By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on July 13, 2025 Pedophile and convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein (left) and the New York City jail cell where he was murdered (right). An Editorial Opinion It is easy to murder an inmate in a jail or correctional facility.  Murder is even easier to accomplish when the perpetrator is a government agent.   On August 10, 2019, registered child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).  Epstein's death occurred sometime after the 8 p.m. inmate lockdown on August 9th.  Epstein's body was discovered as breakfast was being passed out to inmates at 6:30 a.m. on the morning of August 10.   On August 11, 2019, New York City medical examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson conducted an autopsy on Epstein's body. On August 16, 2019, Dr. Sampson ruled that Epstein committed suicide by hanging himself with the twisted strip of bed sheeting depicted below. In June 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General  issued a report that adopted Dr. Sampson's "suicide by hanging" theory as the cause and manner of Epstein's death. The report is grossly inadequate. My review of the facts and circumstances surrounding Epstein's death establishes that he was murdered in his jail cell. The amount of evidence tampering, falsification of government records, modifications to jail security camera videos, missing items of evidence, suppression of material facts, and major violations of established agency protocols in Epstein's homicide case is far greater than anything I have seen in my 46 years of uncovering high-profile government coverups of murders committed by government agents.   Epstein's Murder Occurred at a Federal Detention Center with Restricted Access   In August 2019, Jeffrey Epstein was confined in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) of the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in New York City.  The SHU is the most restricted area in MCC. Epstein was not allowed outside his cell after 8 p.m. The mandatory nightly inmate count was scheduled for 10 p.m. This count did not occur.   Initially, Epstein had a cellmate, as required by BOP protocol. Whenever Epstein was locked in his cell, two guards were required to monitor him by looking into his cell every 30 minutes.  Epstein was not allowed to have extra bed sheets or rope in his cell. Epstein had been placed on suicide watch after his arrest in July 2019, but the BOP ended the watch about a week or so before his death.   On August 9, Epstein's cellmate was inexplicably transferred, and no replacement was brought in.  Earlier that evening, Epstein met with his lawyers, who described him as "upbeat" before he was escorted back to his SHU cell at 7:49 p.m. by guard Tova Noel.     Security camera video footage establishes that the two guards on duty in Epstein's tier of the SHU that night failed to perform the mandatory BOP inmate stand-up count at 10:00 p.m. and continuous cell checks every 30 minutes througout the night.  In fact, no inmate counts or round checks were conducted by guards in Epstein's tier of the SHU after the 8 p.m. lockdown on August 9. Count slips and round sheets were falsified to show that the 10 p.m. inmate count and round checks had been performed. The security videotape recorded Tova Noel briefly walking by Epstein's cell at 10:30 p.m., which was the last time the guards were shown entering the tier where his cell was located during the night.    The two guards assigned to check Epstein's cell overnight, Noel and Michael Thomas, fell asleep at their desk   for about three hours and later falsified related count and round check records.     Two cameras in front of Epstein's cell also malfunctioned the night of August 9.  Another camera had footage that was "unusable".   It was impossible for any other inmate in the SHU to have access to Epstein after the 8 p.m. inmate lockdown.  Even orderlies were back in their cells for the night at 8 p.m.   Beyond BOP personnel, the only persons who could access Epstein's cell after 8 p.m. were government law enforcement and intelligence agency personnel.  Upon a showing of proper identification, these government agents have access to all inmates, with or without notice and at all times of the day and night. .   Means, Motive, and Opportunity   By August 2019, it was well-established in the U.S. intelligence community that Epstein ran a “honey trap” for Mossad , Israel’s national spy agency. Multiple sources, including FBI records, acknowledged Epstein's role as a government "access agent." Epstein, himself, acknowledged his role as a Mossad operative. So did others who were in a position to know.   Between 2013 and 2017, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak visited Jeffrey Epstein about 30 times, including a 2014 private flight in Florida. The visits occurred after Epstein plead guilty to child prostitution charges in Florida in 2008 and registered as a sex offender of children.   Epstein's murder occurred at a time when a limited category and number of people had access to his jail cell.  The assailant obviously had government credentials. These credentials allowed him access to the MCC and afforded him freedom of movement within MCC.  The assailant was the kind of government agent whose access could not be questioned and whose activities within MCC would be cloaked in official secrecy.   Epstein’s assailant was trained in how to kill a targeted victim by strangulation with a rope (as depicted below), when to kill at the most opportune time (at night when the victim is sleeping), and how to stage the crime scene as a "suicide by hanging."   Jeffrey Epstein's neck injuries from strangulation. The assailant knew exactly where Epstein was located and also knew that Epstein was alone in his cell.  He had a key to the jail cell and a rope for strangulation purposes. There were no defensive wounds on Epstein's body, which indicates he was asleep when the strangulation occured. The assailant also knew the operational details of the security camera system.  An examination of the metadata from the DOJ videotape of Epstein’s SHU cell on the night and morning in question reveals that the video was modified by splicing two video clips together.  Last week, DOJ falsely claimed that the videotape was a continuous stream of footage.   A minimum of three government agencies (i.e., BOP, DOJ, and CIA) acted in concert with each other to effectuate Epstein's murder.  The participating officials in these agencies convinced themselves that the national security benefits derived from the clandestine Mossad-Epstein "honey trap" operation justified the extermination mission.   An Epstein sex trafficking trial would run the risk of exposing Mossad’s “honey trap” operation for blackmailing pedophiles. It also would have ruined the lives of scores of rich and powerful pedophiles and damaged U.S.-Israeli relations for generations.   The alternative to the spectacle of an Epstein sex trafficking trial was his extermination.  As such, Epstein's murder was sanctioned and facilitated as the best option.  To accomplish the “hit” on Epstein, the BOP had to deviate, in one night, from more than 30 major written operational protocols applicable to the Bureau’s supervision of SHU inmates, security camera apparatuses, cell inspections, and mandatory inmate counts and 30-minute round checks, among many other departures from established operating protocols. Neither the BOP, nor DOJ, has ever proffered an explanation for more than 6 of these major violations.  From a statistical standpoint, no random amount of BOP employee negligence or incompetence would accounted for 30+ substantial departures from mandatory BOP protocols at a single detention center in a single night with respect to a single inmate. As such, the substantial departures from BOP standard operating procedure on August 9 were deliberate .   Trump-appointed Attorney General William Barr described Epstein's death as "a perfect storm of screw-ups."  Thereafter, Barr removed Hugh Hurwitz from his job as BOP director. No government agency personnel who violated BOP, DOJ, or CIA protocols in connection with Epstein's murder and coverup has been prosecuted and jailed.   Without the 30+ major violations of mandatory BOP operating protocols, it would have been impossible for anyone to murder Epstein.  With these violations, the mission to kill Epstein was accomplished with relative ease.   Dr. Michael Baden’s Forensic Report   After his death, Epstein's lawyers challenged Dr. Sampson’s "suicide by hanging" autopsy conclusion, which also served as the basis for DOJ’s “suicide by hanging” finding.   Epstein's lawyers launched their own homicide investigation. They hired Dr. Michael Baden , who also observed Dr. Barbara Sampson’s August 11 autopsy on Epstein's body. At the time, Dr. Baden was the leading independent and board-certified forenic pathologist in the world. Dr. Sampson's credentials as a forenic pathologist, while impressive, paled in comparison to Baden's.   On October 30, 2019, Dr. Baden issued a report stating that Epstein's neck injuries were much more consistent with "homicidal strangulation" than suicide.  He stated that Epstein "had two fractures on the left and right sides of his larynx, specifically the thyroid cartilage or Adam's apple, as well as one fracture on the left hyoid bone above the Adam's apple."  