Opinion

Health care is a human right, yet efforts to expand access to coverage have repeatedly come under attack in Washington. I have long supported Medicare for All as the most effective way to expand access to health care. The United States already has a “public option.” In fact, there are three: Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare, which covers the military.

News reports attacking the management of the Whittier Street Health Center ignore the achievements of the Roxbury nonprofit and the extraordinary pressures facing health centers today.

Not only is there not a single place in the country where a full-time minimum-wage worker can afford a modest two-bedroom rental home at fair market rent, but Massachusetts is the sixth most expensive state in the country for renters.

For decades, African Americans have been participating in Fourth of July events. They have marched in parades, attended barbecues and cookouts, and gone to fireworks displays. Blacks joined in the celebration as fellow citizens despite their acute awareness that they did not fully enjoy all the rights of Americans.

On Sunday, June 24, I flew to McAllen, Texas to find out what's really happening to immigrant families ripped apart by the Trump administration. The crisis at our border isn’t over.

According to polls, more than 70 percent of Massachusetts voters supported a “Fair Share” tax that would impose a 4 percent surtax on personal income in excess of $1 million. The extra funds were to be used only to finance public education and transportation. However, those opposed to this initiative petition filed suit against such a constitutional amendment, and they prevailed in a 5-to-2 decision of the Supreme Judicial Court.

Tracy Heather Strain and Randall MacLowry, two highly skilled film makers, have produced a documentary on Lorraine Hansberry. The film focuses on Hansberry’s early life and the challenges she faced in getting her play into a major theatre in New York.

Maintaining slavery, as an economic institution, was the major driving force for the desire for Independence from England – at least for the Southern states. And it is fair to say that the Stars and Stripes were stitched together in large part by the sting of the lash upon black backs.

A Harvard Harris survey in Aug. 2017 found that 57 percent of respondents are unfavorable to the Black Lives Matter movement. Similarly in a CNN poll in Sept. 2017, 59 percent of whites are against the professional football players taking a knee to protest police violence.

The Asian American Coalition for Education has joined in a lawsuit alleging that Harvard has unlawfully denied admission to a large number of Asian students with high admission test scores and grade point averages. They have charged Harvard with racial discrimination.

Asian Americans who are committed to civil rights for all must keep our focus on fighting racial and economic inequality together with other communities of color. We cannot allow ourselves to be used as a wedge by conservative forces seeking to undermine educational access, employment opportunities, and a political voice for communities of color.

In reaction to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s suspension of an important fair housing rule, a groundswell of national advocacy has emerged calling to preserve the rule and its goals of fair housing for all.  To date, and in separate actions, both cities and states are speaking up for the 50-year old Fair Housing Act and the goals that it has yet to achieve.