A Promised Land

America as a Developing Country

In the Name of Love: MLK Day Matters More Than Ever at Home and Abroad

Nonviolence over brutishness, inspiration over resignation, love over hate.

Monday marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Preaching nonviolence over brutishness, inspiration over resignation, love over hate, his message rings truer than ever as we tread into 2024. I’m marking it here by sharing videos featuring a remarkable rock song and an even more powerful speech.

One lesser known aspect of MLK’s work was its international dimension. Traveling to India in 1959, he wrote that “India’s [Mahatma] Gandhi was the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change.” He further linked “the Christian doctrine of love” to the Hindu leader’s words and actions.

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In One Key Way, January 6 Is Worse Than Pearl Harbor and 9/11

The Anniversary of Insurrection Day

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December 7.

September 11.

As we recall the third anniversary of the U.S. Capitol being seized by rioters, January 6 has joined the ranks of the most horrible days in American history. In the words FDR applied to Pearl Harbor, it is “a date which will live in infamy.”

Thankfully, the January 6, 2021 insurrection did not wreak nearly the massive deaths nor physical havoc of those other two days. But in one crucial respect, it’s proven even worse.

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Happy New Year! From Vaccines to Homicides to Poland to Brazil to America to Cats…Good News

Yes. Even in America. And even cats.

These are not the best of times, to put it mildly. But it’s important to see the rays of hope piercing the doom and gloom. They illuminate the fact that America and the world can recover, that we’re not trapped in an irreversible downward spiral. Instances of progress across the globe remind us that what once seemed lost can still be found.

For example, from increasing global vaccine availability to positive health developments in Mexico and Bangladesh to improved animal welfare practices to a record drop in U.S. murders to a host of other beacons, some significant changes made aspects of this world better in 2023.

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India’s “Fox News on Steroids”: Hamas, Israel and My Five Minutes of Far-right Fame

Republic TV interprets the Middle East and the world for the world's most populous nation.

If you’re curious to see the Indian equivalent of Fox News, or how one of India’s most popular English language news programs is covering the Hamas-Israel conflagration, check out this video of an international bunch of talking heads shouting at each other.

One of those shouting heads is me.

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Despite the Hamas Horrors, Glimmers of Light Beyond the Unbearable Darkness

Hamas must go. So must Netanyahu.

 

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Amidst all the thoughts and feelings I had as 9/11 unfolded, the one that hit hardest was utter dismay at how incredibly cruel and savage people can be to each other.

That’s how I feel this week. Over 1,300 Israelis slaughtered – most of them civilians, many of them babies, children or elderly – with over 150 more taken hostage. Given America’s much larger population, this would be the equivalent of 50,000 people murdered here in a single terrorist attack, or seventeen 9/11s.

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