LATE BREAKING NEWS: The college admissions scandal, in which 50 people including celebrities have been indicted for scheming to get the children of rich and privileged parents into top schools. It involves parents who, prosecutors allege, bribed and cheated their kids’ way into prestigious universities.
Category Archives: Authors
Diversity and Speech Part 2: A Changing Context – by Carlos E. Cortés
In my first column in this series, I began a discussion of the intersection of diversity and speech. This has grown out of my research as a current fellow of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. Let me expand upon those ideas.
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The basic point is this: in the United States, free speech does not really exist. It is an inspiring metaphor, but not an actual reality. Unfortunately, the term has been overused. Today people throw “free speech” around in a helter skelter manner. Too often the term serves as an all-purpose knee-jerk response to diversity advocates when they raise issues of inequitable and non-inclusive language. At times it can short-circuit serious diversity discussions.
Our nation’s speech system is far too complex to be captured by those two words, “free speech.”
Continue reading Diversity and Speech Part 2: A Changing Context – by Carlos E. Cortés
From “I wish” to “I’m glad!” – by Terry Howard
“I wish I’d spent more time with her,” shared “Paul.” His moistened eyes trailed off over my shoulder as he talked about having recently lost of his mother.
For sure, it’s an uncomfortable thought, but I suspect that we all can relate in some way to Paul’s remorse. Replace his “her” with your “her” (or “him”) and put it into a different context – a child off to college, the military, etc., or like Paul, the passing of a loved one – and we can understand the impact of missing those irretrievable moments of opportunity in life.
Okay, think for a few seconds about a “I wish I’d spent more time” situation in your life. Jot it down on a piece of paper. What got in the way of your spending that time? Were there factors within your control? What could you possibly do to avoid that the next time?
Continue reading From “I wish” to “I’m glad!” – by Terry Howard
Ukraine Makes the Headlines, Again – by Dr. Fiona Citkin
I periodically become a target of all-around questioning just because originally—more than 25 years ago—I came to the US from Ukraine as a Fulbright Scholar. Of course, this gives me the leverage to deeper understand what’s going on there, and why. But I do not hold a magic ball that predicts what the future holds in a largely unpredictable country – and even more unpredictable America under the current government. So, let me just answer some of these questions and clarify my positioning. Continue reading Ukraine Makes the Headlines, Again – by Dr. Fiona Citkin
Drug Maker Puts Profits Ahead of People of Color – by Ben Crump
It’s bad enough that blacks are already more likely than whites to die from HIV/AIDS. But a drug company’s scheme to put profits ahead of lives only compounds the anguish of targeted communities and amplifies cries for justice.
It’s an absolute outrage. We believe pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences knew its popular and hugely profitable HIV/AIDS drugs were harmful but purposely delayed releasing safer versions. Company executives didn’t see patients as people — they saw them only as dollar signs. That is why I have joined with co-counsels at the Hilliard Martinez Gonzales and Morgan & Morgan law firms to file a federal lawsuit against Gilead.
Continue reading Drug Maker Puts Profits Ahead of People of Color – by Ben Crump
Diversity vs. Free Speech: An Invented Conflict – by Carlos E. Cortés
“That’s against free speech.” “That’s censorship.”
“That’s unconstitutional.”
“That’s unconstitutional.”
Those are the kinds of responses diversity advocates are likely to receive when they challenge hate speech or other forms of demeaning and marginalizing expression. Unfortunately, diversity supporters often take the bait and respond by arguing for the importance of limiting free speech. But they shouldn’t go down that road. They don’t have to challenge free speech because free speech doesn’t actually exist. Let me explain.
Continue reading Diversity vs. Free Speech: An Invented Conflict – by Carlos E. Cortés
When Nobody’s Looking: the Northam Moment! – by Terry Howard
Sigh, here we are again folks. Race…America…2019!
Like those meddlesome spring dandelions in the front yard, the specter of race keeps coming up as a slap upside the head reminder of how far we’ve come yet how far we need to go. One step forward, two, three, four, five steps back.
Here’s the latest “what the heck was he thinking” moment; one, I add with disgust, broke in the headlines on the first day of African American History Month in a state where 400 years ago the first slaves were hauled off in chains onto the shores in Virginia.
Continue reading When Nobody’s Looking: the Northam Moment! – by Terry Howard
Corporate Governance and Sustainable Development – by Bojana Bogojević
At the present moment, when only a few economies of the world have recovered from the global economic crisis that befell, and only spill-over has occurred for the rest, corporate governance has become a vital solution for the economic growth and sustainable development to which every economy aspires.
What is Corporate Governance?
Corporate Governance is the system of process and rules under which a company is directed and controlled. Corporate Governance isn’t just a set of value statements. There are a significant number of very technical legal requirements that companies must follow in order to demonstrate that they have good corporate governance.
Continue reading Corporate Governance and Sustainable Development – by Bojana Bogojević
The Case for Dialogue – by Terry Howard
Should I dialogue, or should I not? At this moment I’m grappling with that question, staring numbly at still another request to accept someone’s request to be their “friend” on Facebook. And here I am again gritting my teeth, vacillating between two options, three actually – accept, decline or ignore – and the potential reactions to any one of them.
Now here’s what’s gnawing at me: Many of those who ask me to join them on Facebook are some great individuals, people I deeply respect and immensely enjoy one-on-one interactions with. Yet my fear stems from this question: “If I ‘accept,’ will it diminish our ability to dialogue?”
Valuing the Remnants! – by Terry Howard
The first thing that caught my eye when I entered that carpet store was the separation between the multi-colored, expensive looking carpets lined up vertically on the right wall and, by contrast, the mundane remnants stacked in horizontal piles on the left. Oddly, those images got me thinking about the evidence of societal human separation. It also reminded me of something Oprah Winfrey wrote recently.
Let’s start with Oprah.
Now with the exception of a billion dollars – like she got it, I don’t – Ms. Winfrey and I have something in common; we both know, as millions do, that the undeniable truth is that our nation has reached a dangerous fraying around the edges, an implosion of our fundamental values and, in the words of Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts, we’re dropping verbal litter into the public square. And it seems that there’s no end in sight.