May 6, 2019
The situation we face as a country is extremely serious. If we do not intervene now in intentional and effective ways to help every child being born to every group in our country get the right support in the first months and first years of life, we will damage ourselves badly as a country. We have massive learning gaps in our schools, and those gaps...
May 1, 2019
Some people believe that we are at a point in our history where we should provide Medicare Coverage to every American. Medicare for All. That idea has significant merit at several levels — but it would not do as many good things for us as a country and as consumers of health care services as we would receive if we went one step beyond Medicare...
September 8, 2018
There are some key numbers that need to be known and understood in order for us to understand what needs to happen now in that troubled city. Forty-one people were shot in seven hours in Chicago last week. Eighty-five people were shot that week. More than 3,000 people were shot last year. More than 600 of those shooting victims died. More than 80 percent of...
December 1, 2017
We need to collectively and intentionally create a set of expectations for the treatment of women by men and by society in every setting that makes life consistently and appropriately safe, accepting, inclusive, respectful, supportive, and enabling at multiple levels for women. The news media is currently full of stories about men in power doing abusive things to women. It is more than a little...
August 17, 2017
Anyone who does not see how central tribes are to the conflict in Syria is missing the point of that conflict entirely. The conflict in Syria is not political. It is absolutely not ideological. It is clearly not philosophical and it is not even vaguely economic. The conflict is entirely, purely, clearly, and obviously tribal. Anyone who looks at that situation and does not understand...
December 15, 2016
Governor Jerry Brown has just re-appointed me to serve for four more years on the First Five Commission for Children and Families for the State of California. I have been honored to Chair that Commission for the past four years, and I love the work that the Commission does and is doing. Thank you, Governor Brown. The people of California created First Five more than a...