Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Marc YachtOctober 26, 2015

As a child I loved the circus. Back then, they were still pitching tents. The circus wagons led by the elephants rolled through town. There was no talk of animal rights, liability, minimal safety codes, and onerous regulations for permits. Ringling had yet to merge with Barnum and Bailey, and Clyde Beatty still had an […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 7, 2015

Today is the U.S. Labor Day. It’s not, by the way, American Labor Day. People in other countries on the two American continents celebrate workers on other days in other ways. But today is our Labor Day and I, like many of you, have received from a politician a peppy greeting of Happy Labor Day […]

Marc YachtJuly 1, 2015

Many skeletons exist in Northern city closets espousing Black oppression. Black Northern migration after the Civil War is important history for all Americans to understand. The South has no lock on racism. However, the recent South Carolina church killings by a demented young white supremacist rekindles a stark realization. The fires of racial hatred remain […]

Martin DyckmanJuly 1, 2015

Those who flaunt the Confederate flag insist that it symbolizes “heritage,” not hate. Call it what they will, but that heritage is a heritage of hate. The slave owners and their politicians fancied themselves good, decent, God-fearing people. How could they square that with the countless hideous brutalities they inflicted on their human chattels? They […]

Bill PrescottJune 30, 2015

Those who flaunt the Confederate flag insist that it symbolizes “heritage,” not hate. Call it what they will, but that heritage is a heritage of hate. The slave owners and their politicians fancied themselves good, decent, God-fearing people. How could they square that with the countless hideous brutalities they inflicted on their human chattels? They […]

Guest AuthorJune 26, 2015

Is anyone else in a state of amazement over the turn of public discourse after the horrific murders in the halls of innocence in Charleston? How quickly did we move from the unsettling image of such unexpected violence in a church to long rambling posts and talking-head rants about a symbol of the human commerce […]

Guest AuthorJune 24, 2015

As I began to write this column, my ears rang with the news of another senseless shooting. This time it’s nine people slain at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. It hit particularly close to home because it’s the same denomination church my family helped found in Sarasota and that I […]

Guest AuthorFebruary 17, 2015

As taught in mainstream culture, American history propagates this nation as the womb of freedom, justice and liberty. There are American creation myths as exemplified by the “Founding Fathers.” There are founding documents as revered as biblical texts for their promise of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” That is why the argument that […]

Guest AuthorDecember 17, 2014

You may have read in early December that 61 people were arrested across Florida in a four-day human-trafficking sting operation. If you haven’t followed the dramatic increase in stories about human trafficking in the United States, this news may have caught you by surprise. We need to understand that human trafficking exists in all 50 […]

Darryl PaulsonJanuary 23, 2014

Some background about Republicans and race is in order after a black Republican candidate for a Florida House seat embarrassed the party with his Tweet calling for the hanging of President Obama. The Republican Party formed in 1854 to combat slavery. Six years later, Abe Lincoln became the first Republican president. Within months of Lincoln’s […]

Tag: slavery

Dr. Marc J. Yacht: Send back the clowns

Pat Fowler: We’re all in this together

Marc Yacht: The Confederate flag must go!

Martin Dyckman: The time is now to take it down

Martin Dyckman: The time is now to take it down

Ed Moore: Don’t lose faith in brotherly love

Anthony Major: “Be Nice to People”: Grandmother's advice could fix many problems

Leonce Gaiter: American history is not black history

Richard Lapchick: We can’t close our eyes to human trafficking

Darryl Paulson: Republicans and race: From Lincoln to Joshua Black