Category: View from the Battlefield

While we mourn the families and loved ones touched by the Boston bombings, it’s high-time that U.S. citizens stop asking rhetorical questions and start asking pointed questions that get us to the root causes of terrorism and other forms of violence.

Two extraordinary events happened on March 5 in different parts of the world. First, after a fierce battle including medical treatment in Cuba, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez succumbed to cancer. The epilogue to his profound legacy is yet to be written. U.S. lawmakers and mainstream media scoffed at the accusations of Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas…

I got angry all over again as I watched eeeeeee. Just in time for the 10th anniversary next month, the documentary is a painful reminder of how the U.S. government took us into the illegal war. The treacherous lie led to the deaths of 4,486 American troops, the wounding of 32,226 service members, over 100,000…

On February 7, 2008 the unthinkable happened. Breaking news brought one of the most deadly shootings the St. Louis metropolitan area into our living rooms. Yet only five years later, such a rampage is sadly becoming commonplace. This one was personal. I knew Charles Thornton, affectionately known as Cookie, and his case still intrigues me.…

I did not pop any champagne corks when I heard the announcement by former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that lifted a 1994 ban on women serving in combat by 2016. Women having the opportunity to die in U.S. endless wars is not my idea for a big celebration – especially when one out of three…

As someone who has done work for years around the prison industrial complex and particularly with wrongful convictions, I was elated when I heard a documentary about “The Central Park Five” was in the works. When the news came that “The Central Park 5” was in selected movie theaters in my city, I passed the…

Hostess Bakeries was recently allowed to close its doors when mediation between the union and the company failed. In St. Louis, the company never really changed its image or racist practices in 40 years. The ITT conglomerate was hit by a boycott back in 1971 from ACTION, an interracial, direct-action protest organization. Because all the…

Our movement must raise the bar and set the standard by valuing truth in our own politics and conduct. “You’re entitled to your own opinions. You’re not entitled to your own facts.” These lines are generally attributed to Daniel Patrick Moynihan and frequently get tossed about when one entity wants to shed light on another…

At the top of the apex of problems with the system are professional criminals who supposedly are ridding our communities of crime and criminals. Reggie Clemons is on Missouri’s death row for the now infamous Chain of Rocks Bridge case where two young white girls, Julie and Robin Kerry, were allegedly raped and thrown off…

Dr. Aaronnette White, my dear friend and sister-in-struggle, recently died of an aneurism; she was only 51 years old. A rape survivor and a respected psychology professor, she was a fierce warrior for the reproductive rights of women, particularly African American women. Attacks on women – whatever form they take– will not be tolerated. During…