The 24-Second News Cycle

I’ve grown impatient with those rushing to judgment on President Biden’s performance.

In less than eight months the man has shored up our economy with emphasis on equity for the most vulnerable; dealt wisely with a rekindled pandemic fueled by his predecessor’s inflammatory rhetoric; rescued some 90,000-and-counting Afghans from the wrath of the Taliban and begun the restoration of our nation’s battered image in the eyes of the civilized world. A brutal act of terrorism killing Americans and Afghans was not his doing, especially in this 20-year war. I’d call his opening months a good start….

Remembering Houston

On a steamy Wednesday evening in Houston – August 19, 1992 – I was a largely unknown young mother mounting the podium above the noisy crowd at the Republican National Convention. As I spoke, the crowd hushed.

Decades later the themes of that speech remain stubbornly relevant: bias, denial and meanness still long to be answered by wisdom, truth and compassion.  What I called for that night, I’d call for again. Here’s a memory…

Our Paradox

The telling of American history is heavily politicized these days. Attacks on so-called “critical race theory” stray close to the defensiveness of White nationalists. Calls to “honor America” by standing for the Star-Spangled Banner are controversial. We’re a nation sharply divided over what is “our” story as Americans, and what is not.

Mary Elliott, the Curator of American Slavery at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, saw this year’s July Fourth as an occasion when all Americans can “mark the nation’s independence and its paradox.” She noted that “the combined holidays of Juneteenth and July Fourth, that fall so close to one another on the calendar, provide a moment for all of us to consider the meaning and manifestation of a more inclusive freedom, even as the fight for justice continues.”…