Baden said those injuries were “very unusual for suicide and more indicative of strangulation — homicidal strangulation.” Hyoid bone animation. Dr. Baden said the bed sheet found in the SHU cell was too low to the floor to explain the broken bone and cartilage in Epstein's neck, which had to come from extreme force, not from just kneeling forward against a tied ligature. Baden also said the thick sheet that was twisted into the noose that Epstein allegedly used to hang himself didn't match his injuries, which look more like they were made from a rope. No rope was found in the cell after Epstein's death. It left with the murderer. Presidential-Level Indifference Epstein's murder occurred during Donald Trump's first term in office.  Trump was one of the well-known individuals who partied with Epstein at Mar-a-Lago and in New York in the 1990s.  Trump knew that Epstein liked to party with girls "on the younger side" and said so in media interviews. Furthermore, Epstein recruited underage girls for his sex trafficking network from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.  As such, there was never a full, thorough, and objective investigation of Epstein's murder during Trump’s first term.     The Joe Biden administration showed little interest in the Epstein case beyond sweeping Epstein's criminal sex offender activities under the rug with a grossly inadequate 2023 DOJ report, which cloaked Mossad's "honey trap" operation in secrecy and protected Israel’s carefully manicured image in America.   Vice President Kamala Harris did not seem to be concerned with the Epstein sex trafficking case, either. As a state prosecutor and California Attorney General from 2004 to 2017, Harris never prosecuted a single Catholic Church priest in any documented child sex abuse case, despite having numerous opportunities to do so.  Internal Catholic Church records named as many as 40 priests in the San Francisco Archdiocese as sexual abusers of children during Harris’ tenure as a prosecutor.   In exchange for large campaign donations from law firms affiliated with the Catholic Church and its political allies, Harris turned her back on these sexually abused children and gave each sexually abusive priest a prosecutorial "pass."   Harris also worked hard to coverup the records documenting the sexual abuse of children by the priests in question.   Last week, President Donald Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to close the Epstein case without arresting, indicting, or prosecuting a single pedophile who molested more than 1,000 children, raped many of them, and took pornographic pictures and videos of the victims.   None of these child sex abuse victims received prior notification of this DOJ closeout action. With his closeout directive, Trump now leads the largest pedophile coverup in America since the Catholic Church’s clergy sex abuse scandal of the early 2000s.    Finally, Trump has never uttered a word of sympathy, empathy, or support for Epstein’s 1,000+ child sex crime victims. Yesterday, Trump claimed -- first the first time -- that the DOJ's Epstein files are "FAKE." Trump also said the person in charge of administering the Epstein coverup -- Attorney General Pam Bondi -- is doing a "FANTASTIC JOB."

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 3, 2023 An Editorial Opinion After Texas Governor Greg Abbott felt the need to label the five mass murder victims in Cleveland, Texas last Friday night as “illegal immigrants,” I knew I had to write this editorial opinion. Regardless of their immigration status, all five victims were innocent human beings who were violently massacred in their home by an assailant with an assault rifle -- a fact that seems to be lost on Abbott. Abbott's senseless remark represents a new low in American politics. In his own sick mind, Abbott found a way to politicize a mass murder tragedy that included a 9-year-old child among its victims. The child -- Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman -- was an American citizen -- a fact that Abbott disregarded while peddling his brand of ethnic hatred. On May 2, 2023, the suspect in the massacre -- Francisco Oropesa -- was apprehended hiding in a house a few miles from the crime scene. It's the Same Old Song, But Gregg Abbott is the Newest Gubernatorial Singer Greg Abbott is a wheelchair-bound governor in his second term. He is a modern-day demagogue who peddles his hatred of migrants of color on a daily basis. For the record, Abbott has NEVER complained about the hundreds of thousands of white indigenous Mexicans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, and Caucasians from other Central and South American countries who sneak into America illegally at the southern and northern boards on an annual basis. He only targets and berates migrants of color. Greg Abbott is parroting the same brand of ethnic hatred and demagoguery that made Alabama Governor George Wallace an extremely popular governor with conservative white voters in Alabama during the 1960s and 1970s. It's the same old song, but Abbott is the newest gubernatorial singer. Apostles of hatred have been among us since the first group of Europeans peasants step onto American soil in 1612 -- without any immigration papers. Abbott and Wallace just happen to be the most prominent wheelchair-bound apostles of hatred in the last 60 years. Wallace did on September 13, 1998. So, the burning question of the day is: What should we do about Governor Abbott and his ethnic hatred? My answer is: " Nothing ." Here’s why: In July of 1985, I was trying the case of United States v. State of Alabama . This is the case that fully desegregated all aspects of the state’s 32 senior public colleges and universities. During the trial, the plaintiffs called Gov. George Wallace as an adverse witness. When we took a break during Wallace's testimony, I noticed that he was grimacing with excruciating physical pain. I stood over George Wallace as he sat in his wheelchair and we engaged in small talk. As I looked down on him, all I could think about was his gross mistreatment of blacks during his first two terms in office. This was the man who stood in the door of Foster Auditorium in 1963 to block Vivian Malone and James Hood from registering as students at the University of Alabama. This was the man who declared in 1963 that: " I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever. " Wallace became the proud national symbol of massive resistance to school desegregation and civil rights blacks in the South throughout the 1960s and much of the 1970s. He spent most of his time sending messages of defiance to the Washington crowd that enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Wallace once claimed that " thugs and federal judges have just about taken charge of this country ," and that he was the " political barbed-wire enema " these judges needed. On this day in July of 1985, I was standing over Wallace in a Birmingham federal courtroom, and he was wheelchair-bound. I knew that Wallace would never be able to stand and block progress for blacks in Alabama again, either physically or by using the power of his office. Wallace looked up at me as if he knew what I was thinking and volunteered this poignant comment: “ I know you think God is punishing me for what I did to your people. The pain in my spine is unbearable. The pain pills don’t do much good anymore. I am already in a living Hell. ” I didn't say a word because I knew his confession was true. When I look at Greg Abbott today, I see George Wallace in his wheelchair, all over again. The excruciating pain is in Abbott's face, just like it was present on Wallace's face that fateful day in 1985. The Abuse of Power Has Consequences The moral of this story is simple: Whenever you use your power as a public official to stand on the necks of poor people, people of color, and other disadvantaged groups just for political sport, God will send you to a living Hell long before you go to the permanent Hell that is reserved for you after your death. You can count on it. Like George Wallace, Greg Abbott is in a living Hell every day. There is no escape from Abbott's living Hell. When he ran for his last term in office in 1982, Wallace publicly repented and apologized to blacks in Alabama and around the nation for all the hurt, pain, and death he caused them as governor. I predict that Abbott will do the same thing whenever he nears the end of his political career. If Abbott’s repentance and apology are solely aimed at getting relief from the unbearable physical pain he is experiencing in his wheelchair, his contrition will not work. God gives all of us a chance to do the right thing in life. Like George Wallace, Greg Abbott had his chance to be a decent human being to everybody, but he blew it for personal political gain. I predict that Greg Abbott’s excruciating pain will only get worse, as it did with George Wallace. The cheering crowds in Texas to which Abbott panders with his inhumane treatment of migrants of color will never be able to ease his physical pain in the wheelchair. Only God can do that. Like Wallace, Abbott has given God no reason to free him from his pain. Like George Wallace, Greg Abbot has consigned himself to a living Hell. That's where all of history's worst demagogues eventually wind up. They are all waiting for Greg Abbott in God's permanent Hell.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on July 9, 2025 Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Fla., circa 1997. An Editorial Opinion Jeffrey Edward Epstein was an American financier, a known child sex trafficker, a confirmed pedophile, and a longtime child pornographer.  