This article originally appeared in the Long Island Press
An economic noose is being gradually slipped over Native Americans, who are being quietly led to the gallows, as they have been so many times before. Under the executioner’s mask is the tobacco industry, preparing to pull the lever and release the floor beneath them.
Cover Image from the Long Island Press cover story
Tucked away along a waterway in Mastic, Long Island is Poospatuck, the smallest Indian reservation in New York State. It means “Where the water meets” and is home to 400 enrolled members of the Unkechaug tribe of…
When I asked you what you would like for your birthday this year, you said “just one kindness” and left it at that.
Anything goes at Grandma’s. But that’s not why my daughters delight in their time with you. Oh, don’t get we wrong, it’s part of it. Telling secrets, eating M&M’s, snuggling back-to-back-to-front in a multigenerational sandwich… All part of “anything goes.” A grandparent’s prerogative.
No, they love grandma’s house because you live there and they love you. It’s safe and it’s warm. It’s non-judgmental and silly. Sure, there are rules, but only to be broken. Like French toast…
This column originally appeared in the Long Island Press
For those who insist on God as part of the original intent in America, allow me to disabuse you of the most commonly mistaken beliefs. To begin, there are no references to God in the Constitution.
The rise of the conservative Christian fundamentalist clutching the Bible in one hand and the Constitution in the other is one of the more intellectually insulting developments of our time. The Founding Fathers were undoubtedly brilliant. But many of their flaws such as their racism and infidelity have been whitewashed over time, explained away as…
Okay, so now we’re all armed. Present company included. Great job, America. Now what?
This column originally appeared in the Long Island Press
The debate over gun control would be uproarious if it wasn’t so pitiful. In typical American fashion we have taken to the streets and airwaves in the aftermath of Sandy Hook to engage in an irrational debate that, once again, places misguided ideology over common sense and humanity. If we’re going to have this conversation, let us at least place the discussion within its proper historical context so we may raise a more troubling question:
Why bother…
The rationale behind their approach is simple and time-tested. Over time repetitious lies begin to have the resonance of truth, no matter how far fetched.
This column originally appeared in the Long Island Press
The Republican Convention was going rather poorly. The crowd was homogenous, the speakers were flat and the enthusiasm in the room was manufactured at best. And Clint Eastwood hadn’t even begun a rambling conversation with a chair. The Republican Party’s best hope for the convention was for its candidate to appear “human.”
Although “Eastwooding” would eventually enter the American lexicon and Willard Romney would do his…
“It’s quite shocking actually because it violates the long-standing presumption that the military is under civilian control.”
This column originally appeared on www.LongIslandPress.com in May of 2013
The manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects offered the nation a window into the stunning military-style capabilities of our local law enforcement agencies. For the past 30 years, police departments throughout the United States have benefitted from the government’s largesse in the form of military weaponry and training, incentives offered in the ongoing “War on Drugs.” …
If a juror believes a defendant is guilty of breaking the law, but believes also that the law itself is not just, she has the right to vote with her conscience and not with the law.
A single juror has the ability to acquit a defendant in a trial for any reason. Even if the juror believes the defendant is guilty. This is called jury nullification. This is not a loophole. Nor is it illegal. But it’s a secret and it shouldn’t be.
With that said, let’s begin.
A cursory review of prison statistics illustrates the nightmare that is African…
How Wall Street and Big Oil have conspired over a twenty year period to legalize price-fixing and collusion in the commodities market. This is the reason oil prices are so high. These are the people responsible.
Inside the comfortable landscape of Rock Creek Golf Club in Fairhope, Alabama, life is undoubtedly serene, a far cry from the bustling city of Houston across the Gulf where Doug Terreson, a former Morgan Stanley executive, used to reside. …
Apathy is a direct corollary of inequality. Most of us are too busy and under too much financial pressure to remove ourselves from the cycle of madness. It’s the capitalist way.
(This piece originally appeared in the Long Island Press in 2014)
Vive la Corporation!
Suddenly, it is in vogue to discuss economic inequality. The idea of inequality and how it is interpreted today is relatively new in human history and has its roots in the Enlightenment period. By the same token the discourse surrounding it is old enough to have evolved greatly since this period to where it has…
Jed Morey
Executive Producer of News Beat. Author of The Great American Disconnect.
