The United States does not have a justice system. If we define a justice system as a system designed for the production of justice, then it seems obvious that term cannot reasonably be applied to a system that countenances the mass incarceration by race and class of hundreds of thousands of nonviolent offenders. Any system […]
Leonard Pitts Jr.
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Trump acceptance says much about so many
Donald Trump is number one?! Yes, it’s an early poll and, as such, pretty near useless. Yes, Herman Cain was once number one, too, and we know what happened with that. Yes, the fact that he is number one probably reflects name recognition as much as anything else. And no, he will never be his […]
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Pope reminds us of our commitments
“A new command I give you: love one another.” — John 13:34 So said a troubled rabbi named Jesus 2,000 years ago in his Last Supper with his disciples. Shortly afterward he was captured, tortured and executed. The Bible says that three days later, he rose from death. The faith founded upon that resurrection claims, […]
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Bill Cosby: One less repository for public trust
You might have missed the irony. If so, it would be easy to understand. The recent bulletin about accused serial rapist Bill Cosby was sensational enough that one might be forgiven for failing to notice one of its more subtle facets. As you no doubt already know, a federal judge sided with the Associated Press, […]
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Trump’s xenophobia typical for GOP
In 2006, then-Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce advocated the return of a 1954 program for the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. It was called “Operation Wetback.” In 2010, Sen. David Vitter, Republican from Louisiana, released a campaign ad that depicted a bunch of seedy-looking Mexicans, some with gang bandannas, slipping through a hole in a […]
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Leonard Pitts Jr.: President Obama delivers a speech for history
“This whole week,” said President Obama, “I’ve been reflecting on this idea of grace.” That was the turning point of Friday’s eulogy for Clementa Pinckney, the Charleston, S.C., minister who was, with eight of his congregants, murdered by a racist terrorist two weeks ago. It was the moment a memorable speech became a speech for […]
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Choosing a future for planet Earth
There is something I have never understood about the argument over global warming. That argument was, of course, renewed recently with the leaking, and then the official release, of a new papal letter excoriating human mistreatment of “our common home.” In this latest encyclical, Pope Francis calls for a “bold, cultural revolution” to stem the […]
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Race is actually a set of cultural likenesses
Of the 60 people who co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909, only seven were, in fact, “colored.” Most of the organization’s founders were white liberals like Mary White Ovington. Its highest honor, the Spingarn Medal, is named for Joel Spingarn, who was Jewish and white. Point being, white people […]
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What do you think now, Justice Scalia?
To the Honorable Antonin G. Scalia, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States: Dear Sir: Twenty-one years ago, your then-colleague, the late Justice Harry Blackmun, wrote what became a famous dissent to a Supreme Court decision not to review a Texas death penalty conviction. In it, Blackmun declared that he had become […]
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Non-compete agreements causing heartburn
According to legend, it happened because he didn’t want to leave the gaming table. Maybe he was riding a hot streak. Whatever the reason, he couldn’t be bothered with going to eat, so he told his servants to bring him a piece of meat between two slices of bread instead. Thus was gastronomic history casually […]