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“We Don’t Serve Gays”

December 9, 2017 | FlaglerLive | 56 Comments

Charlie Craig and David Mullins wedding cake

Invoking Christian belief to deny service to a gay couple is not a First Amendment right, nor is it a matter of artistic expression. It’s good old discrimination under a new mask.

How One City Took Down Its Confederate Monuments: A Stealth History Lesson

August 17, 2017 | FlaglerLive | 25 Comments

confederate monuments

After Charlottesville, Baltimore’s removal of Confederate statues in the dead of night was the city’s latest attempt to make peace with the ghosts of the Civil War. Other cities may be taking note.

Trump Effect: A Reporter on the Hate Beat Finds Stories Too Close to Home

December 26, 2016 | FlaglerLive | 27 Comments

hate crimes us

Something profound appears to be changing in American life as a wave of ugly incidents has washed over the country in the weeks since Donald J. Trump was elected–agains minorities, but also at times against Trump supporters.

The National Anthem’s False Notes

September 9, 2016 | Pierre Tristam | 56 Comments

Colin Kaepernick national anthem

Blasphemous as it seems, Colin Kaepernick’s freedom to sit out the Star Spangled Banner is written in the anthem’s very words, though his tormentors are more disturbed by his message, which they would rather not hear.

Does Diversifying Police Forces
Reduce Tensions? Not Necessarily.

August 28, 2016 | FlaglerLive | 15 Comments

policing diversity

Beyond diversity, hiring officers who know and understand the community, asking officers to build better relationships with neighborhoods they serve, reducing officers’ use of aggressive arrest tactics and increasing officer training is shown to be more effective than changing the color of the ranks.

My Mother, Stopped for Driving While Black

August 7, 2016 | FlaglerLive | 29 Comments

driving while black

The mistreatment of black people by police officers isn’t new, nor is it surprising, argues Milen Mehari. According to the Justice Department, black people are almost four times more likely than whites to experience the use of force during police encounters.

The Stupidity of Race:
What My DNA Test Reveals

July 3, 2016 | FlaglerLive | 35 Comments

tristam dna test

Arab AND Jew? Greek? Italian? A DNA test unravels the ethnic origins of FlaglerLive Editor Pierre Tristam–and underscores the absurdity of making assumptions about anyone’s race, color or so-called origins.

Yes, We Still Need Black History Month

February 13, 2016 | FlaglerLive | 18 Comments

carter g woodson

Black history is American history, and we shouldn’t relegate its teaching to one month a year. But that isn’t the point of Black History Month, argues Marc Morial.

8.8 Million More People Got Health Insurance Last Year, Largely Due to Obamacare

September 19, 2015 | FlaglerLive | 9 Comments

health insurance enrollees record

The increase, due to the Affordable Care Act, is unprecedented since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid 50 years ago. Expanding Medicaid–as Florida did not–would have added to the ranks of the insured even more.

For Every US Soldier Killed in Afghanistan, 13 Children Were Shot and Killed in America

September 6, 2015 | FlaglerLive | 25 Comments

guns children killed united states violence war

Between 2002 and 2012, at least 28,000 children and teens 19-years-old and younger were killed with guns. Teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 made up over two-thirds of all youth gun deaths in America.

I Identify As American

July 4, 2015 | Pierre Tristam | 17 Comments

jasper johns map pierre tristam

Political independence is easy. The unalienable right to choose who and what we want to be down to our most basic identity, including one’s race, religion, sex and culture, has been harder to secure.

From Polish and Italian to Arabic and Creole: The Changing Sound of the American Street

October 11, 2014 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

One-fifth of Americans now speak a language other than English at home. Fastest-growing are Arabic and Creole, though Spanish and Chinese are still the number 1 and 2 languages after English.

