America's Longest Debate

America's Longest Debate

A debate stretching back to America’s founding recently resurfaced during this election cycle, with Donald Trump’s suggesting the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank’s monetary policy favors the incumbent party’s bid to retain political power. From the beginning of our nation’s origins, our leaders have quarreled over the power and influence of a central bank. Initially, opposition led by Thomas Jefferson, centered on the concentration of economic clout a central bank would necessarily possess, claiming it would benefit manufacturers and traders in New England over agrarian interests in other states. However, with war debts still needing to be repaid, merchants and farmers having to rely on credit from one another or on banks in England, and each state issuing its own currency, the argument favoring a central bank prevailed. At the time of its creation, just three local banks operated in all of the 13 states, one in Boston, New York City and Philadelphia.

A 9/11 Remembrance: Why I Honor the Flag, the Anthem, and the Constitution

A 9/11 Remembrance: Why I Honor the Flag, the Anthem, and the Constitution

When my father was a young boy in India, he dreamed of someday going to America—a remarkable place of opportunities. In the 1940’s in a newly independent India, that idea seemed as preposterous as going to the moon. But in 1969 America put a man on the moon. And just two years later in 1971, my father immigrated to the United States from India. He was 27 years old and came to this country on a student visa. He had never left his native country and only had a few dollars to make his way in a new country.

Reaching The Unreachable

Reaching The Unreachable

Imagine you’re a 21st century Christian missionary: Where on this vast earth would you go to bring the word of Christ? For Pastor Mike Goodyear of Pathways Church in Fair Oaks, California and his congregation, the answer is simply 10-40 degrees latitude. Within these geographical latitudes is drawn a rectangle from longitude 15 degrees west of the meridian at Greenwich England to 120 degrees east of the meridian. What lies within this rectangle is the African continent’s northern half, the middle east, along with southwest and southeast Asia and much of China. As Pastor Mike, as he is affectionately known points out, this area was chosen because we wanted “to go where the need is greatest.” He explains that about 2 billion people live within this rectangle area who “don’t know Jesus.”

A Shared Commitment to Addressing Violence & Disparity

A Shared Commitment to Addressing Violence & Disparity

This week Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were shot and killed by police officers while they were being apprehended. Both were black men. While they are not the only people killed by police this year, they represent the next in a series of recent killings that have sparked political concern and racial outrage. The individual incidents have distinct sets of circumstances, but they also have certain key issues for review. The central issue is not so much whether the police officers has the right to use force, since in many of these instances they do. The issue is more whether the use of deadly force was necessary. And more precisely, the key issue is whether the race of the person being apprehended affected the police officers likelihood to use deadly force.

Backlash Against a Borderless Europe

Backlash Against a Borderless Europe

Since the 1950s, European leaders have pursued the objective of political and economic integration through the Treaties of Rome, culminating with the Schengen Agreement, which allowed people and commerce to move freely within 26 European Countries without internal border controls. That historical objective is being severally tested as migration of large numbers of refugees from war torn areas of the Middle East and North Africa to Europe continues unabated. Concurrently, European jihadist sympathizers journey unimpeded through European nations to join the Middle East fighting. Now, a backlash is occurring among many citizens of Europe’s nation-states as they confront the trade-off that allows for the free movement of people whose culture, value and customs oftentimes conflict with the majority of those residing within these European nations.