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President Obama must know that it is impossible to protect the Arctic while allowing Shell to drill
for oil 70 miles off the coast of Alaska. He cannot have it both ways. His policies and proclamations
are irreconcilable.
Bianca Jagger
Founder and Chair, Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation
Sanders should learn from what happened with Black Lives Matter. A candidate can't rely on people
knowing what he's done in the past and needs to both speak about that past record and about what
he's going to do right now.
The most amazing -- and decidedly Christian -- thing Francis has done since ascending to the papacy
is his not-so-subtle attempt last week to welcome divorcees back to the church's fold. The move not
only shows signs of a warmer, gentler Church, it also embraces and (literally) legitimizes people like
me.
The military cemeteries of the United States, whether on American soil or foreign shores, contain
the remains of men whom war has taken from their families. Any loss of a life is a tragedy, but the
unfulfilled human potential that perishes as a result of war is doubly so.
Republicans know they can't beat Hillary fair and square. All they can do is hope to confuse and
exhaust enough Democrats who lose their nerve and chicken out when it comes to refuting false
attacks on her.
From neighborhoods to states, from the suburbs to the city, and from farms to factories, people are
blazing a clean energy path to economic growth and greater equality.
As we remember on September 15, please pause to know that for many, justice forgot. Maybe this
year we can work to change the philosophy that is still at work in our nation that produces hate and
murder.
We just witnessed the embarrassing results of the last US attempt to train Syrians: only few
completed the training, and once they reached Syria, they were ambushed, shot, kidnapped, or went
missing.
Amitai Etzioni
Professor of international relations, George Washington University
After six years of silent preparations, the Obama White House has recently unveiled some bold
diplomatic initiatives. As these moves unfold, Obama is revealing himself as one of those rare
grandmasters who appear every generation or two with an ability to go beyond mere foreign policy
and play that ruthless global game called geopolitics.
Alfred W. McCoy

Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

A rights regime -- and that is what the liberal state is -- is largely indifferent to the content of the
rights being exercised and cares only that, when exercised, they leave room for the exercise of those
same rights by others.
Stanley Fish
Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law at Florida International
University; Floershimer Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Cardozo Law School
The record industry is a mere shadow of its former self (apt punishment for its cowardice), and CD's
and vinyl albums have almost become "novelties" in a world driven by downloads. Yet, the warning
labels still adorn individual track listings and albums online.
Dee Snider
rock star, radio show host, actor, writer, television personality
I also have images from Macedonia burned into my mind. We experienced absolute horrors there.
We were carted in a train to the Serbian border. We couldn't move, and had to wait -- anxious and
afraid -- for many hours. We were like animals in a cage.
Rami
17-year-old from Damascus, Syria
The second debate of the Republican nomination race is fast approaching, so in preparation I
thought it would be a good time to take a look at the entire GOP field once again. First, though, a
word about the debates themselves.

Let's pay close attention to what happens in Europe in the wake of two events of major importance:

the Greek crisis, with the attendant risk of failure of the Euro area, and the refugee tragedy, which
has reached massive proportions against a backdrop of growing populist, demagogic, xenophobic,
and racist tendencies.
Gianni Pittella
MEP, President of Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament
As proud as I am to discuss my heritage, I was constantly put down in school for claiming to be
"something I'm not." My light olive-colored skin is all that people needed to know to slap a label on
me and call me white. I wanted so badly to represent the culture I held so close to my heart in a
physical way, but I couldn't.
What Donald Trump doesn't understand is this. Historically speaking, government antipoverty
programs haven't weakened the work incentive. On the contrary, welfare has provided the
temporary lifeblood that Sarah, her daughter, and thousands of law-abiding citizens like them
depend on, not for convenience, but for survival.
Call your state senators, your assembly members, your mayors, and your city councils. Tell them that
you want to protect your kids. You want to protect your communities. Hell, you want to protect
yourself.
Shawn VanDiver
Navy veteran and Co-Director of the Truman National Security Project San Diego Chapter
A review of Israel's detention policy reveals how outrageous and convoluted the legal system behind
this policy is. Israel maintains a perpetual state of emergency as a political tool to provide the legal
rationale, however twisted, for the policy of continuing administrative detention.
The U.S. will arrive with its strongest-ever commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with
a proven record of success over the past decade, and with a Clean Power Plan from the EPA that can
get us all the way to a 30 percent reduction in emissions and beyond. We're not alone, either.
I'm tired of it because, at best it silences women and keeps their voices out of the pulpits and the
classrooms. At worst it traps women and girls in abusive and damaging situations, and fuels a
culture of male privilege and power.
The genie cannot be put back in the bottle and wars cannot "unhappen". Yet besides the
humanitarian help which decency dictates should be offered to refugees, the resort to diplomacy
instead of war would also help millions of people now fleeing their countries and trying to make a
new life elsewhere.
By Tony Abbott's reckoning there are two main culprits in the growing toxicity of the Australian
landscape -- poll-driven politicians and a "febrile" media that "rewards treachery."
The SDGs and Universal Declaration should be a packaged deal. At UNGA, leaders will commit
themselves to the former. But for that commitment to bear fruit, they must also rededicate
themselves to the latter.
Kerry Kennedy

President, Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights

Sadly, many Americans were ignorant about their Sikh-American neighbors before the 9/11 crisis.
And, when people don't know much about a group, they're likely to stereotype against them. So, a
deeper education about Sikh-Americans may help prevent hate crimes against them.
Lakhpreet Kaur
The Editor-in-Chief for Kaur Life, a non-profit online magazine geared to empowering Kaurs (Sikh
women).
Your attention is limited and when it is soaked up with destructive or useless thinking, there is little
left to give to the things that really matter. Give up these seven types of thinking patterns and see
how your life benefits from living in the present moment.
Susan Pearse
Author, mind gardener and attention activist www.mindgardener.com
As men, we must grant ourselves permission to be emotionally vibrant human beings; we must
liberate ourselves to live in a much wider range of ways. But when I talk about this liberation of
men, self-described traditionalists raise objections.
The International Crisis Group's overconfidence in the Syrian regime's suicide not only encouraged
the disastrous rejection of diplomacy that has helped prolong the Syria war. It also abdicated the
main role for which peace, promotion, and conflict mitigation NGOs exist in the first place.
Nicholas Noe
Co-founder of Mideastwire.com and editor of the book, "Voice of Hezbollah: The Statements of
Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah"
Nearly two years after I graduated, I have arrived to a truth that others around me still don't trust:
blacks will never advance or be truly empowered until we stop demoting ourselves as inferior.
Translation: self-isolation from the communities and heritage that we know and love will never bring
us happiness
After 17 months, Sierra Leone continues its fight against Ebola, with five new cases in September
alone. The latest is a 16-year-old girl in Bombali district, an area that hasn't had an Ebola case in
169 days. The continued appearance of new cases raises many questions, including how Ebola is
spreading and whether or not Ebola will remain endemic in Sierra Leone for the foreseeable future.
She mocked that the victim would call 911 rather than going to a "pimp." She called forced sex at
gunpoint "theft of services." She stated that taking the sexual assault of a sex worker seriously
"minimizes the act of rape," is "an insult" to real victims.
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