He arranged for over 1,000 underaged girls to be sexually abused and victimized in his sex trafficking, child prostitution, child molestation, and child pornography operation. Epstein was also an informant for state and federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies for many years. My sources, which are the some of the most credible and reliable in the information gathering business, have affirmed that Epstein, who was Jewish, also served as an “access agent” for Mossad, which is Israel’s spy agency.  For over two decades, U.S. intelligence agencies have been fully aware that Jeffrey Epstein operated a sex trafficking "honey trap" for Mossad that used underaged girls to lure, compromise, and blackmail pedophiles and child molesters.   My sources also confirmed that the Trump administration’s Department of Justice is engaged in an ongoing coverup of the participants/clients in Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, as well as the true facts and circumstances surrounding Epstein's government-sanctioned murder (which will be the subject of an upcoming article.)   Why is DOJ Covering Up the Epstein “Client List”   As stated above, Epstein ran a "honey trap" for Mossad using underage girls to: (a) lure powerful individuals to his sex parties, (b) videotape them in acts of pedophilia and child molestation, and (c) use this incriminating evidence to blackmail them for Israel's so-called national security interests.  Mossad, which has used this technique for many decades, shared the information derived from Epstein's "honey trap" operation with the Central Intelligence Agency and other U.S. intelligence agencies.   Key evidence of Epstein's “honey trap” operation, includes but is not limited to the following: A September 18, 2008, FBI internal document (shown above) acknowledging Epstein’s informant status and ongoing cooperation with law enforcement agencies for the state of Florida. This cooperation gave Epstein immunity from federal prosecution, via a highly unusual "sweetheart" non-prosecution agreement on sex trafficking, Mann Act, conspiracy, RICO, and child pornography felony charges. Ordinarily, no confessed sex offender would get this exceptionally high level of special and preferential treatment from the U.S. government without agreeing to serve as a law enforcement and/or intelligence "access agent." In February 2022, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, reached an out-of-court settlement with Virginia Giuffre , who had accused him of sexual assault related to Jeffrey Epstein 's sex trafficking network. The settlement involved an undisclosed monetary payment ( reported to be £12 million ) from Prince Andrew to Giuffre and her charity, along with an admission that he recognizes her as a victim of sexual abuse.  A 2024 lawsuit from a woman identified as Jane Doe 200, who claims Epstein boasted in 2001 about being a Mossad agent. Statements by Ari Ben-Menashe, a self-proclaimed former Israeli intelligence officer, who alleged that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's father, Robert Maxwell, were both Mossad agents involved in such operations. It is well known that U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies, as well as Mossad, have a long history of using "honey trap" operations.  Israel will use underage girls and adult women for these operations. U.S. agencies tend to use only adult women in their "honey traps."   For example, the 1990 federal drug possession case that ensnared former Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry was a “honey trap” operation.  The government used a female acquaintance who lured Barry to a hotel with the promise of sex and drugs in a room that was under FBI videotape surveillance.  The FBI planted the female and the crack cocaine in the room. Barry, who was an outspoken civil rights advocate, was arrested, charged, prosecuted, convicted on some of the charges, and removed from office – which was the goal of the FBI's “honey trap” operation.   Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates were among the hundreds of powerful men who partied with Epstein when his “honey trap” operation, which used underage girls as bait, was in full swing.   Today, Donald Trump wants all questions about Jeffrey Epstein shut down. He says it's time to move on from his old friend Jeffrey Epstein, whom Trump now calls a "creep."   Presently, Israel dictates America’s foreign policy in the Middle East.  No U.S. president or leading member of Congress has openly opposed Israel’s hijacking of American foreign policy in the Middle East.      What is more, at the insistence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump turned hostile toward South Africa, which charged Israel with genocide in the International Court of Justice in December 2023. In May 2025, Trump falsely accused South Africa of genocide against white South Africans.    In return for controlling American foreign policy in the Middle East, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently on trial in Israel for public corruption, recently nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump covets.   The Epstein “Client List” has never been made public by any U.S. president because the pedophiles and child molesters listed in the document are deemed to be "valuable assets" of the U.S. and Mossad intelligence communities.  As such, these sexual perverts and child molesters are cloaked with the full measure of secrecy and immunity that this protective status confers upon them.

By: Donald V. Watkins © Copyrighted and Published on March 3, 2020 Protesters held up signs and chanted "2-4-6-8, we don't want to integrate." When I was a young boy growing up in Montgomery, Alabama in the 1950s and 60s, my childhood friends and I would ride our bicycles from Alabama State College's campus to Normandale Mall on the city's Southside. We had to pass through several white middle-class neighborhoods on our way to the Mall. Every time we rode through these neighborhoods, a handful of mean-spirited residents would sic their German Shepherd dogs on us. They would scream, "Get the niggers, get ‘em." Hearing the dogs barking, we peddled as fast as we could to avoid being bitten. Unfortunately, we experienced the same form of racial terror during our return trip home. After my first experience with this form of vicious racism in the "Heart of Dixie" and "Cradle of the Confederacy," I asked my mother, "Why do they hate us?" Mom, who was the daughter of a well-known Baptist preacher, simply said, "Donald, they don't know how to love us. Nobody has ever shown them the way." With that answer, she gave me a big hug and told me how much she loved me. Her hug made me feel a whole lot better. As I look back on my life in Alabama, I realize that I have been hated by a lot of white people in the state for my entire life. The only reprieve I experienced from this hatred came when I basked in the warm glow of multiculturalism as a college student at Southern Illinois University. The only significant change since my childhood German Shepherd experiences has been the assigned reasons whites in Alabama have articulated through the years for their deeply rooted racial hatred of me. From elementary school through my high school graduation in 1966, this hatred spewed from the mouths of segregationists who chanted, "two, four, six, eight, we don't want to integrate .... Niggers go back to where you came from." I knew from this chant that white parents in Alabama did not want black students in public schools with their children. From 1966 to 1970, I was able to escape the sweltering heat of overt racial oppression by attending college in Illinois. It was the best four years of my life. My friendship circle looked like the United Nations, and I experienced college during the era of "free love." After I graduated from Southern Illinois University in 1970, I became one of the "niggers" who desegregated The University of Alabama's law school. This was the longest and loneliest three years of my life. During this period, the Dean of the law school had to write a public letter of apology to my parents and the entire Law School for one of the most painful episodes of racism I have ever experienced (i.e., my exclusion in 1972 as a finalist in the annual Law Day Moot Court Competition solely because of my race). After I graduated from law school and passed the bar exam in 1973, several state court judges openly referred to me as the "nigger lawyer from Montgomery" during courtroom proceedings for my first three years of law practice. Prior to 1980, only three federal judges in the state -- Sam Pointer (Birmingham), Frank M. Johnson, Jr. (Montgomery), and Virgil Pittman (Mobile) -- called me "Mr. Watkins" in the courtroom. The others did not address me by any name and they openly disrespected me in court. Some federal judges would throw court documents on the floor rather than give them to me in my hand. Many federal and state court judges routinely threatened me with sanctions because I stood tall and fought hard for my clients. From 1973 to 1998, I was hated by many whites in Alabama because I was successful in: (a) obtaining a full and unconditional pardon from the state of Alabama for Mr. Clarence Norris, the last surviving Scottsboro Boy, (b) helping Attorney Fred Gray secure a multi-million dollar settlement for the surviving members of the infamous "Tuskegee Syphilis Study," (c) desegregating 68 of Alabama's public school systems, (d) desegregating the statewide system of community and technical junior colleges in Alabama, and (e) desegregating Alabama's system of higher education for senior public colleges and universities (in a federal lawsuit that began in 1981 and concluded in 2005). I was also hated because I exposed a fatal police shooting and massive