This is a story of redemption, a tale of obstacles overcome, statistics defied, cliches silenced. Last week, Genarlow Wilson, once judged an irredeemable sex offender, graduated from Atlanta's Morehouse College, the small, all-men's institution that is the alma mater of Martin Luther King Jr. Convicted … More »A 'MOREHOUSE MAN' CONTINUES HIS UNLIKELY JOURNEY
Can President Barack Obama put out the brush fires that are sucking the air out of his second-term agenda? Can he stop the spread of mini-scandals that are consuming Washington?No, he cannot. The president could (unconstitutionally) shutter every Internal Revenue Service office and fire every staffer, … More »WASHINGTON CIRCUS STEALS SPOTLIGHT FROM WHERE IT BELONGS
After a rural Kentucky family suffered an unspeakable gun tragedy late last month, that sad story, unfortunately, became new fuel for the scorching debate over gun control. When news broke that 5-year-old Kristian Sparks had shot his 2-year-old sister with a rifle he had been given as a gift, opposing … More »MAKE GUN USE AMONG KIDS A CHILD SAFETY ISSUE
Sometimes the absurdities of an official policy or action are so clear that they need not be elucidated. Such is the case with the Obama administration's maintenance of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, a grotesque place that only the novelist Franz Kafka, who wrote brilliantly of nightmarish … More »IT'S WAY PAST TIME TO CLOSE GUANTANAMO BAY
Marco Rubio, Florida's junior senator, is pushing immigration reform because he needs a major legislative accomplishment to cement his credentials as a rising GOP star.Haley Barbour, former GOP governor of Mississippi, is campaigning for an immigration overhaul because he knows that the Republican Party … More »IMMIGRATION REFORM IS BOTH COMPASSIONATE AND PRACTICAL
You might have thought that the mangled bodies of 20 dead children would have been enough to overcome the crazed obsessions of the gun lobby.You might have believed that the courage and exhortations of a former congresswoman -- her career cut short and her life forever changed by a would-be assassin's … More »GUN LOBBY'S FANATICISM PREVAILS OVER COMMON SENSE
"Wanna give me jail time and a fine"Fine, let me commit a real crime" -- Jay-Z, "Open Letter"If pictures tell the tale, Beyonce and Jay-Z, so famous their last names need not be mentioned, had a marvelous time on their recent trip to Cuba, where they were trailed by starry-eyed fans, just as they are … More »CUBAN EMBARGO HAS FAR OUTLIVED ITS USEFULNESS
Last week, 35 former Atlanta educators were forced to take a perp walk, reporting to law enforcement authorities for arrest in connection with the nation's biggest (so far) academic scandal. It was a disturbing spectacle. Once among the pillars of metro Atlanta's middle class, they've been reduced to … More »LOTS OF STUDENTS ARE BEING LEFT BEHIND
Familiarity breeds ... acceptance. That's why the battle for full equality for gays and lesbians is already won, no matter what the U.S. Supreme Court decides.A generation of young Americans has grown up with openly gay friends, neighbors and family members, teachers, preachers and entertainment idols. … More »YOUNGER AMERICANS ACCEPT FULL HUMANITY OF GAYS
Apparently, there will be no ban on assault weapons.Never mind that Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster AR-15 assault-type rifle to rip apart the bodies of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Forget the fact that James E. Holmes, the alleged Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooter, fired, … More »NATIONAL GUN FEVER SHOWS NO SIGN OF BREAKING
Ten years ago, on March 20, 2003, the administration of George W. Bush launched its disastrous invasion of Iraq. It's a war most Americans -- including many Republicans who enthusiastically supported it -- are working assiduously to forget.Not so fast. An examination of the lies, the hypocrisy and the … More »FOLLY OF IRAQ INVASION NEEDS MORE PUBLIC SCRUTINY
Here's hoping that Stewart Parnell goes to prison.The former president of the now-bankrupt Peanut Corp. of America, Parnell ran a filthy Georgia processing plant contaminated with salmonella that injured more than 600 people in a 2008-2009 outbreak, killing nine. Last month, federal prosecutors charged … More »ESSENTIAL GOVERNMENT TASKS NEED RELIABLE FUNDING
If you want to stare into the ugly face of racial resentment, take a good look at Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. His frank, if stunningly injudicious, remarks about a key portion of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) laid bare the bitterness that so many hyper-conservatives still harbor toward black … More »DEBATE OVER VOTING RIGHTS ACT SHOWS RESENTMENT STILL EXISTS
My 4-year-old can't read yet, but she likes to pretend that she can. She grabs a treasured storybook and, using pictures as a guide, repeats the lines she remembers: "Mr. McGregor said, 'Stop, thief!'" "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" is a favorite of hers.She'll read soon enough -- probably before she starts … More »HIGH-QUALITY EARLY EDUCATION SHOULD BE A NO-BRAINER
Eighty-seven years ago -- when about half of households owned an automobile, women's suffrage was new and black Americans were still terrorized by lynching, especially in the South -- black historian Carter G. Woodson had a simple but powerful idea: Designate a week to celebrate the contributions that … More »THE NOBLE ORIGINS OF 'BLACK HISTORY MONTH' ARE NOW OUTDATED