Hiding Behind Barricades of Indifference as Income Disparities Corrode the Social Contract

May 25, 2014 | FlaglerLive | 53 Comments

Income inequalities are distorting the fiber of American society, but the issue has been treated more of a spectator sport than as a problem to be tackled. (Bert Kaufmann)

The very rich, who are already less and less in touch with the lives of ordinary Americans, will further barricade themselves to avoid having to witness the decline of a country that is no longer about ensuring a decent standard of living for the greatest number of people.

Martin Luther King’s Nightmare: The Inequality Behind Forbes’ Richest 400

January 19, 2014 | FlaglerLive | 17 Comments

The net worth of just 400 billionaires is on par with the collective wealth of our more than 14 million African- American households. Both groups possess some $2 trillion, about three percent of our national net worth, an economic injustice Martin Luther King would have decried, argues Bob Lord.

How I’m Graduating My Children From College Debt-Free: Planning, and Lots of Hard Work

January 12, 2014 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

Explaining what it takes to develop college-ready students and debt-free parents, columnist and Matanzas High teacher Jo An n Nahiriny describes the frustrations of dealing with students and families who don’t plan ahead and busts the myth that a college education must be debt-ridden.

Phil Robertson’s Edited America

December 29, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 22 Comments

Phil Robertson’s comments about gays, cloaked in religious dogma, touched off an immediate firestorm, but his observations about blacks in the Jim Crow South prompted an oddly muted response, though those comments reveal a man still living in a fantasy only white prejudice can construct.

Holding a Candle to a Citizenship Oath

December 16, 2013 | Pierre Tristam | 5 Comments

oath of citizenship ceremony pierre tristam

Twenty-seven ago today I was one among a few hundred Technicolor-skinned and Babel-tongued immigrants who jammed into an enormous hall in Federal District Court in Brooklyn and recited the oath of citizenship. A candle-lighting has marked the occasion every year since.

Cowardice as Culture: Richie Incognito’s NFL and the Adulation of Brutality

November 10, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 21 Comments

For years, in college and in the NFL, lineman Richie Incognito behaving loutishly and unaccountably on and off the field in an NFL culture that rewards and protects brutality. Jonathan Martin is the rare whistle-blower who reveals ugly truths the league and its fans would too often prefer not to acknowledge, argues Steve Robinson.

Sparks, Nevada

October 24, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 25 Comments

Today, a DUI not only can earn you prison time, but also can thwart your education options and permanently alter your career aspirations. Drunken drivers are punished by a torrent of national condemnation. Why can we not summon the same collective rage when it comes to guns?

From Romance to Hassle: For Younger Generations, the Car Runs Out of Rhymes

October 21, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

Love of the automobile seems to be the province of old guys, writes Steve Robinson, as expenses, carbon footprints and other means of staying in touch have made an anachronism of getting behind the wheel of a car simply to feel the wind in one’s hair.

Glory Glory Hallelujah: Another Mass Shooting, and the NRA Marches On

September 19, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 29 Comments

To propose reasonable, sane gun laws amid the gun lobby’s arsenal of lies, distortions and demagoguery has become pointless, argues Steve Robinson, as the nation picks up the wreckage of Aaron Alexis and the Navy Yard shooting.

Obama on Stand Your Ground and Zimmerman Aftermath: “Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me 35 Years Ago”

July 20, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 29 Comments

As protests have continued and grown, President Obama Friday afternoon spoke on the stand your ground law, the Zimmerman trial aftermath, Trayvon Martin and race more expansively and in more personal terms than he had since his speech on race from Philadelphia as a presidential candidate in 2008. The full text and video are included.

Black Man 101: Déjà Jim Crow All Over Again For African-American Parents and Their Sons

July 18, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 36 Comments

We already teach our sons to be “agreeable” and “non-challenging” with police. Must we now teach our sons to conform to some modern form of “Jim Crow etiquette” and defer to all potential bigots who come their way? Terrance Heath writes that the answer is as heartbreaking to give as it is to receive.

