Today’s guest columnist is Billy Field.
What’s the first history lesson you ever had?
For me, it was the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. “Yes, mother, I did chop down the cherry tree. I cannot tell a lie.”
Turns out, that story was not true. But parents didn’t tell it for historical fact, they told it for the moral lesson, the importance of telling the truth. Continue reading Alabama: It’s time for our children to be taught the truth
Today’s guest columnist is Ryan Hankins.
I don’t think Paul Ricœur, the French philosopher, ever visited Alabama.
It’s his loss. Had he come to the Yellowhammer State, he could have seen remarkable examples of his most famous philosophical idea– the hermeneutic of suspicion. Or more simply, an approach to life grounded in suspicion, to assume there is always some hidden meaning or ulterior motive at work. Continue reading So much distrust and suspicion in Alabama–Are we about to see a new day?
Today’s guest columnist is Terry Barr.
This may be a surprise to you young folks, but Birmingham has always had great restaurants–especially when it comes to fresh seafood and barbecue.
When I think of what I want, it’s the food back home. Continue reading My heart aches for all those Birmingham restaurants
Today’s guest columnist is Dr. Robert Glaze.
My first awareness of George Wallace was an admiring one, as he and one other member of the Alabama delegation to the 1948 Democratic convention did not walk out to become Dixiecrats. Continue reading The sad story of a lonely, miserable Alabama governor
Today’s guest columnists are Patrick J. Murphy and Jonathan Murphy.
In January 2021, a law went into effect in Alabama that allows the formation of a new kind of business entity called a “benefit corporation.” Continue reading Do good or make money? Now Alabama entrepreneurs can do both
Today’s guest columnist is J. Mason Davis.
I graduated from Talladega College, a small liberal arts college located in Talladega, Alabama, in June 1956.
Talladega College had been founded in 1867 as one of the first, if not the first, school for educating the former enslaved black man, though not limited to his or her race. Continue reading Hypocrisy backfires on State of Alabama
Today’s guest columnist is Jennifer L. Greer
Last year, when I got the news that my great nephew had been born in Birmingham, AL, at the height of the pandemic, that he was healthy, and that his mom was healthy, I cried. And not just happy tears.
I cried tears of relief. Continue reading Saving babies and moms in Alabama
Today’s guest columnist is Graham C. Boettcher.
The Birmingham Museum of Art is home to nearly 27,000 works of art encompassing cultures around the globe, created throughout human history. Continue reading A pioneering painter portrays an Alabama politician
Today’s guest columnist is Catherine Coleman Flowers.
I was born in Birmingham and lived briefly in the city as it went through changes associated with the modern-day civil rights movement.
Eventually, my family moved to Lowndes County, which is where my father was born. Continue reading We can do something about raw sewage and hookworm problem in Alabama
Today’s guest columnist is Eli Cohen.
When I first saw that Amazon’s biggest unionization effort to date was taking place here in Birmingham, I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
I grew up in Birmingham. Even as a child, I was politically involved, travelling to Montgomery to visit lawmakers at the capital, and later to learn the dark sides of our history at the Equal Justice Initiative. Continue reading Stunning that Amazon’s groundbreaking union vote is in Birmingham