You can sense it in some quarters of the burgeoning racial justice community — a feeling of dread that the movement has stalled a little over a year since the murder of George Floyd.

For most who express this concern, the evidence they point to is the fall-off of public protest since last summer.

“Why aren’t we in the streets every week?” many demand to know.

Naturally, they have their own answer. Most people they insist “weren’t serious” about change and were only performative activists — unlike them.

They, of course, are ready for the revolution.

Because sure they are.

…

Over the past few weeks, the number of Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths has risen sharply in the United States, particularly in states with low vaccination rates. While the vaccines do not offer perfect protection against being infected with Covid , they significantly reduce your chances of getting infected and, more important, they shrink your chances of being hospitalized, let alone dying, from Covid to almost nothing. That’s why, in the U.S., more than 90% — and perhaps as many as 99% — of Covid deaths over the past few months have been among unvaccinated people.

Despite this, a surprisingly…

POLITICS

Well, that was a mildly interesting but overall uneventful evening. If you could get past the odd and constant reminders by the president that he was “not kidding, “not joking,” and “not being facetious” — we know, Joe, you’re not kidding! — there were some important takeaways from last night’s CNN Town Hall with President Biden. (If you missed it, you can watch Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 online.) Immediately, there was a deluge of criticism from Trumpland, the right, and the Mean Girls on Twitter, who mostly lambasted CNN for the town hall being too softball and…

It comes in waves. A friend here, a co-worker there, getting curious about one conspiracy theory or another until they follow one too many trailheads, and end up over the edge. It’s a casualty of living in disorienting times, we tell ourselves. It will eventually pass.

But the hardest part is when the people we’ve traditionally looked to for their brilliance and insights fall into this paranoid trap, as well. They leave us wondering how this could happen to people smarter than ourselves. …

Though I’m not usually in the habit of giving advice to my political enemies, here’s a tip for Texas Republicans: When your opponents say that your ginned-up nonsense about Critical Race Theory is just cover for attacking anti-racism education in schools, don’t do the exact thing you’re being accused of. The GOP-dominated state Senate just voted on a bill stripping away curriculum requirements, including a clause that requires educators to teach the history of white supremacy and “ways in which it is morally wrong.”

Frankly, this is an extremely low bar to cross. The original bill passed in the House…

By: Ian L. Courts, Esq.

It was 2008, the results of the presidential election were coming in on CNN; I was in the 8th grade and staying up late to watch the results. Excitement, fear, nervousness, and hope were competing for my anxiety’s airtime. I asked myself, could a Black man, this Black man, Barack Obama, become the first “Black” President? I hoped for the answer to that question to be yes, and once the results projected Barack Hussein Obama’s election to the Office of the President, I was ecstatic and could hardly hold in my excitement at school the…

THE ECONOMY

For Father’s Day a few years back, my wife and kids surprised me with a trip to Medieval Times, an immersive dinner theater featuring staged Arthurian-styled games, such as sword-fighting and jousting. Anyone can enjoy the forgotten age of kings and queens for a reasonable price, at least for an evening.

For the next several hours, we sank into the fantasy world of wealthy lords and ladies. As we watched knights battle each other on horseback, the wait staff, dressed as lowly serfs, served overflowing plates of food and poured wine into our faux-jewel-encrusted goblets on demand. …

I have many personal stories about healthcare deferred, issues postponed, obvious problems sidelined until they (hopefully) resolve themselves, but the lump in my neck couldn’t be ignored.

I noticed it about a year ago, right before the pandemic was picking up steam — a small pea-sized bump on the right side of my neck, right near my jaw.

I mentioned it to my doctor at my annual physical in December. She probed it and declared that it was superficial, nothing to worry about.

“It’s been there for a while,” I said. …