Commentary
Opinion: My Puerto Rican friend regrets her vote. Do others too?
Each election year, I find myself casting my vote at the very last minute — in the final week before the deadline, I can be found scrambling around trying to get it squared away. I’m one of those people rushing to cast my vote in the final days of the election. It’s a habit I []
Opinion: Splitting San Diego Unified into two districts would help students
The unanimous decision in August by San Diego Unified School District board members to dismiss Superintendent Lamont Jackson, following an investigation by the district that substantiated allegations of misconduct, highlights the urgent challenges facing the district. Yet this action barely scratches the surface of the deeper issues at hand. Nearly half of the district’s students []
Despite their critical role in feeding the nation, farmworkers face harsh working conditions
Calling the U.S. farm workforce “critical” is an understatement. Agricultural workers’ labor feeds us. Yet their living and working conditions often do not reflect their immense contributions to society. They face a variety of challenges for at work — difficulties taking leave for sick days or family or personal obligations and harmful working conditions — []
Opinion: I wrote my way through trauma to gratitude. Here’s how.
In late November of last year, I awoke in the wee hours coughing up blood, so my wife had to drive me to the emergency room where I endured several invasive procedures and spent a week in the hospital. Even after my recovery, I never learned the cause of my malady. Perhaps, the medical team []
Los Angeles County voters launch a ‘quiet revolution’
It got lost in the massive attention paid — with good reason — to Donald Trump’s triumphant return to the presidency, but a quiet revolution occurred in Los Angeles County. Its voters approved a ballot measure to completely overhaul how the huge county, whose 10 million residents are greater than the populations of all but 10 states, is []
Opinion: Regardless of who holds office, making life worth living is our lifelong vocation
It’s November 2016, and I’m in Reykjavik, Iceland, watching the U.S. election results. My then-partner and I are cozied up in a small cottage, awaiting the outcome. As the night stretches into the early morning hours, we watch Donald Trump decisively win the election. Like millions of others, I felt a deep anxiety about what []
Mass deportations would be an ugly chapter for a nation that should have turned the page
It seems just about every American has an opinion about mass deportations. Its too bad most of those views are so uninformed. Ive been writing about immigration for 35 years, and I still havent figured it out. My take is complicated by the branches on my family tree. I dont have a single undocumented immigrant []
Opinion: My side lost the national election. But I still trust the results. Here’s why.
We are fortunate to live in a democracy that places the highest priority on conducting free and fair elections. According to a statement from the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the lead federal government agency for election infrastructure security, the day after the election, “Our election infrastructure has never been more secure []
Opinion: We can do better in some areas of voting. But our basics are strong.
America’s founders chose a democratic system for our newly formed country because they believed it to be the form of government most likely to protect the individual liberties which formed the ideological foundation for the new republic. Public confidence in that system is essential for it to continue to serve as the means by which []