Browsing: Opinions

  Let us be clear: this is not about law enforcement. It’s about power—who holds it, who questions it, and who gets punished for doing so. These charges are not rooted in justice; they are rooted in retaliation. This administration is sending a message: that when Black women lead with integrity and courage, they will be met not with respect, but with resistance and reprisal.

    There exists a gross misperception that local mental health agencies and churches will take care of those people with mental health issues or disabilities. Taos is blessed to have multiple human service agencies, but they all have limited funds, space, personnel and resources. A few churches provide weekly food banks, will cover a single utility bill, or give free clothing. These gestures, while helpful and authentic, are paltry in contrast with the extremely challenging, occasionally dire, circumstances some of these people face. Many of my clients receive SSI, SSDI, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, EBT (food stamps), Public Housing or Section 8 housing. These are a critical safety net in many cases, and not easy to come by.

     “Our neighbors are living in fear. And that’s what the administration wants. They want people to be scared. So, we’re combatting that by bringing the neighborhood together and saying, ‘you’re not going to frighten us into complicity; you’re not going to frighten us into hiding; we’re one neighborhood, regardless of anyone’s immigration status, and we’re going to stay one neighborhood.’”

     History reveals an undeniable ugly truth about how white supremacists to this very day have received heartfelt leniency. The annuals of the American Psychological Society fail to diagnose a white supremacist as an individual who has a psychological disorder or disease. This raises a pressing question: does this diagnosis result from the notion that white supremacy is not considered a disease, or is it considered normal because millions of people believe this ideology?

     Gentrification is no longer just a buzzword—it’s a crisis. Across cities like Houston, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C., historically Black neighborhoods are vanishing—not because people are choosing to leave, but because they’re being forced out.

Woe be unto he who calls evil good!

       I tear these words loose from my not-so-recent past – indeed, 27 years ago – when my wife was dying of pancreatic cancer. I think they mean something, but God knows what. I plunked that question in my journal on May 3, 1998, three days before she died. I wrote: 

        As he waited for sentencing, hands cuffed but heart wide open, Sandy picked up the Holy Bible and found himself in the book of John, chapter 15. The words did not merely speak to him — they pierced him. “Abide in Me,” the scripture echoed, “for apart from Me you can do nothing.” That moment was no longer about a sentence— it was a surrender. Sandy realized he was not in control of his life. God was. And in that bullpen, he received the first of many divine assignments.

   “In the United States, we’ve announced the golden age of America,” Trump said at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh. “And with the help of the people of the Middle East, the people in this room, partners throughout the region, the golden age of the Middle East can proceed right alongside of us.”

   Black Jews live at the intersection of two powerful lineages: one shaped by the generational struggle against racial injustice, and the other rooted in Torah, memory, and peoplehood. We are the children of both Exodus and Exile. And when we’re asked to consider what’s “good for the Jews,” the better question might be: Which Jews?