The Navy Yard shooting rampage highlights the ravages of a gun culture, but soon we’ll need to look at the potential carnage caused by the budget fight and its hostage-taking. Republicans, with Ted Cruz standing at the forefront, are – in effect – figuratively holding a gun to Obama’s…
If American voters would make Republicans pay for their odious misdeeds, most of our governing problems would be over. There is a lot to be despised about Republican rhetoric and Republican actions, but probably the most reprehensible at this time is their plan to destroy government along with the…
It’s a tale of ravage, rape, ruin, and nondisclosure – the latter only if you develop some leverage over the money and power behind what can be the fracking scourge. Sound like a soap opera? Don’t we wish! But a soap opera can be turned off and committed to…
Slut-shaming is one of the many tools used by American society to embarrass women who are sexually active and have the nerve to actually enjoy sex. Whether by choice or force, women who have sex are ridiculed in cruel and demeaning ways. Example: Cassidy Goodson. Cassidy is a young…
Political use of the IRS by past presidents was much more problematic than any current use by the Obama administration. In many cases, Democrats and Republicans use the IRS against targets more personal and with a lot less moral justification. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s frequent use of the IRS…
Sunday’s Sixty Minutes offered for us a needed, even hopeful story of good and selfless Americans striving to help their struggling fellow citizens, doing things that an obstructionist, do-nothing Congress will not do. Still fresh in my mind is the action of partisan, loathsome Senators, thwarting the will of…
Republicans are great at the fear game. Even recent history shows Republicans have a proven tradition of utilizing the human specter of primeval fear in achieving their objectives. Of course such tactics are coupled with the backlash caused by change and the fear that it engenders. Take Ronald Reagan…
This week the Supreme Court continues it's argument on weather lesbian and gay couples have the right to marry in The United States. While equal rights, justice and the obvious morality of not excluding a group based on their sexual preference is all well and good, most intriguing are…
James Schwartz is the author of The Literary Party: Growing up Gay and Amish In America, a work of poems and short stories. His poetry can also be found in Among the Leaves: Queer Male Poets On the Mid-Western Experience, Milk and Honey Siren: A Nostrovia! Poetry Anthology and…
Most of you have all heard the saying or its paraphrase, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” words actually written by George Santayana. This concept has a special meaning now when special interests – those with an agenda – try to guide us in…