Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld

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Embracing DEI can help us truly achieve our promise of becoming a shining beacon to the world

“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”― Lyndon B. Johnson When President Lyndon B. Johnson made this comment in the 1960s, he could have been gazing into a crystal ball. The words perfectly predict the political agenda on which Donald Trump based his racist and misogynistic campaigns in his effort to divide and conquer the electorate.  Trump has transformed the concept of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) into an accusation and […]

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There is no room for denial in resisting the Trump regime

Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, actress Portia de Rossi, have placed their Montecito, California mansion up for sale and flown to the United Kingdom’s rural posh Cotswolds region, where they have relocated in the wake of Donald Trump’s second election as president. I seriously hope they take with them their absurd and irritating “Kind Science” cosmetics infomercials, where their airbrushed pearly white skin seems to fade into the background.  And that is actually the point. These two entitled white women with an inordinate amount of wealth can choose to pack up, fly away, and live abroad when the going gets rough here […]

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America’s public schools were created to spread white Christian nationalism. Has anything changed?

By an 8-7 vote, the Texas State Board of Education authorized the incorporation of primarily Christian Bible-based lessons in public elementary schools from kindergarten through fifth-grade beginning in the 2025-2026 school year. Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) voiced support for the program, saying in a May news release that it “will allow students to better understand the connection of history, art, community, literature, and religion on pivotal events like the signing of the U.S. Constitution, the Civil Rights Movement, and the American Revolution.” This measure stands on very shaky pedagogic and legal grounds by imposing a government standard on religion that directly […]

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Was America ever really made for you and me?

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 […]

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The Supreme Court opened a dangerous can of worms after granting the right to discriminate

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 […]

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The Freedom Caucus is just a rebranded Tea Party. It’s still made with 100% pure hate

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 […]

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Deceased Pope Benedict’s legacy will harm LGBTQ+ people for decades to come

Pope Benedict XVI died on December 31, 2022. He was 95. Born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger in Germany, he came of age under the Nazi regime. He served as Pope from 2005 until February 2013, when he became the first pope in six centuries to retire. At the time, he said, “After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.” Some claimed that he left his position because of the rising tide of priestly sex abuse charges […]

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Why does the Mormon Church condemn homosexuality but support the Respect for Marriage Act?

Following a history of anti-LGBTQ policies and decrees, the nearly 17-million-member Mormon Church of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) released a stunning declaration supporting the federal Respect for Marriage Act that would codify federal and state recognition of same-sex marriages. LDS expressed its support because the bill also protects the rights of any denomination not to perform these ceremonies. “We believe this approach is the way forward,” reads a statement posted on the church’s website. “As we work together to preserve the principles and practices of religious freedom together with the rights of LGBTQ individuals, much can be accomplished to heal relationships and foster […]

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We’ve seen these violent & political attacks on women’s rights & LGBTQ rights before

According to the Republican National Committee for Life, “The Republican Party must continue to uphold the principle that every human being, born and unborn, young and old, healthy and disabled, has a fundamental, individual right to life.”  With the stunning revelations of a leaked 98-page majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito proposing to completely gut the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, it seemed inevitable with the unprecedented maneuvering and court-packing of ultra-conservative “justices” under the Trump regime. ADVERTISING The Supreme Court, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, provided states the ability to take away the constitutionally guaranteed right […]

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What women & LGBTQ people lose when church & state collide

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 […]

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