Standing strong against “Russian aggression” has become the only acceptable US position on Ukraine for Washington and mainstream media, reminiscent of the relentless anti-Saddam propaganda campaign running up to the Iraq War. This time the demonization of Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, substitutes for any nuanced account of events in Ukraine. Former Defense Secretary […]
Columns
Posted inNews & Opinion
The high-risk stakes in Crimea and Ukraine
The events in the Crimea have the potential to become the most serious threat to world peace since the Cuban missile crisis. It will take wise decision-making by Obama and Putin to avoid that outcome. Russia’s buildup of troops in the region and our sending of warplanes to a former Soviet Republic and a warship […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The real solution to Rochester’s poverty
“Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings.” – Nelson Mandela Perhaps there is no place in which this insight is truer than Rochester, New York. As community leaders discuss yet another exhaustive study of our region’s poverty, and how our […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
City school board seeking change and solutions
It’s difficult to read Mary Anna Towler’s January 29 Urban Journal and not notice the pessimistic tone expressed throughout the essay. She, understandably, notes that things “just [keep] getting worse” as the district continues its “slide down.” She certainly is not alone in her views. She correctly notes that our own superintendent has described the […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Why we shouldn’t boycott Sochi
Controversy is nothing new for the Olympics. Barely an edition of the international sports event goes by without some scandal. Some are relatively minor — the Ryan Lochte grills situation in Beijing comes to mind. Some, like the massacre of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich games, are major world events in their own right. […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Democrats on the run
Like them or not, we’re all pretty clear on what the Tea Party and the far right wing of the Republican Party stand for: opposing President Obama on everything and obstructing government. What do Democrats stand for? Well, that depends. Democrats are fond of nuanced positions. And they’ll run like scared cats at the first […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Rochester and MLK’s dream
This photograph captures a moment in history, showing a meeting
of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and prominent black leaders in Rochester.
Posted inNews & Opinion
From our cold, dead minds
Before there was Wayne LaPierre, there was Charlton Heston. At the 2000 NRA convention, he raised a rifle high over his head, conjured up the straw man of gun confiscation, and declared: “I’ll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.” Bluster and intimidation have been important elements in the […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Two brains refuse to drain
David Brooks made us mad. He did it in his January 24 New York Times column, “The Great Migration.” He did it by high-fiving the demographic group we belong to while dissing the kind of city we call home. Brooks argues that American higher education “sucks up some of the smartest people from across the […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Partisanship, poverty, and paychecks
In his State of the Union address, President Obama issued a challenge: “Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour.” On this he finds support from Governor Cuomo, who proposes increasing the […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
A better model for neighborhood schools
Once again in Rochester, there are calls for a return to neighborhood schools. While it is important to create neighborhood elementary schools within urban villages where possible, and to align accountability, consolidate services, and make it all transparent, my experience brings me to conclude that for a future system of education to be successful and […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The national agenda must focus on the poor
During President Obama’s first term and again in his successful re-election campaign, virtually nothing was said or done about people in the United States who are trapped in a cycle of poverty and despair. The focus was on middle class families and their concerns. This is not to say that the nation should ignore its […]
