Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld

Throughout my 78 years of life, I have felt inspired by the insightful lyrics and melodies of one of my cultural heroes: U.S. folk music singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie, whose themes include labor rights and organizing, socialism, anti-fascism, and anti-racism. Guthrie was born and raised by middle-class parents in Okemah, Oklahoma. He first married at age 19, but he left his wife and three children at the beginning of the Midwest dust storms that signaled the Dust Bowl period. He joined the thousands of Okies who migrated to California looking for employment. Over the course of his life, he married three times and fathered eight children. He succumbed to Huntington’s […]

What can we infer from those religions that justify the discriminatory treatment of other human beings? In terms of LGBTQ+ equality, I simply cannot comprehend the clear and undeniable contradiction between a religion’s expressed claims, in various forms, to love one’s neighbor as oneself, and how it is better to give than to receive, combined with, for example: ·       a baker’s refusal to bake a confectionery delight ·       a photographer’s refusal to preserve joyous moments ·       a caterer’s refusal to cook the pleasures of delectable sustenance ·       a florist’s refusal to arrange the beauties from the garden ·       a jeweler’s refusal of a band connecting […]

After 15 contentious and grueling ballots to determine the next Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Keven McCarthy (R-CA) stood victorious but frazzled as he looked out to the House body from the Speaker’s podium to give his acceptance speech. He stated in part, “I hope one thing is clear after this week: I will never give up.” And thus began his first lie, with undoubtedly many more to come, as McCarthy takes over the gavel. The lie was that he gave up plenty to achieve this long-coveted position. In addition to sacrificing the minuscule amount of his personal […]

After standing with Donald Trump throughout his morally reprehensible actions and policy directives, conservative Evangelical Christians – along with other anti-choice, anti-contraceptive, and anti-LGBTQ zealots – were downright giddy over the possibility of finally receiving some of the promised dividends for selling their souls to the Devil. This group has sacrificed all of their “deeply held religious beliefs.” They have stood with him from his destructive and epithet-laden tweets, to his promise of constructing a wall on our southern border, to the Access Hollywood tape, to revelations of his payoffs to quiet a porn star, to separating babies and young […]

Possibly because the notion of Critical Race Theory is so vague to most conservative voters, when Republican Glenn Youngkin, then-candidate for Virginia governor, ran for office, he labeled himself as the “parents’ rights candidate” by attempting further to instill fear on the part of the white electorate. He raised his racist bullhorn by declaring not only his intent to ban Critical Race Theory the day he is elected but also to outlaw the reading of the critically acclaimed and award-winning novel by author Toni Morrison, Beloved, which was turned into a major feature film. Beloved, a truthful and painful story of the lives […]