You can hardly get through the holidays without seeing a news story about the stress that many people experience at this time of year. There's the loss of loved ones who won't be gathering around the table. Family members who are forced together even if they're not on good terms. And there's the letdown of unfulfilled expectations.

"Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of liberty ..."
"Lift Every Voice and Sing" has long been known as the Negro National Anthem. I wonder how our nation would be different if we had made this song the official national anthem. What if we celebrated unity in the beautiful words of James Weldon Johnson instead of glorifying "the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air?" Imagine!

This fall has brought relief from the glib conventional wisdom that the Republican Party is poised to capture a significant percentage of African American voters. That article of faith has been proclaimed with unvarnished confidence ever since President Ronald Reagan first captured the White House 25 years ago.
Unfortunately, it's never been backed up with actual accomplishment.

The increasing criminalization of children has become a major crisis. Children are being suspended and expelled from school and incarcerated in the juvenile and adult justice systems at alarming rates and at younger and younger ages.
This increased incarceration is not due to an increase in serious delinquent or violent criminal behavior by young people. Juvenile arrests for violent crimes grew rapidly in the late 1980s and peaked in 1994, but then began falling.

"We do not torture," President Bush said last week. But this pledge, delivered almost as if it were a bully's taunt rather than a leader's promise, is simply not true — and the president knows it.
The pictures from Abu Ghraib displayed to the world that the United States has trampled the international standards that this country had traditionally championed

Most Americans have felt the sting of rising health care costs at one point or another. Those most affected, however, by skyrocketing medical fees, pricey prescription drugs and expensive insurance premiums are society's most vulnerable: children and seniors.

October was a month marked by many college reunions. As I reflect on the 35 years since graduating from Stanford University, the usual thoughts people associate with this milestone run through my mind.
These include fond memories about friends and events, marvels about how much time has passed since "just yesterday," sorrow about some good people who have — figuratively and literally — lost their lives

Employees of public institutions readily recognize that things change at work every time someone new gets elected to a governing body — be it the school board, city or county council, state Legislature or the federal government.
As a former public employee and elected official with 35 years' experience in public schools, county and state government, I can attest to the ever-nebulous reality that runs through the halls of government.

Judge Samuel Alito isn't what he claims to be. And he's a lot more of a threat than the pundit class suggests. Yes, he's anti-abortion, and will swing the balance of the Supreme Court if he is confirmed to take the place of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
But Alito is more than a threat to women's right to choose. He's the standard-bearer for the new conservative order . . .

They were just ordinary toys — a set of Black and White dolls that cost 50 cents each at the…