cover-up in what the April 3, 1977 edition of the Washington Post called "Alabama's Watergate." Finally, I was hated during this period because I fought the continued operation of the FBI's infamous COINTELPRO program in Alabama that targeted black elected officials, civil rights activists and political dissidents for personal destruction. In 1999 and 2000, I was hated because I secured the first and only bank charter ever issued by the state of Alabama to a black applicant -- Alamerica Bank in Birmingham. Despite this hatred within the regulatory environment, the bank achieved phenomenal success before bank regulators deliberately tried to sabotage this stable and secure financial institution. The bank withstood a Blitzkrieg effort by state and federal regulators to destroy it and operates successfully today on Birmingham's Southside. From 2001 to 2003, I was hated by local whites for attempting to integrate the ownership ranks of Major League Baseball by purchasing a professional baseball team. Despite my success in securing $150 million in financing UBS-Paine Webber for this endeavor, local whites trashed me for attempting to acquire a MLB team. From 2003 to 2005, I was hated for representing controversial HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy in a $2.7 billion accounting fraud case in which Scrushy faced an 85-count felony indictment. In 2005, I won an acquittal on all charges -- a record in the annals of American jurisprudence that still stands today. The hatred I experienced in Alabama's white community after Scrushy's acquittal reached a level of intensity and danger that forced me to leave the state for my own safety. From 2005 to 2019, I experienced hatred from local whites because I quietly developed two successful mainstream international energy businesses. These companies continue to operate today, despite a monumental but unsuccessful effort by Alabama-based COINTELPRO federal prosecutors to destroy them. Looking back at my life today, I never thought I would have to endure seven decades of racial hatred from whites in Alabama, but I did. The German Shepherds chasing my bicycle as a young child were just the beginning of a lifelong journey along a road that was littered with racial hatred. Thankfully, there were plenty of white and black individuals of interracial goodwill along this road who knew how to love me. They embraced my humanity; they loved me as a human being; they protected me along this road, to the best of their ability; and they helped me overcome a lot of unbearable racism during my journey. My mother said these "Good Samaritans" would always be present along life's journey. She encouraged her six children to keep an open mind and heart in order to receive their love. Mom was right. For this, I am eternally grateful.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on March 31, 2020 On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci finally admitted publicly what we first reported on March 20, 2020 -- that millions of Americans will become infected with the coronavirus and at least 100,000 to 200,000 of those infected will die from the disease. Dr. Fauci heads the nation’s top agency for fighting infectious diseases. He is also a member of the White House's COVID-19 response team. Dr. Fauci's estimated minimum number of COVID-19 deaths was affirmed again Monday. This death count assumes that Americans implement social distancing to perfection, which we know will not occur. The ER and ICU doctors on the frontline estimate about 2 to 3 million COVID-19 cases in the United States and a death count ranging from 4 to 6% of this number. What is worse, a second wave of the virus is predicted to hit the U.S. again in the Fall. As I discussed in " The Coronavirus: Why is this happening to Us ," I believe the coronavirus was unleashed on the world by God. In my view, it is the wrath of God for the way mankind has strayed from his teachings. In a Biblical context, the coronavirus ranks up there with the story of Noah and the flooding of the earth, as told in Genesis 7: 1-14. For America, which is experiencing the brunt of the virus, COVID-19 is eerily similar to the plague God unleashed on the Pharaoh of Egypt after he refused Moses’ request to free the children of Israel from bondage. In the truest sense, the world's doctors and scientists are battling the wrath of God as they search for a vaccine or cure. Man's mastery of science is remarkable but has never been a match for God's will or wrath. In America and around the world, God has seen where mankind worships presidents and prime minister of nations, movie stars, singers and dancers, social media influencers, super-star athletes and other sports figures, Wall Street billionaires, Ayatollahs in Iran, Popes at the Vatican, prosperity-based ministries in America, Evangelical Christian leaders, money and currency, and the military might of nations. We even have a wildly popular TV show called "American Idol," which brands amateur singers as "Idols." Idolatry is expressly condemned in the Bible. After God bestowed tremendous blessings upon America for more than 200 years, she embarked upon a course of action of inflicting unimaginable pain and suffering on infants and young children who were separated from their migrant parents at our Southern borders. For the most part, the church in America did not speak out against this inhumane practice. I knew then and there that God would inflict unimaginable pain and suffering upon America for these misdeeds. When we hurt the "least of these," we offend God. At the end of the day, America has failed God. A majority of this nation's people is Christian. A lot of Christians talk about their faith, but few of them practice God's religious teaching in their daily lives. By today's standards, Jesus Christ would be considered a deranged bum with a ragtag band of social misfits following him around the nation. Today's non-denominational mega-churches glorify their preachers, not Jesus Christ. Make no mistake about it, God is not listening to church prayers seeking an end to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, our political and religious leaders are impotent in the face of God's wrath. God has taken away everything we worship. For those who worship athletes, God shut down the stadiums and sports arenas. For those who worship musicians, God shut down civic centers and concert halls. For those who worship actors and actresses, God shut down playhouses and movie theaters around the world. For those who worship money, God shut down our national economy. For those who worship mega-church TV preachers, jet-setting religious hustlers, Ayatollahs, and the Pope, God shut down the churches and mosques. "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways: then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." II Chronicles 7:14. Until the people around the world humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways, God will not hear our prayers. Science cannot defeat God. When we recommit our lives to God and his teachings, God will lift the COVID-19 plague upon the lands. Those who challenge God's will or ignore it shall perish. Those who embrace his name will live.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on July 3, 2025 Faculty and students of the Douglass School in Parsons, Kansas in 1945. An Editorial Opinion   In 1935, the all-black Wiley College debate team defeated the reigning national debate champion, the University of Southern California.  This remarkable feat is depicted in the hit movie, “ The Great Debaters ,” starring Denzel Washington. The movie version used Hollywood's creative license to portray the Wiley team defeating Harvard University. While the school names were diffferent for dramatic storytelling purposes, the result was the same -- Wiley College won the national debate championship!   Was the Wiley College’s debate performance a fluke? No. Are Black students intellectually and academically inferior to White students?    I am forced to ask this question because, last month, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) openly called Black citizens in the state’s urban areas “inner city rats.”  Based upon his remarks, Tuberville clearly sees Black Alabamians as intellectually and academically inferior to Whites.   In 2022, Tuberville referred to the descendants of enslaved people in America as “criminals” and, in 2023, he advocated for White Nationalists to join the military because he sees them as “Americans.” Today, Tuberville is a leading proponent for dismantling the U.S. Department of Education.   The most definitive answer to my question on the intellectual acumen of Black students lies in the remarkable feat that was accomplished by students in a small all-Black public school in Parsons, Kansas in the 1940s.   During the 1946-47 and 1947-48 school years, Negro students at the Douglass Junior High School in Parsons academically outperformed their White junior high schools peers in the city on a scholastic basis.  The same accomplishment occurred for the elementary school division of Douglass.  At the time, Parson’s Negro population was only 12% of the city’s 15,000 population.     Douglass School’s Information Bulletin for 1941-42 lays out the educational foundation that made it possible to achieve this remarkable feat, twice:   Douglass made it the school's mission to " provide that quality of education which guarantees for its recipients a key to the 'abundant life' ."  