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Category: Politics and Current Events

  • Say Their Names

    By Suzanne Kamata On July 27, twenty-six-year-old Satoshi Uematsu, a former employee of Tsukui Yamayuri En, a care facility for the disabled in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, broke into the residential area in the early hours of the morning. After restraining staff members with zip ties, he proceeded to slash the throats of disabled residents,…

  • The Reverend Dr. William Barber II: Reviving the Heart of Our Democracy

    The Reverend William J. Barber II brought the crowd to its feet with his rousing speech last night at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. His impassioned call for a moral awakening to combat divide-and-conquer politics with justice illustrates the foundation of Moral Mondays, the fusion movement he helped start to bridge America’s racial and…

  • What Pokémon Go Tells Us About Our Media Future

    By S. Craig Watkins Over the last few days, several people have asked me about the Pokémon Go phenomenon, especially friends who are not likely to play the game but are curious about why so many others have joined the crowd. In my own research, I’m constantly exploring how our engagement with digital media transforms…

  • The Story Behind Obama’s Keynote Address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention

    By Mary Frances Berry and Josh Gottheimer | It’s fair to say that no one could have expected what resulted from Barack Obama’s prime-time speech at the July 2004 Democratic National Convention. Not the Senate candidate himself nor his two key aides and traveling companions, David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs, nor Mary Beth Cahill, the…

  • Busting the Myths About Guns and US Gun Policy

    A Q&A with Dennis A. Henigan: Certainly the horror of the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in which twenty first graders and six adults were struck down, has been a key turning point in the national gun debate. The loss of those innocent young children shocked the conscience of the nation. Prior to…

  • The Drone Eats With Me: A Celebration of Life in a Time of Death

    A Q&A with Atef Abu Saif | I have to say that I did not write a diary to publish. I had a habit of writing sort of personal narratives now and then, to use in writing my fiction and to keep for future memoirs. I was shocked with the dialogue that took place between…

  • CRISPR, Gene-Editing Technology in the Age of Genomes

    By Steven Lipkin, MD, PhD with Jon L. Luoma: In the next decade, we are likely to see a new generation of pre­implantation genetic diagnosis, which could lead to the possibility of actually repairing genes in ART [advanced reproductive technologies] embryos affected by genetic disor­ders. Recent powerful basic science advances using a technique called CRISPR…

  • Supreme Court Narrowly Avoids Another Racist Decision in Dollar General Case

    By Dina Gilio-Whitaker When a thirteen-year-old member of the Mississippi Choctaw Band of Indians entered into a job-training program with Dollar General, no one could have foreseen how it would turn out. Referred to as John Doe to protect his identity, the boy alleged that he’d been sexually molested and harassed by Dollar General manager…

  • Eid in the Time of Invasion and Drones

    By Atef Abu Saif | Today is Eid. After a month of fasting, Eid is like a long sigh of relief. The kids get up early, woken by the hymns and chanting from the minarets of all the surrounding mosques, whilst the sun is still struggling to get out of bed in the east. Normally…

  • A Win for Abortion Providers, Patients, and Supporters—for a Change

    By Carole Joffe “(I)t is beyond rational belief that H.B.2 could genuinely protect the health of women, and certain that the law ‘would simply make it more difficult for them to obtain abortions.’” So wrote Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her concurrent opinion with the 5-3 majority in the landmark case, Whole Woman’s Health v…