Civil Rights

This week, there is a lot of focus on, and exposure for, the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage, but will it really matter?

Both sides in this debate want an affirmation from the court, but let’s face it folks, the train has not only left the station on same-sex marriage and gay and lesbian rights, it is roaring down the tracks.

One has to either make enough money that income taxes do not matter, find loopholes so one does not have to pay taxes, or become so poor that the government will provide every program and benefit available in the system.

The far-left liberals in our society claim to have the best interest of everyone in mind, and yet they are the least tolerant of anyone who disagrees with them.

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy recently made an important and wise comment when he said that with gridlock plaguing our political system, “A democracy should not be dependent for its major decisions on what nine unelected people from a narrow legal background have to say.” Considering the controversial history of recent Supreme Court decisions regarding elections, and the pending case regarding the Voting Rights Act, the nine unelected justices should uphold the Voting Rights Act, which was not passed under gridlock but was passed by overwhelming majorities of both parties, in both the House and Senate, including those representing states covered by the act.

In my view the act should be upheld, period. For conservative justices who might be inclined to overturn the act or Section 5 of the act, I would suggest they consider that this would violate the conservative principle against extreme judicial activism. It would violate the conservative principle of avoiding political decisions. It would violate the conservative principle against the unelected judicial branch negating overwhelming agreement of the elected executive and legislative branches, which have substantially more expertise regarding free elections than those of “narrow legal background.”

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. family is a major part of our national history, and slander is a necessarily public injustice. Undoing this injustice must, in turn, be public.

In countless ways, the problem of racism in America has improved. For example, much of society now accepts that black children ought to think, learn and share ideas in the same classrooms as white children. There is a logical progression — a better education leads to future possibilities and personal empowerment.

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The civil rights movement was born out of an intense struggle to enjoy those basic human rights we associate with happiness.

Early leaders of the movement settled on the theory that American society was primarily characterized by racism and that American institutions were grounded in the maintenance of racial privilege. Many of the black politicians who were swept into office on the heels of the movement consciously embodied this organizing principle.

The Republican Party spent much of the ’60s opposing the Democrats on civil rights legislation, affirmative action legislation and race-based quotas. This gives the Democrats the benefit of the doubt on race-related issues. The Republican Party continues to suffer from the credibility gap to go toe to toe with the Democrats on the race issue. They continue to lose this dramatic battle every time.

Anniversaries are, strictly speaking, not necessary, but neither is art, friendship or many other of the most important things in life. We observe them by taking time out of the present to remember the past. It is a way of “marking time,” of measuring ourselves against the great and the bad who have foregone us.

Right now, the Library of Congress is exhibiting drafts of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in his own hand, in honor of its 150th anniversary. I recommend viewing these profound two pages of Lincoln’s cursive, which show us both the boldness and the vulnerability of the greatest of our leaders.

Since the end of slavery, there has always existed inequality between the labor force participation of black women and men, which caused an imbalance in the roles of husband and wife, even before desegregation. But since 1980, the black family institution has declined precipitously. The vast majority of blacks born in this country are born into single-parent households, mostly run by single black women.