According to an article by Margaret Besheer, who has long covered the UN for the Voice of America, the US government made it clear during a vote at the UN General Assembly that it will no longer reliably support the UN global sustainable development goals (SDGs). The SDGs, adopted by all UN Member States in 2015, are an urgent call for action by all countries working together to end poverty, improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth while tackling climate change.
Browsing: Opinions
After I graduated college, I joined the Peace Corps and shipped off to a rural, underserved region of Cameroon. Cameroon is a country the size of California located in Central Africa known best at the time for its peacefulness and long-serving President.
Beyond the federal government no longer recognizing celebrations such as Black History Month and Women’s History Month, the Pentagon is removing every program, mention, image, or individual they say is associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. The Trump administration already fired Air Force General CQ Brown, Jr. – another history-making Black fighter pilot like my cousin Lt. Col. Baugh – as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s first female chief.
The advance of civilization, however, produced two existential threats to our survival – global warming and nuclear war. Can they be eliminated? The accomplishments of the past 250 years show that we have the mental capacity. But more is required – wide acceptance that the threats are real, and a forum for finding and implementing solutions. To that end, Humanism and Democracy are essential.
The TPNW is extraordinary because — in the words of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons which helped shepherd the treaty through the UN negotiating process and won a Nobel Prize for it — it’s “the first globally applicable treaty that categorically prohibits the most destructive, inhumane instruments of war ever created.”
Look Your Best – We’re Coed
The authors of the Constitution had lived under the government of England where the King was not only commander in chief of the Armies of the Empire, but could declare war as well. History, a favorite subject of the authors of the Constitution, was studied to see where England and other nations went off the rails and degenerated from legitimate government into tyranny and they found a single error repeated over and over again. What was it?
The Founding Fathers envisioned a democracy upheld by virtuous citizens, yet their fears of its fragility have come true. The “political red line” serves as a metaphor for leaders who overstep moral, legal, and ethical boundaries, often leading to their downfall.
In April 1966, Senator J.W. Fulbright, Chair of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, gave a remarkable and highly-publicized speech at Johns Hopkins University, condemning the U.S. role in the Vietnam War. Warning of “the arrogance of power,” Fulbright argued that “we are not living up to our capacity and promise as a civilized power for the world.” It turned out to be a momentous speech, enraging President Lyndon Johnson and providing a rallying point for U.S. critics of the conflict.
The term “common sense” is often evoked by President Trump, though his “common” sense can seem grotesquely solitary and unique, as for example when he cruelly shut down the USAID program, increasing disease, malnutrition and death for people in faraway places with desperate needs.