Council Corner: Poverty simulation illuminates struggle
We all see it. All of us know people that live with it every day, but not all of us have experienced what it is like to be in poverty. Despite that fact, we support programs and give to causes that...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Silence toward the Saudis
Rarely will people change their conduct just because they’re made aware that it’s inconsistent — even grossly inconsistent. I did have one memorable success. I got the Houston Chronicle to stop its...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Fletcher's mail
For the next four weeks I’ll be on vacation from this column and from fretting about the myriad ways our species betrays its wondrous capacity for love and creativity. As a prelude to lightheartedness,...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Peaceful patriotism
The Fourth of July prompts reflections on patriotism. We might discover something of worth if we can get past its association with war.The founders of our nation created something unprecedented: They...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: 'Remain,' reluctantly
While writing my July 2 column on patriotism, I knew I would follow it up with reflections on Brexit, Great Britain’s narrow vote to withdraw from the European Union. One reason is the Brexit debate...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: New developments
Most of the subjects of my column are ongoing concerns. They don’t go away just because I’ve had my say. So periodically I like to report relevant developments.Saudi Arabia: In my May 27 column I...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Different yardsticks
Last July I told you that I knew David Duke personally. He enrolled at LSU in fall 1968, three years after I joined the faculty and two years after I founded the local ACLU chapter. Several times he...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Tools of change
During this year’s commemoration of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, one event focused on civil disobedience as a tool of social change. The program planners scheduled it because we had as a...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: A second movement
We’re now in the midst of a second civil rights movement. Just as the abolition movement ended slavery but not inequality for African Americans, so the first civil rights movement ended legal...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: The Gülen extradition
Although he’s been living in the U.S. since 1997, Muhammed Fethullah Gülen isn’t a household name here. He may soon become one. In the wake of the failed coup attempt in Turkey last month, President...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Labor Day thoughts
Oregon was the first state to declare Labor Day an official holiday. That was in 1887, one year after thousands of U.S. workers went on strike and rallied for the eight-hour day. At the rally in...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Time to end the war
Early last year I published a column about the war on drugs. In its original version I asserted that the seemingly failed war hasn’t ended because the real motives behind it were to furnish pretexts...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Measure 97 explained
Measure 97 is the most significant measure on our upcoming state ballot. If passed, it will raise funds dedicated to education, health care and senior services by increasing the minimum tax on...
View ArticleHerb Rothschild Jr.: Corporate taxes
This is the second of three columns on Measure 97 which, if passed, will raise funds intended for education, health care and senior services by increasing the minimum tax on corporations with $25...
View ArticleWaiting for the 47 percent moment
In early fall 2012, Mitt Romney spoke at a fundraiser that he assumed was closed to the press. But his comments, intended only for the well-heeled Republican audience, were recorded.“There are 47...
View ArticleChris Honoré: Confronting a moral intersection
As I watch the riptides and currents gripping the Republican Party, I conclude that for the men and women of the GOP, this is a moral intersection. Each of them will look back and remember where they...
View ArticleChris Honoré: When will Congress say ‘Enough!’?
Already it seems a distant memory, but for those at its epicenter, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in Newtown, Conn., will forever remain all too real. The loss is still more than many can...
View ArticleChris Honoré: Congress, gun policy and the CDC
As appalling as the mass shootings of the last two decades have been — Orlando, San Bernardino, Charleston, Newtown and so many more that have slipped out of memory and into our bleak national history...
View ArticleChris Honoré: Bernie Sanders' last windmill
Since Bernie Sanders first stepped forward and announced his candidacy for POTUS I’ve followed his campaign with more than a passing interest. It’s like he walked out of the tall corn in “A Field of...
View Article