his white heritage from his mother and grandmother to co-equal status with his African father.

Stephen Colbert is a master at the "put on" interview with famous people, but last night, for the first time I can recall, he was practically speechless.

How is it that life has gotten harder financially for the vast majority of Americans over the past forty years, yet we have had so few public solutions?

When political protest is caged, it's not just the rights of a few protesters that are at stake. The very definition of freedom is in danger. Freedom cannot be exercised from within a cage.

The trumpet of the President's words and proposal Thursday night summons the middle class to exert its power and its influence in the only way it can -- through its numbers.

Obama should focus on two and only two proposals, and they each must take account of perceived prior failures. They must be guarantees, not incentives that rely on what side of the bed someone gets up on in the morning.

"Jobs and freedom" require equal opportunity in all aspects of life. Freedom means access to quality education and good housing. Freedom means full participation in the political system. Freedom means fairness in criminal justice.