Bob Barker, the retired game-show host, has no idea why he ended up on the National Rifle Association's enemies list. I know exactly why the NRA cited me.I've spent years pushing for sensible gun-safety laws, including universal background checks, a ban on assault-type weapons and a waiting period before … More »GUN OWNERS SUPPORTING SENSIBLE CONTROLS MUST SPEAK OUT
Any credible account of the career of U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican, must acknowledge this salient fact: He is conservative. He's no maverick who managed to win a powerful office in a crimson state despite staking out positions that challenged the beliefs of his base.He has opposed … More »REPUBLICANS' RABID RIGHT IS LEADING PARTY TO RUIN
Caught in a time warp, destined to act out their own version of "Groundhog Day," Republican strategists have reliably trotted out one of their most fearsome epithets from the 1980s and '90s to bludgeon President Obama: liberal. In response to the president's inaugural address, Karl Rove has made the … More »REPUBLICAN MAJORITY NOW SUPPORTS IMMIGRATION REFORM
For the Rev. Al Sharpton, well-known civil rights activist and television personality, the moment of personal reckoning about the apocalyptic toll of gun violence came in August of last year, as he walked into a Harlem church to deliver the eulogy for a dead 4-year-old. Before that, like so many other … More »RESIGNATION TO GUN VIOLENCE WILL NOT STOP THE KILLING
Chuck Hagel has committed unpardonable sins. He has violated the GOP commandment -- popularized by Ronald Reagan -- against criticizing his fellow partisans. Worse yet, in the eyes of those partisans, he has castigated the warmongering imperialists who dragged the nation into a disastrous invasion of … More »HAGEL IS EXACTLY THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR DEFENSE SECRETARY
Thanks to an ultraconservative congressional faction, many Americans now view the Republican Party as extremist, petty and irresponsible. You need look no further than the ridiculous, drawn-out drama over the so-called fiscal cliff to see the GOP's inability to negotiate reality.But while its brand is … More »REPUBLICANS' FISCAL RESTRAINT IS MOSTLY IN THEIR HEADS
EDITORS: Cynthia Tucker is taking a holiday break and will not file a column for release Dec. 29-30. Her regular schedule resumes with the release for Jan. 5-6.Have you ever seen the holiday film classic "A Christmas Story"? Set in 1940s Indiana, it's the charming tale of young Ralphie, whose only wish … More »THE ANSWER TO GUN CARNAGE IS NOT TO ARM TEACHERS
Among my colleagues at the University of Georgia is a small but hardy band of altruists who can't stand the idea that young people are being denied the opportunity to get a college degree for the dumbest of reasons. So, according to a report in the Chronicle of Higher Education, those energetic faculty … More »OPPOSITION TO IMMIGRATION REFORM MAY BE SLOWLY FADING
Here in Atlanta, we've had a string of days in which the temperature has hovered around 70 degrees -- more representative of late spring than late autumn. The balmy weather has left me in a funk.Sure, I've enjoyed the chance to put my toddler on the back of my bike and take her out for a ride. Yes, it … More »WEATHERMEN AND CLIMATE SCIENTISTS LIVE ON DIFFERENT PLANETS
In 2000, John McCain seemed a respectable political figure -- admired for his wartime heroism, well-regarded for his refusal to kowtow to partisan dogma, liked by journalists for his refreshing candor. He failed that year in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, but he ran a decent campaign, … More »MCCAIN'S ATTACKS ON RICE SMACK OF SOUR GRAPES
Apparently, some of my fellow Americans want to secede from the union, undaunted by the disastrous result of that infamous attempt back in the 19th century. They are likely congenital cranks, destined to be dissatisfied.But that troublesome sort -- a few hundred thousand who have petitioned the White … More »LET US BE THANKFUL THAT CONGRESS HAS FEWER TEA PARTY CRANKS
We Americans are easily titillated by the suggestion of sexual scandal, so it's no surprise that the news media have been obsessed with the escapades of David Petraeus and those in his inner circle. But the narrative is misleading and superficial. It focuses on the wrong seduction.The more instructive … More »MEDIA FOCUS ON THE WRONG SEDUCTION BY PETRAEUS
Last week, 18-year-old Christopher Berry, who is black, stood in line for an hour at a suburban Atlanta polling place to cast his very first ballot. He voted for President Obama because, he said, "I really like his stance on health care (and) I feel like he is a president for all the people of the United … More »REPUBLICANS' SOUTHERN STRATEGY CAN NO LONGER WORK
A few years ago, Washington, D.C., was subjected to a freakish winter -- a series of nightmarish snowstorms that crippled a city ill-equipped to handle them. The back-to-back blizzards prompted derisive howls from the flat-earthers in Congress who insist that human-caused climate change is a hoax. The … More »SUPERSTORM SANDY MERELY A TASTE OF THINGS TO COME
Among Latinos, President Obama's broken promise to fix the nation's dysfunctional immigration system remains a bitter reminder of the limits of politics. The president shored up his support among that critical demographic with his DREAM Act Lite, a presidential directive that could give about a million … More »BROAD IMMIGRATION REFORM IS OBAMA'S GOAL FOR SECOND TERM