(NNPA)—There’s a war going on outside. Despite the public’s belief, this war isn’t confined to the battles waging in Iraq or Afghanistan. Nor is it occurring only in distant lands like Nigeria or Thailand. There is another conflict much closer to home taking place virtually every single day in cities and towns all across this nation. 

It is the vicious epidemic of gun violence that is claiming the lives of our young men and women in horrific record-shattering numbers.  And when the Supreme Court overruled Chicago’s ban on handguns, they literally opened the floodgates for a drastic rise in shootings, instability and homicide in a country that already leads the way in lethal violence.

by Shaquila Mathews

The “King of Pop,” a title given to him by his peers, says something about the man, Michael Joseph Jackson, and his character. Jackson’s impact on generations musically will go down in history. Not only did he change the game musically, he showed that artists have other concerns and passions. His philanthropic achievements run almost parallel to his musical accomplishments.

Jackson, who died suddenly and tragically a year ago at age 50 of cardiac arrest, was aware politically and always kept his pulse on the world that he loved so much.

(NNPA)—At Elena Kagan’s Senate nomination hearings to be the next Supreme Court justice, I admit to being somewhat surprised when Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona saw her clerkship with Justice Thurgood Marshall as an opening to define her as being a potentially “activist judge.”

Although conservatives had often made that charge, they had not been explicit in naming justices they believed acted in that manner. Although Sen. Dick Durbin strongly defended Marshall’s legacy, his role as a judge who understood the impact of the law on people should be emphasized.

I was one of 150 people who went to New Orleans on a bus trip sponsored by the FBW Club (Fabulous Black Women). The club has provided people with the opportunity to see the nation and other countries for the last 40 years.

The trip was 2,000 miles but the people were friendly, sociable and enjoyed each other’s company, just like one big happy family.

Upon arriving at our destination the weather, as anticipated, was plenty hot, but not as hot as we expected. We spent an enormous amount of time sightseeing, but that is what the trips are all about.