In that regard, Douglass proclaimed that " the educator must be concerned with the whole child, the whole school, and the whole community .” Douglass believed, in practice, that " only those educators who were a part of the student’s family, his school, and his community – the community in which he lives and participates – [could] best satisfy his specific needs at any educational level. " The physical plant and school equipment at Douglass was comparable with other schools in Parsons and provided the opportunity for Douglass student to produce academic " work of an identical quality ." Douglass boasted that the school's principal and faculty had " training and degrees from nine of the country’s leading teacher training institutions ."  Additionally, the pupil-teacher ratio was " extremely low and almost equilvant to private instruction in the fields of study ." In 1947, Douglass was the only fully accredited separate four-year junior high school in Kansas, and, in 1946, the school was home to Chapter 446 of the National Honor Society. No student was excluded from participation in school activities because of lack of parental financial support. Thus, Douglass developed and implemented a “work study” program. The school also provided work experiences for all Negro students in Parsons who were 16 years old, via President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s National Youth Administration Program (NYA).  In essence, Douglass served as an employment agency for students who wanted to work and earn money for school acitivites and family support. Douglass had a Library of over 3,000 books, including the “ largest and most comprehensive selection of books by, for, and about Negroes to be found in the city. ”  Douglass proudly referred to this selection of books as the “ Negro Collection ,” which had a “ particular emphasis on the Negro and his contribution to society .”  The “ Negro Collection ” also contained “ current periodicals including both magazines and newspapers published by Negro institutions .”  Because of their constant and prolonged exposure to books, magazines, and newspapers portraying Negroes in a positive light, Douglass students never felt inferior to anyone. The school cafeteria offered balanced and nourishing meals that were supplemented by fruits and vegetables from a garden on school property that was planted, maintained, and harvested by students.  The regular 5 cents lunch consisted of one meat, one vegetable, drink, salad, and dessert.  Fruits and vegetables beyond what was needed for the cafeteria were sold to outside vendors to provide free lunch to students who could not afford it.  No student from a needy family was ever denied lunch. Audio visual technology and materials were thoroughly integrated and used as a teaching tools. Field trips, experiments, and modeling were used to enhance the learning experience.  Students regularly visited the city’s 42 local, thriving, black-owned businesses under the theory that, “ If you can see it, you can be it . ” Douglass extended its “Activity Program” to add football for boys and basketball for girls.  It became a charter member of the newly organized Tri-State Music Festival and organized a championship-level school band.  Nearly all Negro students in the city flocked to the Douglass to participate in its expansive “Activity Program.” Douglass students published a student newspaper three times per year. The newspaper showcased student talent, provided information of the school's achievements, and became a valuable community resource tool.  Additionally, eight of the school’s Civics Class students assisted in the survey and preparation of the April 1947 “ Directory of Negro Residents and Organizations in Parsons, Kansas . ” Each student’s class schedule, planned academic program, and grades were harmonized with his/her individual guidance record to “ maximize the learning process and virtually eliminate all ‘failures” on the part of the student .”   Fast-Forward to Today Fast-forward to educators in predominantly Black public schools run by majority Black school boards today.  Many of these school systems are well-funded, particularly in urban areas. However, the academic performance of many schools within these systems is sorely lacking.    All we hear from elected school board members and their appointed administrators in these school systems is an endless cycle of tired, lame, and bullshit excuses for why so many of their schools are failing their students.  The formula for preparing Black students to systematically outperform their White peers, intellectually and academically, has been in existence and published since 1941.   I will not listen to these excuses for academic failure anymore.  The voices of failure annoy me .  We know from the Douglass School experience that Black public school students, as a whole, are capable of outperforming any group of students.  But, they cannot accomplish this feat when the leadership of their school system is failing them.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on May 1, 2019 Birmingham Council President Valerie Abbott addresses a gathering while Mayor Randall Woodfin (far right) and two council members look on. The body language in this picture speaks volumes. It’s time for me to engage in some straight talk with Birmingham, Alabama’s black community. I am not going to sugarcoat the messages in this Open Letter. After all, the sincerest form of loyalty is constructive criticism. Today, Birmingham’s mayor is black. Six of the nine members on the city council and city school board are black. All five park board members are black. For the reasons explained in this Open Letter, these black public officials are failing their constituents. I know my Open Letter will upset some people in City Hall, but I must be truthful about where things stand in Birmingham today and why. During the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, African-Americans in Birmingham could legitimately blame their precarious socio-economic conditions on more than a century of suffocating and strictly enforced racial segregation and discrimination in Alabama. Today, I am laying the blame for the deteriorating socio-economic conditions in Birmingham's African-American community squarely at the feet of the city’s majority black public officials. Privately, these city officials complain that “white racism” is keeping them from improving the socio-economic plight of blacks in Birmingham. That’s “bullshit.” A School System that Fails Black Students When the Birmingham public schools were racially segregated (by law) and chronically underfunded (by custom) in the 1950s and early 1960s, Parker High School, Ullman High School, George Washington Carver High School, and Wenonah High School consistently produced thousands of gifted students each year who perform successfully in the most competitive collegiate settings and who went on to positively impacted every aspect of American society. The student bodies at these schools were all-black. The faculty and staffs were all-black. Yet, the sheer grit, perseverance, intellectual acumen, and determination of these overachieving students, teachers, and administrators lifted the quality of life for all Americans. To their credit, they never offered a lame excuse as a substitute for rock-solid performance inside and outside the classroom. Today, Birmingham’s school system is in the hands of a black controlled board of education that spends $378 million a year on educational programs in 42 public schools (and 11 charter schools). The school system’s superintendent is black. Currently, the Birmingham public schools serve 25,693 students, 92% of whom are black. Birmingham operates the fourth largest school system in Alabama. The school system consistently ranks in the bottom half of all public school systems in the state. Overall, Birmingham school students lag behind their peers in reading and math skills, as well as graduation rates. The quality of instruction in the city’s school system as a whole is poor and cannot be blamed on “white racism.” Whites are not stopping school teachers from teaching and students from learning. The quality of instruction today is the direct result of failed leadership from a majority black school board and administration over a period of many years. A Mayor and City Council that Focuses on Symbolic Gestures Today’s black elected officials in City Hall are an embarrassment to themselves, their constituents, and the entire city. Charitably speaking, they are “custodial” leaders, as opposed to the “visionary” leaders we deserve. Furthermore, they seem oblivious to the fact that the many substantive and well-documented quality of life enhancements Mayor Richard Arrington, Jr. achieved for the city's residents from 1979 to 1999 have dissipated with the passage of time. In 1987, U.S. News and World Report  listed Mayor Arrington as one of America's top five mayors. No Birmingham mayor since Dr. Arrington has attained this status. No successor in office has outworked or outperformed Dr. Arrington as the city’s mayor. Today’s city officials have no new or bold plan of action to move Birmingham forward. They typically spend valuable time during council meetings “majoring in minors.” Even though all council members are elected from single-member districts, one council member -- District 3 Councilor Valerie Abbott -- controls them all. She is the only council member who aggressively fights for and delivers solid results for her district constituents. In 1989, I won the Alabama Supreme Court case in City of Birmingham v. Mike Graffeo . This case paved the way for single-member council districts in Birmingham. The city moved from at-large council elections to district elections in order to give voters in each