Worth Reading: President Obama’s Statement Announcing the Killing of Osama bin Laden

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON OSAMA BIN LADEN Good evening.  Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children. [...]

My Summer in Japan and Ways You Can Help

One of the coolest things I’ve done in my life is study abroad. For three months in college, I studied Japanese in Japan. Talk about a culture shock! But the people were warm, thoughtfully curious, and especially kind. In the major cities, I could close my eyes and feel like I was back home hearing [...]

President Obama: Haiti One Year Later

President Obama made the following statement on the eve of the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti: As we mark one year since the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti, we honor the memory of the quarter of a million Haitians who were lost, along with more than one hundred Americans, many United Nations [...]

Help Haiti Now

Please see the below message from the Pan American Development Foundation, an organization I support to get much needed help to Haiti: With Tropical Storm Tomas only hours from striking Haiti and its 1.3 million vulnerable displaced persons, the Pan American Development Foundation is urgently seeking cash donations for relief and recovery supplies. Your help is needed [...]

Of Miners, Mistresses, and Personal Failings

Like most, I was completely mesmerized by the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners after 70 days underground.  I barely survived a couple of days during Snowmageddon and I had all my creature comforts. But one of the surprising stories resulting from the ordeal was the love triangle between trapped miner Yonni Barrios, his wife [...]

Complicated Relationship Between Blacks and Latinos

We’ve written in the past about the complicated relationship between the African Diaspora in Latin America and their lighter Hispanic brethren. Earl Ofari Hutchinson captures the signature uneasiness in our relationship through Univision’s portrayal of African World Cup teams and questions why Univision continues such rogue stereotypes when African American civil rights leaders are working [...]

Africans and the Slave Trade

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. writes in last week’s New York Times about the dirty little secret of the role of Africans in the slave trade: How did slaves make it to these coastal forts? The historians John Thornton and Linda Heywood of Boston University estimate that 90 percent of those shipped to the New World [...]

Haiti One Month Later

Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) writes about his recent trip to earthquake-ravaged Haiti as a part of a congressional delegation: As weather paralyzed the nation’s capital with record snowfall, scrambling schedules and disrupting plans, I was able to participate in a short, one-day trip to Haiti. Normally I would think twice about the usefulness of spending [...]

Haiti on My Mind

Catastrophic doesn’t begin to describe the Haiti earthquake’s devastation on a country already ravaged by poverty.  Haiti is one of the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, if not the world.  I can’t bear to watch the news footage or see the pictures of destruction without doing something to help.  I encourage you to do so [...]

Women You Should Know: Somaly Mam

Sometimes we get so caught up in our own plight that we forget about the world around us.  But your perspective completely changes once you meet Somaly Mam.  You think life has dealt you a bad hand?  Take a seat, count your blessings, and learn about an existence you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. [...]

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