The political landscape is increasingly intolerant of opposing views. Campuses are sometimes a battleground. Author Charles Murray was shouted down and prevented from speaking at Middlebury. Condoleezza Rice declined to speak at Rutgers because of protests. Ex-Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos’s talk at UC Berkeley was called off when a minority became violent. Professors such as Steven Salaita and Norman Finkelstein have lost jobs because of what they said. The American Civil Liberties Union states unequivocally: “How much we value the right of free speech is put to its severest test when the speaker is someone we disagree with most. Speech that deeply offends our morality or is hostile to our way of life warrants the same constitutional protection as other speech because the right of free speech is indivisible: When one of us is denied this right, all of us are denied.”

As protests and demonstrations continue around the world, once again the relevance of the strategies and tactics of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance arise. What are we to do when faced with injustice? Look away? Or resist? Are sit-ins, blockades and boycotts viable tools of resistance? Do people risk arrest and incarceration? Thoreau, who was an influence on Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., went to jail for refusing to pay taxes. He was a principled opponent to slavery and the U.S. war on Mexico. As the story goes, his friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson visited him in jail. Emerson asked Thoreau, What are you doing in there? To which Thoreau replied, “What are you doing out there?” Going against power is not easy. Gandhi, who went to jail many times said, “Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong.”

The LGBTQ, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and queer community have made significant strides in recent years in achieving legal recognition and protection. But some of the gains are being rolled back. The Trump administration revoked federal guidelines specifying that transgender students have the right to use public school restrooms that match their gender identity. Resistance to the edict is coalescing as fast as you can say LGBTQ. An important case will be argued soon before the Supreme Court involving a high school student in Virginia. At stake is whether transgendered persons are protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Higher Education Act amendments. At issue is whether they can freely use public rest rooms. The case pits evolving generational attitudes toward gender non-conformism against a longstanding culture of intolerance.

Iran, a country of 80 million people, strategically straddles West and South Asia. Once in Washington’s hip pocket, Iran dramatically left the U.S. orbit in 1979 when the Shah was overthrown and the Islamic Republic was established. The “loss” of Iran was a major blow to Washington’s policy of dominating the Middle East and controlling its oil. Pretty much, ever since, the countries have been at loggerheads. The nuclear deal of 2015 was a breakthrough. However, there is a new sheriff in town and the rhetoric coming from the White House is belligerent. The President has tweeted, “Iran is playing with fire. They don't appreciate how 'kind' President Obama was to them. Not me!"  Calling Iran, “the number one terror state,” he put it on the travel ban list. What’s going on inside Iran is largely unknown. Most media reports omit context and background. Interviewed by David Barsamian.

Currently the Supreme Court hangs in the balance with a 4-4 liberal conservative split. The former tends to view the Constitution as a living document, while the latter sees it as something static and fixed document. Court decisions have huge impacts on society. One contentious issue is gender equality. Simply put it is the belief that everyone should receive equal treatment and not be discriminated against based on their gender or sexual orientation. The Supreme Court made gender discrimination unconstitutional in 1972 in a case successfully argued by then-38 year old attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg. According to the World Economic Forum, Iceland is number one in gender equality, followed by Norway, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Rwanda, Philippines, Switzerland, Slovenia, and New Zealand. And where does the U.S. rank, overall? 28th. And Canada? 30th.

Sugar is the tobacco of the new millennium: backed by powerful lobbies, entrenched in our lives, and making some people very sick. There is growing evidence that sugar triggers chronic diseases such as diabetes that are likely to kill us, or at least hasten our deaths. In the U.S. and Canada about 30% of the population has diabetes; obesity is at epidemic proportions; heart disease is rising; nearly 10% of children are thought to have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. And sugar is a leading cause of these problems. It has permeated our diet: such as its uses as a preservative, as an additive in cigarettes, and the pervasiveness of high-fructose corn syrup. Long held assumptions about sugar are being reexamined. Some communities from Oakland to Boulder are now taxing sugary drinks. In terms of health sugar can be very bitter.

In times of crisis one can simultaneously see danger and opportunity. Today there is nostalgia for an imagined past and a desire to recreate it. It’s a seductive tale. Things were better then. The country was unchallenged in the world. Jobs were plentiful. Minorities, women, gays, immigrants knew their place. There was order in the land. But over many decades, as a result of struggle and movements, society evolved and changed. We are at a perilous moment. Do we want to go back or continue to move forward building on hard fought gains? During another perilous time, Martin Luther King Jr., declared, “We’ve got to massively confront the power structure.” We are at a crossroads: the beginning of a brighter or darker future. The choice is ours. This event was presented by the Lannan Foundation.

With Donald Trump in the White House we may have entered a post-truth era. As Orwell wrote in his great essay “Looking Back on the Spanish War:” “If the Leader says of such and such an event, ‘It never happened’—well, it never happened. If he says that two and two are five—well, two and two are five. Orwell added, “This prospect frightens me much more than bombs.” Today, in a country where magical thinking is heard at the highest levels of government, facts are up for grabs. You have your narrative and I have mine. Recall Trump aide Kellyanne Conway’s now infamous “alternative facts” comment. Are we sliding toward a dystopian future? Not necessarily. Informed and organized people, unafraid and willing to challenge power, can change the system.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s charismatic “I Have a Dream” speech is emblazoned in our historical memories. But another address to a much smaller audience on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church in New York is no less significant. There King demonstrated his deep understanding of how the system works. He moved beyond a simple race analysis to include class and foreign policy issues. He forcefully denounced the war in Vietnam. He called the U.S. “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world” and he deplored the “giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism.” Exactly one year later King was assassinated in Memphis where he had gone in solidarity with striking sanitation workers.

After the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in December 2012, impending firearm control legislation led to panic buying of guns throughout the country. In 2016, the prospect of Hillary as president led to another rush to buy. Smith and Wesson stock prices soared. Remington Arms Company boosted production. Walmart gun sales went up. Incidents of gun violence only seem to induce more gun buying. Gun owners complain of bullet shortages. The gun homicide rate is at least six times higher in the United States than any country in the world and all too often it is young people getting killed. With Trump in the White House the prospects for any meaningful gun control legislation are nil. And the blood in the streets, malls and schools will continue to flow.