(This article was originally published in the Contra Costa Times on Dec. 4, 1999) It has been 36 years since Dr. Martin Luther King captured the hearts and minds of America with his “I have a dream” speech. Judging by the angry response to the passage of Proposition 209 in California not long ago, it […]
Bruce Robinson: It takes a village to make lives matter
It should have surprised no one when, on Aug. 19, Donald Trump announced his outreach to African-American voters. He did it by tapping into the same “village” spirit that made America great in the first place. First, he reminded African-Americans they have been consistently and deliberately ignored by the Democratic Party for more than 50 […]
Bruce Robinson: The Red Queen and Obama’s legacy
Remember The Red Queen in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”? If you’re a millennial, probably not. Some may think it’s Helena Bonham Carter, the actress who played The Red Queen in Tim Burton’s 2010 film version starring Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. But, as one anonymous online reviewer of that glitzy production observed, “Poor Lewis […]
Bruce Robinson: Vetting the vets
(Note: This article was originally published in the December 7, 2011 edition of the Herald) “There’s no better defense than an aggressive defense.” “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” These immortal utterances by a 20th Century football coach and an 18th Century lexicographer may seem like strange sources of political wisdom, but there’s […]
Bruce Robinson: “A foolish consistency” or the “iron string”?
(Note: This was originally published in the May 1, 2016 edition of the Herald) It has been 174 years since the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson first published his 10,000-word essay titled “Self-Reliance.” [http://www.emersoncentral.com/selfreliance.htm] Throughout the first half of the 20th Century, school and college textbooks included at least a condensed version of this essay […]
Bruce Robinson: It’s time to help the president out
President Obama certainly does seem to be in an awful fix these days. He can’t get Congress to raise taxes on the rich so he can invest in high-speed trains like the one that just killed a lot of people in China. He can’t get enough rich Americans to sit down and have a fund-raiser […]