Has anyone else noticed that our newly confirmed Supreme Court justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, describes herself as a dark-skinned Black woman? Not just a Black woman but a dark-skinned black woman. She is owning something that is rarely talked about when we talk about race: That the burden of discrimination…

What is happening in Ukraine is horrible and thrilling. The people there are simply unwilling to surrender to a superior violent force. Even old women are learning to shoot rifles! From a pacifist viewpoint, this only adds to the tragedy. …

My entire adult life I have been protesting against my own country’s invasions of other countries — first Vietnam, which went on for years, and then our first invasion of Iraq in 1990 and then Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq again in 2003. It was always extremely clear that whatever…

We just had an election to recall the Governor of California in September 2021. That recall failed. On February 15, in San Francisco, we had another recall election to recall three San Francisco School Board members. This time it succeeded. A recall is a kind of state or city version…

The holiday season always makes me think of my immediate family, which is no more. We were a close family, my father, my mother and my sister Nancy and me. My parents were very affectionate. I was particularly close to my father. Our special connection began early. I was not…

“Skillful means” is a very important concept in Buddhism. Before you act, you figure out what your intention is. And then you take action to realize it — but not just any action. You’re supposed to figure out a skillful way to achieve your intention, because, if you don’t make…

There was a very powerful letter to the editor in the Nov. 23 NY Times, bringing a feminist analysis to the mainstream “legal analysis” of the verdict in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. The jury in Kenosha found him not guilty of murdering two people and injuring a third because…

Now let me get this straight….. FIRST Because of that relic of slavery, the totally undemocratic Electoral College, in 2016 a megalomaniac became President of the United States, even though he lost the popular election by over three million votes. THEN Because that other relic of slavery, the totally undemocratic…

We’ve got a democracy emergency here in California. We’ve got this recall election of the Governor coming up on September 14. It is a completely undemocratic, and even unconstitutional event. We need to work really hard starting now because people are now receiving their mail-in ballots, and keep it up…