LA Progressive

Frank Joyce and Elizabeth Woodson joined Dick and Sharon of the LA Progressive to talk about the role that white people MUST play in creating democracy for all. They are both dedicated to dismantling racism. When speaking of herself and Frank, Elizabeth said, “We are not of the same gender or generation. But we have two things in common. We are both white as defined by the racial categories entrenched long ago to sustain white male power. And we’re both dedicated to confronting and repairing the harms of whiteness, settler colonialism, enslavement, segregation and other aspects of the enduring racial hierarchy within ourselves and our white communities.”

In our interview, Elizabeth explains white racialization and the toll it takes. Frank’s journey was initiated by the 1960s Black Freedom struggle; Elizabeth’s in 2014 by the Black Lives Matter movement.

Both Frank and Elizabeth agree that, in order to see a more perfect union, we can’t continue to do what we have always done. They say that that only perpetuates the cyclical pattern but doing something different might lead to real and lasting change.

For a very long time U.S. efforts at social change can be described as pursuing a pendulum theory of change. The idea is that our history see-saws between good times and bad. That’s how it is and how it will always be is what many think as if it’s an inescapable cage. But Frank Joyce and Elizabeth Woodson have another idea and they share it with Dick and Sharon. You can see their full article here:

https://www.laprogressive.com/racism/responding-to-the-chaos

Frank and Elizabeth have dedicated their time to dismantling the co-dependent, symbiotic relationship the white male power formula has with the rest of this country.

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From his early days as a commentator on BET to his groundbreaking role as the first African American to host signature talk programs on both NPR (The Tavis Smiley Show) and PBS (Tavis Smiley), he has consistently used his platform to uplift stories that are too often ignored—those rooted in the Black experience, in the struggle for justice, and in the enduring quest for dignity. Tavis Smiley spent time chatting with Sharon Kyle of the LA Progressive. They talked a little about his past, his present and his plans for the future. Tavis Smiley keeps and real all the while pushing forward and uplifting voices that aren’t always heard.

Thank you for listening and reading. Please like, share and subscribe.

You can find the full article that accompanies this video here:

https://www.laprogressive.com/civil-liberties-and-civil-rights/from-pbs-to-kbla-tavis-smileys-mission-to-reclaim-the-black-narrative

Across the country, classrooms are under pressure—politically, ideologically, and pedagogically. One quiet but powerful force distorting how young people understand the world is reductionist reasoning and erasure of marginalized perspectives in the teaching of history.

Dick Price and Sharon Kyle invited Nora Lester Murad to discuss her first hand knowlege of the erasure of Palestinians in Israel. Nora is the author of the award-winning young adult novel, Ida in the Middle. A story about a Palestinian-American girl who eats a magic olive that takes her to the life she might have had in her parents’ village near Jerusalem. An important coming of age story that explores identity, place, voice, and belonging. Nora, herself is Jewish, raised in a Jewish family in Southern California but spent decades living in the West Bank with her Palestinian husband where they raised three daughters. She now lives in Massachusetts where she promotes social justice education and activism. Nora shares K-12 teaching and school advocacy resources at www.IdaInTheMiddle.com and can be reached through her blog at www.NoraLesterMurad.com.

Dick, Nora, and Sharon discuss the importance of ethnic studies. They discuss what happens to democracy when children learn from a curriculum that reduces history to a timeline of presidents and wars and omits the voices of Indigenous people, Palestinians, enslaved Africans, immigrants, workers, and women. At first glance, it might sound like good teaching—distilling complex events into simple cause-and-effect stories. But in practice, reductionist history oversimplifies the past, flattens conflict, erases marginalized voices, and prepares students to obey rather than question. In doing so, it shapes not just what students know—but how they think, act, and vote.

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Culture is the primary battlefield authoritarians use to establish a foothold in the public imagination, where fear is normalized, dissent is demonized, and history is rewritten to serve the interests of power. In our conversation with Henry Giroux, a regular writer for the LA Progressive, Dick and I learn more about the ways of authoritarians who thrive on ignorance, historical amnesia and the brutal aesthetics of cruelty, all the while normalizing their cruelty as common sense.

Our conversation was sparked after we read an article on this topic that Henry Giroux wrote and submitted to the LA Progressive. That article can be found here:

https://www.laprogressive.com/education-reform/against-the-erasure-machine

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After the disastrous November election, we have not seen the emergence of a Democratic Party agenda or any effort that clearly goes to the heart of the Latino community.

