The SCOTUS decision on Obergefell v. Hodges is a clear indicator that our judicial system is badly broken, a clear reminder that the court opposes the Judeo-Christian foundations upon which the nation was founded, and is a clear omen that more moral and legal confusion is on the way in America.
Educational Achievement: Why Are We Afraid?
May is the month for most high school and college graduations across the U.S. Commencement exercises mark a key milestone in the life of the student. For some it’s the end of their formal education, for others a marker toward the next educational or professional milestone, and for all, it’s the start of the rest of their lives. Whatever the context, graduation certainly is worth celebrating. But in the United States, graduation progressively has become more about being “done” and getting that diploma, rather than recognition of achievement and educational advancement. The term achievement has progressively become less “PC” in American lexicon, and the idea of advancing in education has become less accepted. The result is a decline in educational motivation and mobility in America. And the consequences of that decline can be significant for not only students but for our American society as a whole.
Conservatives Should Attack Obergefell’s Interpretive Method, Not Its Hijacking of the Democratic Process
Almost three months after the dust from Obergefell has settled, one thing is clear: conservatives are crying foul primarily over Obergefell’s usurpation of the democratic process. The “debate over same-sex marriage displayed American democracy at its best,” we are told, and the majority in Obergefell was dead wrong to end it. This was Obergefell’s cardinal sin from the conservative perspective.
At the Intersection of Race and Poverty
When I was in law school, I had the privilege of working at the Institute on Race & Poverty. IRP was focused on issues that were found at the intersection of race and poverty. IRP recognized that while race and poverty were concerns independent of each other, when they intersected, it raised a different and more complex set of concerns. I appreciated that perspective as a law student, but as a professional and a community member, the realities of that perspective have deepened over time.
From Pagan to Sacred and Back Again
For many years I have heard the reference that the United States is like modern day Rome – both in its glorious achievements and also in its potential downfall. While Rome had many issues that affected its eventual demise, the underlying one was moral decay. Some would argue that morality may also be at the center of whether or not the United States will continue to achieve and prosper as a nation. I would argue that it is not just the United States that will hinge on the morality issue. Indeed, across the globe, the myriad of concerns that we read, hear and see on the news and social media, are mostly rooted in issues of morality. In some respects, while the globe has progressed on many fronts since the Roman Era, in other ways, the world seems to be backsliding into a previous time when pagan societies engaged in morally questionable and societally destructive practices. As we scan the issues of the globe over many years, we seem to have spanned from pagan to sacred and back again.