Altered States: Now Lefty Hollywood Is Protesting Gun Control in Gotham

May 5, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 9 Comments

Movie-makers opposing New York’s recently passed gun-control laws are upset that they may have to use props instead of real firearms in films, a a blatant admission from people we call “creative,” , argues Steve Robinson, that without endless, massive gunfire there are no stories to be told, no issues to explore, no human experiences to illuminate.

From Jackie Robinson to Jason Collins: Still Telling It On the Mountain

April 29, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

It will be Jason Collins’s misfortune to be labeled the “gay Jackie Robinson.” Like Robinson, he may have to endure a painful personal burden. But, argues Steve Robinson, history is less likely to view him as a pioneer than ask instead: “what took so long?”

From “Girls” to Steubenville, It’s Time To Ditch America’s “Rape Culture” for Good

March 29, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

If we’re going to stop having more Steubenvilles, people have to start responding to the current tragedies with more than just passivity, victim-blaming, and claims like, “I’m tired of hearing about rape,” argues Alana Baum.

In the Trenches: Anger and Questions From Doctors Who Treat Gunshot Victims

March 22, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 1 Comment

In Colorado, where more people die from gunshots than car crashes, the victims have a profound effect on the physicians who treat them. For some of the doctors on the front lines, the experiences lead to a strong opposition to guns, questions about gun laws and even activism.

Short Skirts, and How Fatherhood Is Changing My Politics

February 18, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 10 Comments

Since having a baby, Peter Schorsch finds himself agreeing more with Rick Santorum and less with Beyoncé, whose short-skirt performance at the Super Bowl left his tongue hanging, but not out of desire. He has a daughter to think about.

An Epidemic of American Anger In Search of Stoicism

January 22, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

From Angry Birds to the Angry Whopper, road rage and mass murderers, we’re in an age of anger that appears driven by frustrated expectations and imagined grievances.

How the Word ‘Retarded’ Hurts The Developmentally Disabled

January 15, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 20 Comments

Americans with developmental disabilities still remain second-class citizens in the eyes of the law and our fellow human beings. There is no greater symbolic gesture of the ridicule they endure than the accepted use of the word “retarded” in day-to-day speech.

Arming Teachers Isn’t Enough: A Proposal of Modest Caliber

January 13, 2013 | Pierre Tristam | 30 Comments

children and guns NRA schools

The NRA’s Wayne LaPierre is proposing having an armed guard in every school. That’s insane, because it’s not enough: teachers, principals, librarians, counselors, bus drivers should all be armed, and of course children, too, should be armed.

For African-American Voter Turnout, a New Normal

December 2, 2012 | FlaglerLive | 13 Comments

Ever since the process toward full citizenship of African Americans began with the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, politicians and others have been trying to stop us from exercising the hard fought, hard won right to vote, writes Leslie Watson Malachie. It’s not working anymore.

Why Tim Tebow Is Not God’s Jerry Rice

January 13, 2012 | FlaglerLive | 23 Comments

A pastor’s suggestion that God is favoring Tim Tebow is wrong, argues Aaron Rushing, because it turns the former Gator and Denver Broncos quarterback into a good luck charm. God is using Tebow in other ways, writes Rusher.

We Don’t Need Another Payroll Tax Cut

December 15, 2011 | Pierre Tristam | 10 Comments

obama tax cut payroll taxes republicans unemployment

We can all afford less tax coddling and more fiscal responsibility. But don’t expect to hear that from allegedly conservative Republican and our blandly, irresponsibly centrist president, who’s bribing his way to a second term.

Obama’s Roosevelt Envy–And Ours

December 9, 2011 | Pierre Tristam | 23 Comments

Obama’s version of Roosevelt Lite won’t cut it if he can’t back up his rhetoric with a more serious program of defending the middle class against corporate predators and rich-class irresponsibility.