During the fall’s Presidential elections, Latino voters across the country expressed their concerns with the status quo by reluctantly voting for the Democratic incumbent or aggressively and spitefully voting for her unqualified opponent. The core of their message seemed to be that the Latino community has not received its due attention.

In this conversation, Dick Price and Sharon Kyle explore this reality with Latino policy opinion leader, Mario Solis-Marich. Mario has a strong background in politics, political advocacy, radio, television, and new media. A proud progressive, he contributes his writings to the LA Progressive on a regular basis. Hou can find his articles here:

https://www.laprogressive.com/author/mario-solis-marich

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Forty years ago. Bill Astor was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. In this conversation with Dick Price, himself a Vietnam Veteran, the two military veterans reflect on two decades of military service and their participation in a system deeply embedded in America’s military-industrial complex. While Bill Astor never directly engaged in violence, he critically examines the paradoxes of serving in an institution that preaches peace through overwhelming firepower. Drawing on his experiences and historical scholarship, he critiques America's reliance on military force as a default solution to global problems—from Vietnam to Iraq to Gaza. Dick Price, on the other hand, is a combat veteran. He returned from Vietnam an anti-war protestor. The two veterans challenge the mythology of American exceptionalism and question whether the U.S. has become the very "evil empire" it once opposed, with an ever-expanding global military presence and an insatiable appetite for war cloaked in the language of defense and democracy.

This conversation was launched as a result of an essay written by William J. Astore and published by the LA Progressive titled, Too Much Bombing, Not Enough Brains.

The LA Progressive is a daily digital publication. Our website is https://www.laprogressive.com

Is Donald Trump Bullying Judges and Law Firms? Has he taken a page from Hitler’s playbook?

It appears that Trump is bullying America's legal system. Nine of America’s largest and most powerful law firms have surrendered to President Donald Trump’s illegal threats. They demeaned themselves by agreeing to provide an astonishing $940 million in free legal services to causes chosen by Trump and the firms while also agreeing to discontinue their DEI policies. Fortunately, other firms refused and are fighting back. Trump bullied the legal system by following Hitler's playbook. The most ominous parallel is to Nazi Germany, where Adolf Hitler successfully bent the German legal system to his will, with the complicity of German lawyers and judges, just as Trump bullied America's legal system.

Dick Price and Sharon Kyle interview Stephen Rohde —a writer, lecturer, and political activist. For almost 50 years, Stephen Rohde practiced civil rights, civil liberties, and intellectual property law and has won significant First Amendment victories in state and federal appellate courts. He is a past chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and past national chair of Bend the Arc, a Jewish Partnership for Justice.

See read articles written by Stephen Rohde, go to:

https://www.laprogressive.com/author/stephen-rohde

On April 25th, the FBI arrested Hannah Dugan, a circuit court judge who serves on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court in Wisconsin. She was taken away in handcuffs, a highly unusual maneuver–specifically, Judge Dugan was handcuffed and arrested by FBI agents at the courthouse where she presides, during court hours. The arrest was conducted publicly within the courthouse premises. She was led out in handcuffs, a move that has drawn criticism from legal professionals and observers who questioned the necessity and manner of the arrest.

Because this arrest is raising ire in the legal community, we asked former judge Bill Blum to give us a sense of whether the Trump administration's behavior was unwarranted. Is this behavior a sign that Donald Trump is launching an attack against the judiciary branch of government?

You can read more on this issue by going to:

https://www.laprogressive.com/law-and-justice/trump-administration-arrests-wisconsin-judge

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Former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kiriakou, engaged in a great conversation with Dick and Sharon a while back. We are republishing it here. John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act—a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration's torture program. In this discussion with Dick Price and Sharon Kyle of the LA Progressive, John covers a wide range of topics. John also has given Dick and Sharon permission to publish his content on the LA Progressive. You can find his writings here: https://www.laprogressive.com/author/john-kiriakou

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The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) played a vital role in U.S. foreign relations for over six decades. What began as a Cold War instrument to allegedly "curb communism" through economic development grew into a global agency addressing some of the world's most pressing challenges. This support was not met without criticism or opposition, as was recently reported here at the LA Progressive. But, like almost anything, USAID was a complex organization. It also provided essential support services and supplies across the globe by supporting development, healthcare, reducing poverty, and responding to emergencies.

This is Sharon Kyle, the publisher of the LAProgressive.com. I spent some time in conversation with Matt Kavanaugh about his experience with USAID. Matt is a public health professional who has had more than a dozen years of experience working with the organization. The recent dismantling of USAID by the Trump administration will impact millions of lives and perhaps affect international stability and goodwill toward the United States. Matt knows something about this. To read this article in its entirety, click here.