Cornell Chronicle

Kramnick says:

“Not only are non-Christians ignored by this cross, but religious Christians should oppose the secularization of the cross in the Supreme Court case, as it holds this monument not to be a religious memorial but a secular testimony to the death of the soldiers named on it. 

“Many religious figures have similarly opposed the federal court’s ruling that citing God in the Pledge of Allegiance is a secular ceremonial reference. God is God and a cross is a cross. Both reflect religious conviction. To rule otherwise is to demean religion in an effort to find the unconstitutional constitutional.”

Fitzpatrick says:

“Millions of Americans do not have convenient access to affordable, full-time, high-quality child care. That has important consequences for both parents and children, and for society more broadly. Without access to reliable affordable childcare, parents, in particular mothers, will have difficulty working. In fact, research has shown that many women see their careers ‘stall out’ once they have children in ways that men’s careers do not. This is driven in part by the difficulty of juggling the demands of both work and child-rearing. 

“Research has also shown that children, particularly those from low-income and those from rural areas, benefit a lot from the universal availability of high-quality child care experiences. Also, research from Canada has shown that universal child care policies can have unintended negative effects on child development when the program’s initial rollout does not pay close attention to the quality of care being provided. Therefore, it will be important for policymakers to ensure that any new program provides children with truly high-quality care.”

Skinner says:

"The transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy presents both challenges and opportunities for U.S. labor unions. Responding to the climate crisis will require major investment and a lot of work rebuilding our energy, transport and building infrastructure for the 21st century. This is a huge opportunity that many unions are excited to seize, as we see in places like New York state.

“At the same time, this transition will also majorly disrupt the U.S. economy, especially the energy sector and its workforce. We need to do what’s required to lower greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, and carefully consider how workers and communities will be impacted as we transition to renewables, which is necessary and ideal in the long-run to secure ecologically sustainable, high-quality and affordable power.

“Major economic transitions have not worked well for workers in the past. This means workers and their unions are understandably concerned about whether there will be sufficient planning, financial support and inclusion of impacted workers’ voices in the process of designing and planning the transition and Green New Deal."

Scott says:

“The Florida proposition restoring the vote to felons is for those who have completed parole/probation, are not currently incarcerated, and do not have a murder or sexual offense crime. I would expect this to take the number of eligible felons down to 1 million. I'm seeing about 400,000 in jail, prison, parole, or probation and estimate that another 100,000 will have sex-related or murder/manslaughter type charges. 

“The next thing is to ask whether the Republican controlled house will encourage them to vote, or whether there will be statutes passed to expand parole and probation in order to disenfranchise the newly enfranchised voters.

“On bulk, I think the measure is very positive. Enfranchising a million voters is nothing small. It is a big deal and a shift in American criminal justice policy thinking in relation to the concept of rehabilitation and second chances.”