Author
This is why reparations are always about more than money | Opinion
Past atrocities do not end when the physical violence comes to an end. The violence continues to affect the social, cultural and economic lives of those targeted far into the future.
With merger vote looming: Do we want universities that help us remember and reimagine Pa.? | Opinion
Place-based, regional public universities improve our shared understanding of our history and our contemporary opportunities.
With audit, Pa. Sen. Mastriano is obscuring his own role in fomenting election chaos | Opinion
Sometimes the guy who calls the fire department is the one who started the fire.
Lawmakers need to support this important funding increase for Pa.’s court-appointed guardianship program | Opinion
To date, no action has been taken by fellow state lawmakers to advance Rep. Melissa Shusterman’s sensible resolution.
Rural or urban, we all bear the economic cost of gun violence. Here’s how to fix it | Opinion
Let’s work together to end gun violence, save lives, and make sure all our communities are safe and thriving.
Our streets are awash in guns. To stop the violence, cut off the supply of weapons with a 20-year ban on new guns | Opinion
The problem is there are just too many guns, hand guns, shot guns, assault rifles, machine guns, and now, ghost guns.
A note to Pa. Republicans: Just because you can amend the state Constitution, it doesn’t mean you should | Opinion
Republican lawmakers defend this end-run around the Governor by saying they just want to “let the voters decide.”
For our future, Pa. needs a robust Civilian Conservation Corps | Opinion
Pa. needs a federal CCC because we need to close all our orphaned mine wells, replant all our trees, and transition our energy and transportation infrastructures.
Critical race theory: What it is and what it isn’t | Opinion
Critical race theory provides techniques to analyze U.S. history and legal institutions by acknowledging that racial problems do not go away when we leave them unaddressed.
What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July? | Frederick Douglass
In July 2020, as the United States found itself at a reckoning point on civil rights, the Capital-Star ran excerpts from a speech on the meaning of the Fourth of July delivered by the abolitionist and advocate Frederick Douglass in Rochester, N.Y., July 5, 1852. With that dialogue ongoing in 2021, we are continuing that embryonic tradition.
What to the descendants of enslaved people is the Fourth of July? | Opinion
The voting rights of formerly enslaved people in America are currently under attack. We demand access to the ballot without any undue hindrance to our right to vote.
Benjamin Franklin’s fight against a deadly virus: Colonial America was divided over smallpox inoculation, but he championed science to skeptics | Analysis
Then, as now, people on the side of science had to fight skeptics. And then, as now, those efforts weren't always successful.