district an equal opportunity to elect strong advocates for their neighborhood and community interests. When I was fighting for single-member council districts thirty years ago, I never thought that one council member could make the other eight councilors get on their knees and crawl towards her in a subservient and ingratiating manner. As discussed below, this unimaginable event is exactly what happened earlier this year when Major League Baseball (MLB) tried to invest $10 million in a capital project at George Ward Park. Birmingham’s mayor is a nice guy, but he lacks the stature that is necessary to govern the city in a robust, progressive, and effective way. He’s a great motivational speaker and outstanding campaigner. However, he is too afraid of the power structure that funded his mayoral campaign to deliver life enhancing programs to the constituents who need them the most. His policy initiatives sound good in front of a microphone, but they are mostly symbolic in nature. Finally, he abdicates a lot of his executive powers and authority to Council President Abbott, who outthinks, outworks, and outmaneuvers her council colleagues on issues of importance to her. Neither the mayor, nor city council, has amassed a track record of economic empowerment opportunities for minority businesses that comes close to the record achieved by a minority enterprise small business investment company (MESBIC) that Doyal Reed, Harold Gilchrist, and Myrtis Myles operated during the Arrington administration. Working closely with Mayor Arrington, this MESBIC qualified hundreds of minority business owners to compete for and win an estimated $500 to $600 million in city, county, and private sector contracts for goods and services during a five-year period. Birmingham’s Park Board Blew the Major League Baseball Project As mentioned earlier, Birmingham’s park board blew a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to partner with MLB. The League had planned to invest $10 million in the construction of four full-size baseball fields and a world-class Youth Baseball Academy at George Ward Park. Interestingly, MLB approached Birmingham about hosting this project and was committed to funding the entire project costs. The League wanted to showcase this project to the world. MLB is a multi-billion-dollar enterprise that can deliver tangible economic benefits to neighborhood schools, non-profit organizations, local businesses, and civic organizations. Right now, the city has no partnership with any major league professional sports organization. Like the mayor and council, park board members dropped to their knees and crawled to Valerie Abbott to kiss her ring on the MLB project. Abbott, who opposed the project, dismissed the park board and its support of the MLB proposal, like a reigning queen dismisses her unfaithful servants. Today, the MLB project at George Ward Park is dead. Valerie Abbott single-handedly killed it. As expected, MLB has moved on to a more enlightened and inviting host city. Birmingham’s Future is Bleak Things will not get better for Birmingham residents and voters until they demand that the mayor, council, school board, and park board stop whining privately about “white racism” and start working harder to improve the quality of life for their constituents. Their job is to produce positive results, not excuses for a failure of leadership. Traveling to exotic locations on taxpayer-sponsored out-of-state junkets, appearing in staged photo ops for Instagram and Facebook, attending concerts and sporting events (for free), and hustling dinner meetings from companies seeking to do business with the city are not the actions that can move a city forward. While these perks satisfy the passions of the city officials involved, they do nothing to enhance the quality of life for their constituents. Birmingham city officials should study successful examples of where local governments achieved outstanding growth and significant improvements in the quality of life factors. Then, they should work their butts off to match or exceed these success stories. Until this happens, Birmingham’s future is bleak.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on July 1, 2025 University of Alabama Law Student Donald V. Watkins An Editorial Opinion   Fifty-five years ago, I moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to attend the University of Alabama’s law school on a Herbert Lehman desegregation scholarship awarded by the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City.  Lehman scholarships were awarded to young African American students who demonstrated an interest in advancing the cause of civil rights, via their willingness to (a) desegregate legacy law schools in the southern states and (b) represent the NAACP in assigned cases after they were licensed to practice law.   In 1970, I was one of  two black students to desegregate the University of Alabama School of Law .  George Jones was admitted to the law school with me. Donald Watkins (left) with George Jones (right) talking to a white law student during a break between classes. Three black law students -- Michael Figures, Booker Foyt, and Ronald Jackson -- broke the color barrier at the law school the prior academic year.  The stress from the desegregation ordeal is apparent on their faces. Not one of them smiled for his law school class photo. From left to right, law students Michael Figures, Booker Foyt, and Ronald Jackson entered UA law school the year before George Jones and Donald Watkins were admitted in 1970. At the time, Alabama proudly promoted itself as the "Heart of Dixie" and "Cradle of the Confederacy." The Confederate flag flew above the U.S. flag atop the state capitol.   All five of Black law students caught pure hell at UA every day.  It was the longest and loneliest three years of my life.  I was cheated out of awards for which I competed and won on merit. The cheating was so bad that the Law School Dean had to write a letter of explanation and apology to my parents and me.   I graduated on time and passed the Alabama Bar exam on my first attempt. My First NAACP Case   The first case the NAACP assigned to me was the biggest one of my legal career and my personal favorite.    On November 26, 1976, I won a full and unconditional pardon from the state of Alabama for  Clarence Norris -- the last known surviving “Scottsboro Boy."  The nine Scottsboro Boys were falsely accused in 1931 of raping two white girls on a freight train running through Paint Rock, Alabama.  All were arrested, tried, convicted of rape, and sentenced to death on multiple occasions.  The U.S. Supreme Court saved the Scottsboro Boys on three occasions within hours of their scheduled execution.  Clarence Norris (far left) and the other eight "Scottsboro Boys" were arrested in 1931 in Paint Rock, Alabama and falsely accused of raping two white women. The Clarence Norris pardon was based upon a finding of “innocence” of the criminal charge of rape, as proclaimed by the Alabama Pardons and Parole Board.  This was the first pardon ever granted by the state to a person who was originally sentenced to death and who was later declared innocent of the charges for which he was convicted.   The Boys's ordeal in Alabama's prison system was horrendous.  The Boys were repeatedly beaten and abused by jailers after their arrest, before their trials, after their trials, and during their imprisonment. Despite these beatings, they never broke. The Boys always maintained their innocence. After each round of guilty verdicts by all-white Alabama juries, the Boys were forced to build their own coffins and lie in them while guards urinated on them.   It took me two long and heart-breaking years to secure the pardon for Clarence Norris. The state of Alabama's resistance to our pardon request was massive and ugly. The death threats I received for representing Clarence Norris were endless. In the end, we prevailed. The pardon ended a 45-year ordeal by the last-known surviving Scottsboro Boy to clear their names.  In 2013, the state granted posthumous pardons to three of the other Boys. A Sense of Pride   The Clarence Norris pardon case gave my father the greatest sense of pride in his son’s legal career, which was filled with landmark court victories and ended with a 217-8 win-loss record in courtroom trials. Scottsboro Boy Clarence Norris (left) celebrated his pardon with Dr. Levi Watkins (right) in the President's office at Alabama State University on November 29, 1976. My father told me the story of the Scottsboro Boys when I was a young boy. I never forgot it. This was the case that motivated me to become a lawyer. My father was extremely proud that I was the attorney who cleared the names of Mr. Norris and the other eight Scottsboro Boys 45 years after their arrest. Every November 29th, I quitely celebrate the anniversary of the Norris pardon with my father, who is in Heaven, and my family.  By far, the Clarence Norris pardon is the greatest and most satisfying personal accomplishment in my legal career. Today, I see the never-ending battles for justice continuing into the future, with no end in sight. These battles are just as cruel, ugly, and vicious as they were in the 1970s. This time, there are very few lawyers who are qualified, capable, and committed to fighting and winning them.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on June 29, 2025 Caricature of King Donald J. Trump, America's first duly-elected monarch. Courtesy of Craiyon.com . An Editorial Opinion On August 1, 2015, I published the article below titled,  “ Donald Trump’s Newest Art of the Deal – Winning the American Presidency . ”  It explained why Donald Trump would become the President of the United States in 2017. It also explained the primary reason for Trump's ascendency in the polls and dominance on the American political scene -- his unwavering commitment to restoring white supremacy in America.   