Opinion
Marjorie Cohn: The Vietnam War is Not History for Victims of Agent Orange
Watching the Ken Burns-Lynn Novick 18-hour series, “The Vietnam War,” is an emotional experience. Whether you served in the US military during the war or marched in the streets to end it, you cannot remain untouched by this documentary. The battle scenes are powerful, the stories of US veterans and …
Marjorie Cohn: “Mattis, Tillerson Want Blank Check to Wage Illegal War”
Via Truthout Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on October 30 that the Trump administration has all the legal authority it needs to kill people anywhere in the world. But just in case Congress wishes to update its old Authorization …
Marjorie Cohn: Trump Is Killing Record Numbers of Civilians
Via Truthout During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump advocated killing innocent families of suspected terrorists. “When you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families,” he declared. Besides the immorality of killing innocents, the targeting of civilians violates the Geneva Conventions. The George W. Bush administration unlawfully …
Marjorie Cohn: Will Judge Overturn Arpaio Pardon?
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio gestures to the crowd while delivering a speech on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016, at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo: John Moore / Getty Images) Via Truthout When Donald Trump plunged a dagger through the …
Will My Grandmothers’ Stories Make It Into Rep. Maloney’s Women’s History Museum?
Shared from HuffPost Opinion Can the women’s movement in America be summed up in a museum — or even in a word? Or is the idea of ‘feminism’ so contested right now that a bill to try to do this, will only spark debate? Currently, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) …
Is Performing an Abortion Like Killing a Chicken on Facebook?
Abortion rights advocates often tire of metaphors from men about what abortion really is. Here’s a new one: is it like killing a chicken on Facebook? Last month, Representative Mike Moon (R-MO), a Missouri State representative, conducted a Facebook Live video in which he cut off a live chicken’s head, …
What’s Really In Those Immigration Executive Orders?
For over a decade, I have looked at detention and deportation issues in the US. As a professor at Stony Brook University, I often find that what policymakers promise that immigration policies will do does not line up with what actually happens. I have also learned to be wary of the hidden influences …
Should a Man Have to Swear on a Bible to Get Viagra?
Earlier this year, the Governor of Arkansas signed into law a bill that allows potential baby-daddies to veto abortions that are being sought by women who are pregnant with those men’s potential children. Notably, only eighteen per cent of the State of Arkansas’ lawmakers are women. This kind of headline is hardly news anymore. There have been countless bills …
Commemorating Muhammad Ali — An African American Muslim Who Refused to Be Silenced
On January 17th, 2017 Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT) introduced a Federal bill that, if it passes, will order coins to be minted in commemoration of an African American Muslim who played a significant role in our country’s cultural history — Muhammad Ali. Ali – who was an American professional boxer and an activist known for …
Six Million Americans Celebrate Kwanzaa — But Did You Miss it?
Did you celebrate Kwanzaa this year? According to the NPR, citing the National Retail Association, two per cent of Americans did so — six million of your friends and neighbors. But did you miss it altogether? A new bill proposed by a Pennsylvania Democrat might make sure that residents of her state, …
Autistic Children and Alzheimer’s Patients Who Wander — Do Need Help. But Does it Require the State to Install a Tracking Device in People Against their Will?
In 2008, after wandering from his home. Kevin Curtis Wills, nine years old, jumped into Iowa’s Raccoon River and drowned. Six years later, after having left school, 14-year-old Avonte Oquendo drowned in the East River of New York City. Both of these boys were autistic. In honor of these children …
Cyberbullying Crackdown?
Has anyone by now not been the victim of online harassment and bullying at some point? The issue of online bullying is endemic, now that kids grow up with their social lives essentially online. Bullying that used to be confined to the schoolyard, now tracks children, teenagers and adults in cyberspace. And …
The Electoral College May Never Die
Yesterday, across the country, members of the Electoral College cast their ballots at last, and confirmed Donald J. Trump as President-Elect. There is a lot of protest and dissension right now about the institution of the Electoral College. Many voters oppose it — who don’t actually understand what it is. …