Under the Bush administration, education has become a “hot button” issue for politicians, educators, community activists, and school districts.  Although schools had problems and room for improvement before President Bush’s tenure in office, one of his policies has  escalated the problem.  What is this policy? It is called the “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB)  policy.  [...]

We often her about the drug dealers, street hustlers and members of various gangs, but we rarely get a chance to explore what caused them to head in that direction. Although their actions are not warranted on the streets, their pathways to those actions are often important to understanding why they are involved in [...]

Barack Obama is often considered as a clean cut, polished, eloquent and charismatic politician. He is viewed as one of the few politicians in America that has managed to campaign and get elected to office without a major scandal. In his few years in office with the Senate, he has managed to become [...]

 
 
When I was growing up in the Dallas area, my mother would “adopt” other children and treat them as her own. She would often be the only positive parental influence in their lives. We treated them like siblings. Her goal was to impart Christian principles, educational standards, life skills and love into [...]

There is a series on HBO called THE WIRE that explores the lives of young people, schools, drug dealers, police, and politicians in the City of Baltimore, Maryland. The show is compelling for several reasons. It raises critical questions about politics, schools, and social systems and the way they all tend to break down [...]

There aren’t many times when I see a story on the evening news I find so compelling I want to report it again. Today, however, I ran across such a story. We often hear the stories about members of other countries being involved in illegal drug trafficking, cartels, and money laundering, but [...]

Nearly 2000 people lost their lives on August 29, 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit the American Gulf Coast. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters and one of the worst cases of governmental neglect in the history of our country. It is astounding to think this disaster was almost a year and a half [...]

The “n-word” is causing just as much controversy in today’s society as it did in the 60s. The difference is the controversy is now based in the confusion of the usage of the word. When is usage of the word “nigga” appropriate? Is it ever appropriate? I asked this question the first time I talked [...]

During the 60s, it was common place to see segregated public school systems in many American cities. It was not unusual to see marches, protests and public resistance when efforts were made to integrate school districts. It was not uncommon to see people fighting against “busing students” from traditionally black schools to predominately white schools. [...]

I am always amazed at the many ways organizations and people take tragic situations and utilize them as avenues to push forth their own agendas. When there is a nationally recognized story of tragedy, support comes from many people that simply want to jump on the “bandwagon” and ride the momentum of publicity. [...]