In 2025, America transmorgrified from a democracy to a monarchy within the first 6 months of the year. The nation now has a king who rules for the benefit of billionaires who pay little to no federal income taxes and who sought and quickly received substantial relief from the regulatory oversight of their businesses.  Most Americans support the new political paradigm because Donald Trump is delivering on his core 2016 and 2024 campaign promise to stop or slow the "browning of America." The Voting Rights Act of 1965 made it possible for women activists, Blacks, Hispanic-speaking Americans, members of the LGBTQ+ community, Muslim-Americans, and elected representatives from other marginzied groups to have a seat at the table of democracy and a voice in government policies. Trumpism wants none of that, unless the representatives chosen by these marginalized groups are pschologically castrated or spayed. Trumpism sees these marginalized groups as the "enemies" of white supremacy. There are no financially-viable, independent, mainstream media organizations. They all died of self-inflicted wounds. Trump has Reshaped America in His MAGA Political Image   After assuming office in 2025, Trump promptly killed all DEI policies and initiatives.  As a result, overt white racism is surging in America, again. Trump quickly launched the largest mass deportation of migrants of color since the racist roundup and deportation of non-White Mexican migrants and lawful Mexican-American citizens in “ Operation Wetback ” in 1954.  Trump's MAGA base is cheering his roundup and deportations of undocumented migrants of color, even as they decimate (a) construction firms, (b) large farms, (c) meat, poultry, and fish processing plants, and (d) hospitality-based businesses. Trump erased black history from federal government institutions, while reimagining white history as the bedrock of greatness.  Any discission of black history in schools, universities, and other public venues is now deemed to be un-American and unlawful. Trump imposed travel bans on countries where the indigenous population is people of color, while welcoming white South Africans as “refuges” who were fleeing imaginary “genocide. " This bleaching action whitens the flow of immigrants coming into America. Trump Sees Himself as a King As evidenced by his February 19, 2025, post on Truth Social, Trump sees himself as America's King. After falsely claiming he killed New York City's congestion pricing program, Trump proclaimed, " LONG LIVE THE KING! " The White House followed suit by posting an AI-generated magazine cover depicting a smiling Trump wearing a king's crown and repeating the proclamation, " LONG LIVE THE KING! " In February 2025, the White House posted this AI-generated magazine cover on X depicting President Donald Trump as America's King. The Rule of Law is Whatever Trump Decrees via Executive Orders Today, King Donald Trump has a dictatorial grip on Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. There are no more co-equal branches of the federal government or constitutional "checks and balances" on Trump's presidential powers. America morphed into the King Trump monarchy without making any changes to its Constitution. The "Founding Fathers" must be rolling over in their graves. Every constitutional protection they put in place to prevent the rise of a monarchy in America is gone. King Trump rules the land via Executive Orders that are beyond any meaningful judicial review. What is worse, Trump does not even read these Orders before signing them. Furthermore, King Trump enjoys "presidential immunity" for crimes he commits in office, thanks to an obscene level of judicial activism by Trump's six MAGA operatives on the 9-member Supreme Court. For all practical purposes, Donald Trump is America's first duly-elected King. To restore white supremacy and subjugate women again, King Trump's MAGA patriots in Washington were willing to trash the U.S. Constitution, increase the asphyxiating $37 trillion national debt on our children by $4 trillion, and toss 237 years of American democracy out the window. King Trump is pleased! I am not.

By: Cara Ellis Guest Contributor Copyrighted and Originally Published on June 22, 2025 ; Republished by Permission on June 27, 2025 Cara Ellis, an award-winning Appalachian writer, LGBTQ+ activist, and community organizer in eastern Kentucky. An Editorial Opinion I am 37 years old, and in my nearly four decades of life, I have never known a single year without American involvement in war or armed conflict.   From the Gulf War during my earliest years, to our nation’s interventions in Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, and Haiti, my childhood was marked by names and places I didn’t know or understand. Then came the so-called “War on Terror” that shaped my adolescence and early adulthood, taking with it people I knew and classmates to fight overseas in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen. In the years since, there’s been the second Somali civil war, Syria, Libya, and now unfolding escalations in Gaza, Israel, and Iran.   It’s a heavy truth to reckon with: every single year of my life has included some form of military engagement by the United States. Nevertheless, we hear rhetoric that recent escalations of bombings of alleged nuclear sites in Iran are “un-American,” a departure from who we are. I beg to differ; this is not an aberration. It is the norm, and violence is truly the American way.   The University of Virginia’s Miller Center reports that our country has been at war roughly 93% of the time since its founding in 1776. That’s not just a statistic; it’s an indictment. We have been bred into a national identity that equates might with right and that sells patriotism through the language of conflict. We’ve normalized it to the point that we forget we’re even at war unless the headlines are too loud to ignore.   The truth is, many of these conflicts aren’t technically “wars,” at least by the legal definition. They often don’t require a formal declaration by Congress and are instead justified under vague umbrellas like “national security” or “counterterrorism.” However, try explaining that to military families who’ve watched their loved ones deploy, or to civilians in countries where bombs bear “Made in the USA” stamps. Whether it’s called war or not, it is still bloodshed, trauma, and countless lives lost.   At home, we mirror that violence in multiple ways. Our news cycle numbs us to the reality of mass shootings, which occur so frequently we barely flinch anymore. The phrase “Thoughts and prayers” are issued with robotic precision, and then it’s business as usual. Violence doesn’t just happen elsewhere around the world—it’s here, too. It’s in our schools, our churches, our grocery stores. It’s on our streets and in our homes. We are a nation simultaneously desensitized to violence and yet, obsessed with it.   All the while, we’re told by those in power that there’s no money for the things that would actually help people. No money for universal healthcare, robust education, or affordable housing. We watch politicians, many of whom we voted for, gut programs like SNAP and Medicaid while funneling billions into weapons and surveillance. We’re told that the unhoused are merely people who failed to “make better choices.” We’re told that immigrants deserve to be caged or deported, even those who are here legally. We manufacture scarcity for the vulnerable while writing blank checks for military contractors. Make no mistake, this is strategy. This is how they want it to be.   After all, violence is profitable. It’s easier to militarize our borders than to reform our immigration system. It’s easier to bomb than to build. It’s easier to criminalize poverty than to address its root causes. Somewhere along the way, we’ve convinced ourselves that this is just how the world works. That peace is naïve, compassion is weakness, and domination equals safety.   Despite what we have been taught or may think, most of us have never had the luxury of peace, and truthfully, it shows. Our people are exhausted, anxious, and deeply suspicious of each other. We stay divided by design to serve power, not people.   Peace isn’t just the absence of war; it’s also the presence of justice, dignity, and collective care. Still, we have never really been given a chance to experience that globally and here at home.   When people decry that the latest escalation is “not who we are,” I have to vehemently disagree. It IS who we are, and it will remain who we are until we decide to be something else. Until we stop valorizing violence, and start valuing human life over military might, then this is who we are. We must reckon with our history not as a nation of liberators, but as a nation that has, more often than not, wielded its power through force.   Remember, we will never know peace until we demand it. Peace will never come as something we export through war, but as something we build together. [About the Author: Cara Ellis is an award-winning Appalachian writer, activist, and community organizer whose work explores LGBTQ+ identity and rural resistance in eastern Kentucky. She serves as President of Pikeville Pride, a local LGBTQ+ organization dedicated to highlighting visibility and inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community in the region.]

