Living, and creating, my own life
Browsing: Opinions
On June 9, 2026, for example, delegates at the annual national convention of the AFL-CIO, the 15-million member labor federation with which most American unions are affiliated, voted to adopt Resolution 9, “We Want a Just and Peaceful World.”
The hardest question in American Middle East policy is no longer only what Washington wants from the region. It is who gets to shape that policy. That question has become impossible to ignore. During Donald Trump’s first term, Kushner played a central role in White House diplomacy, especially the normalization push that produced the Abraham Accords. Today, Trump has restored a hardline Iran posture, including a “maximum pressure” campaign, while Kushner has deep ties to Gulf capital and remains close to Middle East diplomacy. That overlap does not prove corruption. It does, however, make America’s Iran strategy harder to describe as a purely public policy project.
Then a friend sent me a link to a New York Times opinion piece. I decided to give it a quick read. I don’t necessarily trust the Times. It can be smugly wrong. But I took a look – it was by literary critic A.O. Scott – and I couldn’t stop reading it. He had found our country, it seemed, beginning with these 35 simple words:
A nuclear reactor produces power only because its most dangerous forces are never allowed to run wild. Control rods slow the chain reaction. Cooling systems remove heat. Containment structures help trap radioactive material. Backup systems stand ready if one safeguard fails. The reactor is not safe because its fuel is harmless. It is safe because danger is separated, cooled, restrained, and monitored.
Most people assume this only happens to someone else. Right now, it could be happening to you. Presently, some Miami-Dade voters may be on a list of individuals whose eligibility to vote is being reviewed under Florida law. If those voters fail to respond by June 15, the Supervisor of Elections may determine they are ineligible and remove their names from the Florida Voter Registration System.
Hit’em where it hurts
I watched my parents go to the polls to vote in the early 1960s. They had to recite the preamble to the constitution while ignorant and illiterate white people waltzed right in. Racists poll workers had jars of jelly beans. Black voters had to guess how many. Then the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965.
In March 2005, I was elected as the First Mayor in the City of West Park, a municipality in Broward County, Florida. The city consists of the neighborhoods of Carver Ranches, Lake Forest, Miami Gardens, and Utopia which were previously unincorporated neighborhoods. Incorporation was ratified in 2004, after the Florida Legislature approved House Bill 1491, which provided for an election on November 2, 2004. Following a vote of 3,400 to 956 for incorporation, West Park was on its way to becoming Broward County’s 31st city.
Everybody knew their next-door neighbor and those in the neighborhood. Locked doors weren’t the custom and snacks were always available for us. We felt loved and always welcomed. However, our parents did tell us not to wear out our welcome.