Poverty

Washington, D.C., the nation's capital, is one of the great cities of the world. Tourists come here from around the globe to enjoy its world-class museums and art galleries and visit its columned edifices of gleaming marble. It's a city that attracts some of the most talented people from America...

Friends, acquaintances, countrymen, and assorted fellow humans. This is my first attempt at political poetic expression. I don't know what it is, but it tasted alright this morning with my coffee.

Holiday for Destruction

Have a cup of what the green zone pilot's drinkin' today.
We...

It's no secret that our economy has undergone a dramatic transformation in the past three decades. In Los Angeles and elsewhere, hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs have been replaced by service sector jobs, many of them low paid. This shift has contributed to the rapid growth of poverty and...

When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, he was trying to move the country to take on the moral issue of economic injustice. And, for the first time in many years, the remembrances of King's death (this one the 40^th anniversary) urged the nation to do the same. Usually,...

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in Memphis in 1968. And while plenty can be said about what more could have been accomplished had his life not been cut so tragically short, the legacy he left to us is one that we can...

Today, as we commemorate the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, it's time for an honest assessment of just how far we've come towards achieving his dream of freedom and justice for all.

A quick snapshot of today's income inequality and continued health and educational disparities...

Green For All is a national organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Although often presented as "single issues" poverty, racism, and environmental degradation are interlinked, as low-income people suffer disproportionately from cancer, asthma and other respiratory ailments. Katrina was...

Cross-Posted at OpenLeft.com

Barack Obama's New Hampshire concession speech became one of the most important moments in this campaign. The speech was made into that powerful "yes we can" video and was downloaded and commented on a ton. What has been less commented on, but something which I think...

As commentators vie to predict the impact of Obama's March 18, 2008, "race speech" on his candidacy, it's easy to fixate on what it tells us about Obama the person -- his steady courage, his nuanced thinking, his mastery of imagery and storytelling. All are important attributes to...

This morning, let's consider the case of Fay Derricote, an obese, 44-year-old former government contract worker confined to a wheelchair with multiple sclerosis. For the first time in her life, she has good health insurance -- provided by Medicare because she is disabled.

That's precisely what her former employer,...

Great news: Within the thousands of pages of tax law lies a provision called the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) that enables many working poor families to climb out of poverty. The bad news is that many low-income taxpayers are unaware of the EITC and don't know how to take...

When President George W. Bush released his $3.1 trillion Fiscal Year 2009 Federal Budget on February 4, it was a clear statement that he has far less regard for our nation's children than for the richest most powerful Americans and far more interest in waging war than in waging peace....

There are three major trends in American society that must be addressed when the Senate next week debates the federal budget. First, the United States has the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major nation in the industrialized world, and the gap between the very rich and...