Blog

The 95-degree heat wasn’t enough to keep some of Pottstown’s best community crusaders from spreading their message. Clustered underneath the shade in Riverfront Park Saturday were members of a variety of community organizations who gathered there for the eighth annual Stop the Drugs, Stop the Violence event. Representatives from the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, Women’s Center of Montgomery County, Pottstown School District and several religious organizations came together to...

Los Angeles is getting closer to prohibiting certain employers from asking about criminal histories in their hiring process. The city’s move would expand on a state law that bans such questions on applications for local- and state-government jobs by extending it to segments of the private sector. It would also bring much-needed relief to the thousands of former inmates who live in the county, many of whom have trouble finding work. In 2012, more than 14,000 Los Angeles residents were...

In the United States, local jails process over 11 million admissions in a single year. Most of those who are arrested get the option to post bail and go free until they are arraigned. But those who can’t afford bail sit in jail awaiting trial, which can hurt their ability to mount a defense. It’s harder to collect evidence. It’s harder to meet with lawyers. A defendant can’t do things that might be looked upon favorably by a judge, like entering rehab, or getting a stable job, or attending...

July is Minority Mental Health Month , a month to spread awareness about how mental illnesses specifically affects people of color, and to erase the stigma and misinformation that plagues POC when it comes to mental illness. One way to spread awareness is through dialogue. I had a candid conversation with three black women writers (Ashley Reese, Minaa B, and Angelica Bastien) who deal with mental illness about how our mental health ― including depression, ADHD and suicidal thoughts ― affects...

Activist A.J. Bohannon had organized more than 1,000 Black Lives Matters protesters to march the streets of Wichita on Sunday. But then, days before, he received a call from the new police chief with a different idea. Instead of having an event that drew a hard line between protester and police, why not bring them all together for an evening of summer revelry and open dialogue? So instead of marching, they gathered in a wooded park where the police department cooked and served up burgers.

If you’re like me, you can’t get enough Brené Brown! I love her books , her Ted Talks , and her videos on Oprah’s SuperSoul Sunday. And I especially love her inspiring quotes. She offers such wisdom, truth, and authenticity. I’m sure you’ll find a few that inspire you or maybe even push you out of your comfort zone with a ah-ha moment. 1. “What we don’t need in the midst of struggle is shame for being human.” 2. “What’s the greater risk? Letting go of what people think – or letting go of how...

Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology and How You Can Heal , by Donna Jackson Nakazawa, will be out in paperback on July 26. Here's part of a presentation that Donna did: "For those who have faced childhood trauma, it may feel as if you are just swimming against this impossible current of long ago forces as you try to make your way toward a happy and fulfilling life. And it may take a major life trauma, a disease, a divorce, certainly the fear of this translating into...

Long stories, our malevolent trauma histories. Yet here we are. What does THAT mean - exactly? How did I GET - HERE - TODAY? I continue to ask.

One July afternoon in 1972, a team of psychologists took sound meters into the Bridge Apartments, a cluster of four high-rise buildings straddling Interstate 95 in Manhattan. Because of the towers’ proximity to the highway, the hum of traffic filled the buildings’ halls. Even on the eighth floor, the decibel level was 66 , just slightly quieter than a running vacuum cleaner . The noise died down as the researchers climbed the stairs, though. On the 32nd floor, the reading was 55 decibels, or...

A panel of 15 judges for the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled 9-6 Wednesday that a photo voter-ID law passed by Texas almost five years ago discriminates against people of color . The Texas law, SB 14, would allow the use of drivers licenses and gun licenses to vote, but not college IDs . Experts testified in the years-long court battle over the law that it would potentially disenfranchise upwards of 600,000 eligible voters . Most of the disenfranchised would be Latino and...

When Lincoln High School government teacher Nathan Gibbs-Bowling teaches his Tacoma students about the Constitution, he adds a few lessons on survival skills. He wants them to understand their rights under the constitution’s Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure by police. But he also wants his students to know how those powerful words can play out in real life. “I encourage them to assert their rights in an informed, responsible manner,” Gibbs-Bowling...

We asked a number of contributors to share their reactions to a post by activist and author Michelle Alexander that we published earlier this month in the aftermath of the police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Here is a response from political organizer Marshall Ganz , a senior lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. You can view all other responses by clicking on the “ Building a New America ” tag. Sixty years ago, the...