Feb. 4, 2006

Students at the University of Michigan held a Migrant and Immigrant Rights Awareness and Labor Law Roundtable conference here Jan. 17-19. The gathering, organized by the students of MIRA (Migrant and Immigrant Rights Awareness) and the Labor Law Roundtable, with the support of UM faculty and other sponsoring organizations, was projected as the first of a series of conferences that will address issues of immigration and social justice.

The grainy black and white television footage and still photographs capture only a snippet of the struggle of millions symbolized by the First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement, Coretta Scott King.

Wonder how so much of your paycheck gets siphoned off at the gas pump or burned up heating your home? Wonder no more … this week energy giant ExxonMobil announced record profits of over $36 billion — the largest annual profit in corporate history.

African American History Month can serve to remind all of us that democracy in our U.S. of A. is illusive. It can also serve as a period to seriously reflect — though the challenges of real struggle require a constant exploration of this matter — on a fundamental truth articulated by the former Communist Party USA chair, Gus Hall: racism is our nation’s most dangerous pollutant. Moreover, African American History Month is a moment to revel in the glory of the culture produced by the African American people’s struggle, and an opportunity to use its fervent yearning for freedom as an impetus to recommit to the fight for social change and advance.

When the Bush Justice Department subpoenaed data on the Google, Yahoo or MSN web searches you and I and other Americans do, it was presented as part of a Bush administration war on pornography.

As a longtime New Jerseyan and death penalty opponent, I was happy that New Jersey’s Legislature had the courage to establish a death penalty moratorium.

A new documentary is garnering major press coverage for its suggestion that the Cuban government had a role in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dalla

An African proverb reminds us, “Until the lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.” I reflected on variations of this sentiment as I made my way home teary-eyed after seeing “Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death” recently in New York.