Posts by Solomon
Our Town is a murder scene and things will never be the same
Before COVID-19 shut down the world, I would often take my family to a bowling alley in East Norriton, Montgomery County. Back then, it was called the Facenda-Whitaker Bowling Lanes. Now it’s called the Our Town Alley Bowling Lanes, and it’s called one thing more — a murder scene. In the days before gunshots…
Read More Sen. Ted Cruz hops a jet to Cancun as Texans freeze to death
Yesterday, when U.S. Senator Ted Cruz claimed he was sorry for leaving Texas for Cancun in the middle of a deadly weather crisis, it made me sick, especially when he gave this excuse. “With school canceled for the week,” Cruz said in a statement, “our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to…
Read More Police officers’ ‘restraint’ on Capitol Hill is no victory for a racist America
When I saw the CNN headline about the heroism of police during the Capitol insurrection, I did a double-take because I wasn’t sure I’d read it correctly. “New radio and video footage from Capitol riot shows a coordinated attack and officers’ restraint,” it said. In that moment, the anger I felt was visceral. While I…
Read More Give Trump a taste of his own medicine, lock him up.
So, the Senate voted not to convict Donald Trump for starting the riot at the Capitol that killed five people and could’ve killed many more, including Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress. Not that I care about a Senate conviction, because that doesn’t send you to jail anyway. It’s like a political timeout.…
Read More If Capitol rioters loved America, why did they try to destroy it?
I’ve been thinking a lot about love lately. After all, Sunday is Valentine’s Day, and my wife of twenty years is still my love. We decided more than two decades ago to build a life together, and we’ve done that, because when you love somebody that’s what you do. You build them up instead of…
Read More Find Nasyre Jones, because Black kids matter
For five days, a 10-year-old boy named Nasyre Jones has been missing. He disappeared as snow fell in the city, as expectations fell in our community, and as the vast majority of the media fell silent. And while we need to talk about police shootings and impeachment trials, Nasyre is more important than all of that,…
Read More The ‘twice as good’ rule for Black leaders brings unfair scrutiny to Danielle Outlaw that Thomas Farley dodged
We have to be twice as good to get half as much. That key verse from what I like to call “The Big Book of Black Home Trainin’” came to mind as I watched twin controversies grip the city over the last few weeks. One scandal involved the Black female police commissioner Danielle Outlaw, who…
Read More Black Lives Matter nominated for Nobel Peace Prize. That’s Black history to me
It’s Black History Month, and while I’m always thinking of the heroes whose shoulders we stand on, I’m also thinking about the sheroes whose shoulders we lean on. BlackLivesMatter, created as a hashtag by three sisters, is up for the Nobel Peace Prize. Because in making that simple statement, those sisters started a movement for…
Read More Philly Fighting COVID disaster strikes another blow to vaccine trust in Black communities
The Philly Fighting COVID debacle, where a group of self-described “college kids” with little-to-no medical experience was given a city partnership to run a mass vaccination program, is more than a national embarrassment. It could very well worsen the Black community’s mistrust of the COVID-19 vaccine—a mistrust our community can’t afford. Having watched for months…
Read More Biden can’t talk racial justice unless he addresses Black justice
President Joe Biden has signed several executive orders on racial equity, and while the orders are a good start, I do have one tiny issue. None of them is specific to Black folks. It’s not that I have a problem with our other melanated brothers and sisters. I’m down with the brown. It’s just that…
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