COVID-19: Asylum seekers must be released from detention
"Refugees have no business being behind bars in the first place, and their continued detention threatens not only their health – but the health and safety of the community at large."
Category
Opinion
Perspectives and reflections that challenge, question, and inspire.
New Orleans in the Age of Social Distancing
"By the top of last week, New Orleans had the second-highest rate of cases per capita in the country, after Seattle. Our economic vulnerability ranks third among the 100 largest metro areas in the United States, after Las Vegas and Orlando. Yet, for whatever reason, it doesn’t rank anywhere near those numbers in national news coverage of the crisis."
As coronavirus spreads, everyone needs a rocking chair
Panic and anxiety are two emotions experienced with the coronavirus pandemic. Both are underlying characteristics in a grief cycle. And self-isolation or self-quarantine may cause depression or denial of social responsibility to slow the spread of the virus.
The World, the Flesh, and the Devil: a Lenten meditation on COVID-19 in New Orleans
"Whenever we get to the here-on-out, will the decisions we make be based on the hope that a pandemic doesn’t happen again? Or will they be based on the reality that it can, with the understanding that no one should be in such desperate positions as some of us are now in?"
In moments of uncertainty, let us grown-ups not forget that this world belongs to children
Children, particularly small children, need to understand the sudden transition in their daily routines because of COVID-19. And they need our grace, support, and respect (yes, respect, as a human being), especially during times such as these.
Mardi Gras with the safety on
"Jamming 1.5 million humans into the same party space that struggled to accommodate half a million in 1970 is, put simply, unsafe."
The case for a Resilient and Renewable Portfolio Standard
"It’s standard operating procedure in politics these days to deride bold policy reform as “pie-in-the-sky,” or a “pipe-dream.” This requires a willful ignorance of the fact that visionary policy, driven and shaped by grassroot movements, has always been the engine that moves our democracy forward."
CPRA: It doesn’t have to be this way
"Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is missing the greatest opportunity in the state's Coastal Zone, namely combining storm and flood protection with the expansion of renewable, fauna- and flora-based, Coastal Zone industries."
Planners talk about resilience in the face of climate change. We need to start using a different R word.
In our Plan-A world, architecture and planning has become focused on the idea of “resilient” design. But continuing to talk about “resilience” in the face of ever-worsening projections is its own form of climate denial.
Louisiana’s death penalty violates conservative values
I used to believe the death penalty was justified. I have since learned that capital punishment actually violates many of the conservative principles that I hold dear, such as fiscal responsibility, limited government, and valuing life.