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on June 22, 2024 Rosa Parks' arrest sparked the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott. An Editorial Opinion On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Liles Burke issued an Order directing a targeted group of attorneys for LGBTQ litigants to submit " copies of any public statements they or their organizations have made about [pending] attorney-disciplinary proceedings [in his court] " by 5 p.m. today (Saturday). Those statements include “ press releases, website content, social media posts, interviews, public speeches, newsletters, and public emails ” relating to a three-judge panel’s ruling that was issued following its Star-Chamber "inquiry" into allegations of “ judge-shopping ” by the targeted attorneys. For the reasons explained in my June 21, 2024, Op-Ed article , Judge Liles is a judicial bigot on steroids. Liles' new Order is much like the one issued in the case of NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson , 357 U.S. 449 (1958). In that case, the state of Alabama sued the NAACP in the aftermath of the Montgomery bus boycott (December 5, 1955 to December 20, 1956). The NAACP was actively supporting Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other leaders and participants in the boycott. To crush the boycott, the racist trial judge sided with racist Alabama Attorney General John Patterson during a Star-Chamber hearing (without the NAACP present) and ordered the NAACP to bring certain books, documents and papers into court on a certain date for inspection by Patterson. Of course, Patterson was seeking to wipe out NAACP-backed civil rights activism in Alabama. Following the hearing, the trial judge ordered the NAACP to produce the following documents: "2. All lists, documents, books, and papers, addresses and dues paid of all present members in the State of Alabama of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Incorporated. . . . . 8. All lists, books, and papers showing the names and addresses of all officers, agents, servants and employees in the State of Alabama of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Inc." The NAACP refused to produce these documents and was promptly held in contempt of court. The judge imposed a $10,000 fine on the NAACP, which eventually increased to $100,000 . On appeal, the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed this ruling. The NAACP appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided the case on the merits in favor of the NAACP and reversed the contempt judgment in the 1958 landmark ruling in NAACP v. Alabama . Judge Burke is leading the same kind of misguided anti-civil rights crusade that the trial judge led in the NAACP case. Both judges issued the same kind of production order for the same reason – to quash a budding civil rights movement in Alabama. Both judges readily demonstrated their extreme judicial bigotry and tyranny against a marginalized group of citizens in Alabama society. Sixty-nine years later, Alabama's ugly history of discriminating against its marginalized citizens is repeating itself. This time, the discrimination targets LGBTQ Americans and their legal counsel. This time, the proud ringleader of the judicial lynch mob is Judge Liles Burke. Once again, a civil rights group in Alabama and its attorneys have been dragged back to 1950s-era judicial bigotry. Of course, it is no coincidence that Judge Liles' latest round of extreme judicial tyranny is occurring during the LGBTQ community's celebration of Pride Month.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on August 4, 2019 California's Black Panther Party staged an armed (but peaceful) protest at the California State Capitol in 1967. This photograph inspired state and federal lawmakers to pass sweeping gun control legislation across America in record time. The National Rifle Association led the effort to restrict gun ownership in the nation's African-American communities. An Editorial Opinion Once upon a time in America, the National Rifle Association (NRA) led the effort to pass sweeping gun control legislation across the nation. The event that triggered this gun control movement was not a massacre at a church, synagogue, school, university, shopping mall, concert gathering, or movie theater. In fact, there was no gun violence involved at all. The triggering event for sweeping gun control legislation across America was the highly-publicized sight of 30 members of the Black Panther Party in California protesting against racial injustice on the steps of the California State Capitol while openly carrying loaded weapons. The media called this protest a "Capitol invasion" by an "armed Negro band." The Black Panthers were armed with .357 Magnums, 12-gauge shotguns and .45-caliber pistols and announced, “The time has come for black people to arm themselves.” The media called the Black Panther's peaceful protest in an open carry state a "Capitol Invasion" by an "armed Negro band." The Black Panthers advocated the right of citizens to carry guns of all types with little to no interference from the government. Ironically, the NRA disagreed with this political viewpoint only when the Black Panthers became the standard bearers for gun rights in America. The photos of armed Black Panthers frightened white politicians in California and across America. The very sight of armed Black Panthers helped to pass the Mulford Act of 1967, a California state law prohibiting the open carry of loaded firearms, along with an addendum prohibiting loaded firearms in the state Capitol. The Act ushered in some of the strictest gun laws in America and helped jumpstart a surge of national gun control restrictions. The photos also gave Congress the impetus it needed to pass the Gun Control Act of 1968, which adopted new laws prohibiting certain people from owning guns, providing for beefed up licensing and inspections of gun dealers and restricting the importation of cheap Saturday night specials [pocket pistols] that were popular in some urban communities. It was an open secret that California’s Mulford Act and the Gun Control Act of 1968 were aimed at curtailing gun ownership rights in the African-American community. The NRA fought alongside the government for stricter gun regulations in the 1960s. This was part of the NRA ’s targeted effort to keep guns out of the hands of African-Americans as racial tensions in the nation grew. Today, the Black Panthers have been decimated as a national organization and the NRA leads the charge to fight against any restriction on gun rights, regardless of how many massacres occur and how many innocent men, women, and children are killed by homegrown terrorists. The NRA now fights for the right of homegrown terrorists to carry loaded AK47 assault rifles in open carry states. These weapons are not used for hunting and killing animals; they are military-grade assault weapons that are used to massacre innocent human beings. The documented hypocrisy of America’s politicians and the NRA on the issue of regulating gun ownership and assault weapons is sickening.