Columns

Below are eight opinion and analysis pieces that reflect my voice and perspective on national and local politics, labor and economic equity, social justice, and international affairs. I served as a Herald Community Newspapers weekly op-ed columnist for 14 years, from 2008 to 2022. I have also contributed to Newsday.

DALE, or Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement, is a national campaign sponsored by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network to get the word out that immigrant workers who report labor violations cannot be deported, according to 2022 orders by the Biden administration. Above, Rosa Romero of Hempstead protesting for workers’ rights in front of Nick’s Pizza in Rockville Centre in February 2023. // Photo by Scott A. Brinton/Long Island Advocate.
In 1996, Paul Schmitt was a homeless squatter who scratched out a life for himself on a quarter acre of New York State-owned land in North Lawrence. A series of stories that I reported for Herald Community Newspapers with my colleague Jeff Lipton that year helped reconnect Schmitt with his family in Germany, who had been searching for him for years. // Photo by Scott A. Brinton/Herald Community Newspapers

LIHerald.com, 2011 — An exploration of identity, belonging and the lives of the unhoused.

Two lives lost and found

LIHerald.com, 2021 — A reflection on the meaning and practice of anti-racism through the lens of a provocative and timely work.

A writer enlightens us on ‘anti-racism’

LIHerald.com, 2011 — An examination of the debate surrounding nuclear energy, weighing its promise and risk while considering how public perception shapes our views of modern power sources.

Rethinking nuclear power — or not

LIHerald.com, 2013 — An meditation on everyday life in Bulgaria, revealing the unexpected kindness of strangers along the way.

Finding beauty beyond America’s borders