David Love: Conservatives proclaim that they believe in freedom and the free market. But freedom never meant the right of a handful to steal most of the nation’s wealth, run roughshod over the rest of us and wreck the country for a buck.
The Death Penalty as Ritualized Mob Violence
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David Love: When a white conservative audience cheered presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry over his execution record at a recent debate, it underscored what is wrong with the death penalty.
We Could Use A Little Class Warfare Right Now
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David Love: American politics is legalized bribery and corruption. With the social welfare system peeling away for austerity’s sake, American capitalism, unfettered, is reverting back to its natural state of exploitation – allowing a few winners, mostly losers, and a lot of cold-bloodedness and cold-heartedness to go around.
Blacks and Latinos Will Suffer When the Student Debt Bubble Bursts
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David Love: There is every indication that the bursting of the student debt bubble, like the housing bubble before it, is imminent. And when it happens, it will send shockwaves throughout the financial markets. People of color will be especially vulnerable.
Crown Heights Riots 20 Years Later
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David Love: Crown Heights was imminently important from a political perspective, as it altered the course of New York’s political history and ended the brief stint that was Black Power in the Big Apple.
Profiteering and Union-Busting Repackaged as School Reform
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David Love: But the larger picture here is that corporate education reform is big business. And the rightwing, plutocratic agenda – of school privatization, government austerity measures and deunionization – clashes with the needs of poor, working class, and disproportionately black and brown public school students.
China Needs Martin Luther King
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David Love: As America awaits the August 28 opening of the King National Memorial in Washington, D.C., this is a perfect time to reflect on the leader’s accomplishments, legacy, and commitment to justice, equality and nonviolent social change.
At What Point Does the GOP Become a Hate Group?
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David Love: There is no question, based on the evidence, that the GOP is that peculiar institution in which people thrive, based on an alternate set of facts, divorced from reality.
We’re All Black Now
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David Love: Corporate greed on the part of arms manufacturers has turned an obscure and anachronistic amendment dealing with militias into a license to kill, literally, on a massive scale. The result is a gun for every American, with no system of licensing, registration and background checks.
Voter ID: GOP’s Latest “Block the Vote” Effort
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David Love: In a normal world, when you want to win an election, it’s all about “Get Out The Vote” efforts. But when your goal is to snatch victory from the gutter, “Block The Vote” will do.
America’s “Shoot ‘Em Up, Lock ‘Em Up” Mentality Is Its Undoing
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David Love: The land of the free is home to only 5 percent of the world’s population, but 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. And we spend more than all nations combined on “defense”. We are addicted to shooting em up or locking em up. But we can’t provide healthcare to all.
America’s Blind Faith in Capitalism
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David Love: The inequality in this nation – and the flagrant manner in which concentrated power flaunts its excesses – is so perverse that it offends the moral sensibilities and belief systems of everyday folks.
What Will It Take to Bring Obama Home?
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David A. Love: Part of the problem is Obama’s quixotic journey to the political center. There is nothing in the middle of the road but yellow lines and road kill, and you’d better believe it. Although his campaign rhetoric was progressive, this president chooses to govern from the middle.
Defying Racial Stereotypes
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David Love: Given the paucity of positive images of Arabs out there, no single film can be all things to all people. And no film by itself can articulate the full breadth of the occupation or the Mideast conflict. But this is a good start.
GOP Overreach
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David Love: Republican overreach is in the air. You can see it, smell it, taste it everywhere, as you have in years past. And the only surprise is that it happened so quickly this time around.
When Japanese Dogs Teach Americans a Lesson in Humanity
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David Love: Why are black and Latino boys in urban neighborhoods more likely to attend the penitentiary than the university? Why is it so easy for a child to acquire a gun, but so difficult for him or her to get a quality education, or a balanced and nourishing meal?
Americans Would Doom an American Reconstruction Effort
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David Love: I’m betting on Japan to win this, with their ganbatte spirit, highly educated workforce, long-term strategy and dedication to technological advancement.
The Limits of Tyrants
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David Love: When America, backward and crumbling, should be investing in infrastructure and technology to create jobs and promote growth, some governors reject high-speed rail projects and wear their ignorance as a badge of honor.
Cops Are Missing the Bad Guys While Profiling the Black Guys
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David Love: Reading 12 Angry Men: True Stories of Being a Black Man in America Today made me angry, not because the subject matter was brand new to me, but because it was far too familiar – not only as a black man, but also as a human rights advocate who worked with police brutality victims and their families back in the 1990s, and decided to go to law school as a result.
America: The World’s Greatest Purveyor of Violence Today
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February is Black History Month, and a perfect time to reflect on the nonviolence and antiwar stance of Dr. Martin Luther King. Recently, my colleague, Mark Thompson, reminded me of an important Dr. King quote when I appeared on his radio show to discuss the Tucson shooting. It was a speech the slain civil rights [...]
Abortion Foes Don’t Care About Women’s Rights or Civil Rights
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David Love: Meanwhile, theocratic GOP members of Congress are proposing the crudely worded “The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.” Current law allows for federal funding of abortions only in the case of rape or incest.
The International Movement That Would Bring Peace to the Mideast
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David A. Love: Ultimately, Israel must find security through some other means outside of militarism, say these two human rights fighters. “Israel has a right to self-defense, and therefore the first thing for defending ourselves is to stop torturing and killing Palestinians.”
GOP Austerity Plan Targets Blacks and Latinos
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David Love: This new wave of austerity is a con game, and it’s racist too. Now is the time to reverse the trend and restore equity, justice and sanity to America’s economic system.
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This Jobs Crisis Is Obama’s Kryptonite
David Love: Obama can solve this whole thing tomorrow if he just calls for a new New Deal program already. But will he have the courage? Time will tell, but the President, like this sad nation, is short on time.