In Praise of Tom Wicker, Antidote to the Age of Reagan

November 27, 2011 | Pierre Tristam | 9 Comments

Tom Wicker, the Times columnist for 25 years, wrote as if he’d seen the country’s best days. He probably had even then, having witnessed the eight years of Reagan taking out a second, third and fourth mortgage on the nation’s prosperity while making Americans feel like a million bucks.

Feed Flagler: Community-Wide Celebration Wraps-Up With 3,000 Meals Served

November 23, 2011 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

We’re reporting live this afternoon from various Feed Flagler locations as the community-wide Thanksgiving celebration takes place from 3 to 6 p.m.

The 99% Answer the 53%

October 15, 2011 | FlaglerLive | 45 Comments

In what has turned into one of the most virally circulated pieces of the year, Max Udargo explains the Occupy Wall Street movement to a conservative critic who calls himself part of the 53 percent.

Birthers, Royals and Crocks

April 29, 2011 | Pierre Tristam | 50 Comments

Between Barack Obama’s birth certificate and William Windsor’s wedding to his girlfriend Kate, lust for make-believe idiocies at the expense of reality explains why problem-solving isn’t much of a priority these days.

Enough Nickel and Diming: How to Cut $1.5 Trillion From the Budget Without Really Trying

March 6, 2011 | Pierre Tristam | 16 Comments

nickels and dimes us budget deficit

Voodoo economics is back, this time with Obama sprinkling the wrong salts. His plan to reduce the deficit is irresponsible. Here’s one way to do it now, with everyone contributing. The alternative is French status in 10 years.

Calvary Christian’s Bus Ministry: Treasuring the Homeless, One Sunday at a Time

October 18, 2010 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

calvary christian center homelsss bus ministry

Every Sunday, Calvary’s school buses pick up some 120 homeless men, women and children to clean, feed and clothe them while ministering to them without illusions.

Opposition to the Mosque “At” Ground Zero Desecrates American Values

August 1, 2010 | Pierre Tristam | 73 Comments

Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and other reactionaries’ opposition to a mosque near ground zero offends liberty at the expense of the dead of 9/11.

Thomas Jefferson’s “Separation Between Church and State” Letter

May 3, 2010 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

thomas jefferson church and state wall

Original text of Thomas Jefferson’s separation of church and state letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist association, 1802.

“Day of Inclusivity” Answers National Day of Prayer May 6

May 3, 2010 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

Americans United for Separation of Church and State’s Day of inclusivity is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Heroes Park in Palm Coast, with speakers including Merrill Shapiro and the ACLU’s George Griffin.

Harry Truman’s National Day of Prayer Proclamation, 1952

May 3, 2010 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

Harry Truman was the first American president to declare a National Day of Prayer, in 1952–on July 4 that year.

In Alabama, They Speak Ass

April 29, 2010 | Pierre Tristam | 3 Comments

Tim James Alabama Republican Candidate for English Only

Alabama Republican candidate Tim James pledge to ban non-English driving tests, in a campaign video, is xenophobic mob appeal.

Arizona Boots Up Brown Immigrants’ Guantanamo

April 25, 2010 | Pierre Tristam | 21 Comments

The virus that led to Arizona’s anti-immigration law has crossed Arizona’s borders into the rest of America. Its carrier is as white as a bed sheet and by far the greater threat to America’s character than anything that ever crossed the Rio Grande.

James Baldwin: A Talk to Teachers

April 11, 2010 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

James Baldwin’s “A Talk to Teachers” from 1963 is an apt counterpoint to Florida lawmakers’ attempt, in 2010, to demolish public school teachers and replace the profession with Darwinian hostility.

Immigration’s Tale from New York’s #7 Subway Train

February 19, 2008 | Pierre Tristam | Leave a Comment

In New York, the story of immigration’s present and foreseeable future is on the “Immigrant Express,” the No. 7 subway line that crosses Queens, the country’s single-most diverse county (46.1 percent of its residents were born abroad).

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