Unfiltered Ocean

This is my final post of 2017. 2017 has been a year of, well, ugh. For some people though, it has been a year of despair. Our fellow friends and neighbors who were protected by DACA now face an even more uncertain future. They do not know whether or not they will be deported to countries that they do not know, as the United States of America is their one true home. Our Grandparents could face cuts in their Medicare and perhaps even their Social Security. Our environment is facing a great crisis and yet our government chooses to deny that fact and to pretend that there are no problems; instead they choose to exacerbate problems by building new oil pipelines and deregulating environmental protections. Millions stand to lose their health insurance coverage in the coming years. Income inequality stands to widen further and further, as the rich will get their permanent tax cuts, while the poor will keep getting the shaft. It is hard to try and say something uplifting when this will contin...

Recently, I took a short break from writing the Profiles In Politics series in order to call for Senator Al Franken to resign over his recent sexual harassment allegations. This past week, he did just that. This conversation on sexual harassment must and will continue, but in the meantime, I'd like to continue with my series. The Reverend Ralph Abernathy wasn't a politician in the traditional sense. In fact, he never held elected office. However, his contribution toward the betterment of American society was far greater than any average politician could ever hope to achieve. Rev. Abernathy was born on March 11, 1926, in Linden, Alabama. His father, William Abernathy, was the first black man to vote in Marengo County, Alabama, as well as the first to serve on a grand jury. Growing up, the Reverend was no stranger to activism. At his school, he led a successful demonstration to protest the inferiority of the school's science lab. As a result, the school updated it. After...