It's Happening

Columnist Colman McCarthy writes monthly about peace and social justice issues.

Marie Deans poses outside her office at the Virginia Coalition on Jails & Prisons in March 2017. (Wikimedia Commons/B. Pitler)

The families against the death penalty, no matter their personal pain

Jan 16, 2021

It's Happening: With the outgoing administration supporting a surge in federal executions, our attention and gratitude goes to the stories of families who have lost loved ones to homicide but publicly lobby against governmental vengeance.

President-elect Joe Biden speaks at his transition headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, Nov. 24. (CNS/Reuters/Joshua Roberts)

How Biden deals with stuttering reveals his character

by Colman McCarthy

Dec 3, 2020

It's Happening: "It's not a heavy load, but it's always with me, like a touchstone, as a reminder that everyone carries his or her own burdens," Biden has said. I, too, carry the speaking impediment.

Why I don't vote

by Colman McCarthy

Oct 22, 2020

It's Happening: I've never voted in any election, going back to when Kennedy and Nixon were offering their services to the country. Why? Because I'm a pacifist — and on my better days, a pacifist-anarchist.

This college semester will be different, but there is more than one kind of remoteness

by Colman McCarthy

Aug 15, 2020

It's Happening: For the first time in 38 years, I won't have the privilege of sharing time and ideas in a classroom with college students at American University and Georgetown University in courses about peace and social justice.

Columns ›

The families against the death penalty, no matter their personal pain

How Biden deals with stuttering reveals his character

Why I don't vote

This college semester will be different, but there is more than one kind of remoteness

Samantha Power's memoir sheds light on foreign policy in the Obama years

What do we want? We want to live

Is there a doctor in the house who can stand up to Trump?

Bernie Sanders inspires me to be better

Conscience decides if a lawyer can defend someone like Harvey Weinstein

As caucus hoopla subsides, remember these heroic Iowans

You can get your 'meat' fix without exacting a pound of flesh from animals

The end of a well-lived life can lead you from death to dissecting table

District of Champions: The Nationals gave DC a much-needed win

The unexpected life of Angelo D'Agostino, Jesuit, psychiatrist, missionary

David Koch: kindhearted, caring citizen, obligated to share wealth

Pacifism of my friend Joan Baez inspires a new generation

Nixon and Trump: what a pair

Bicycles breeze through US as cyclist numbers rise, bike lanes expand

Trump's cheating may dishonor the sport, but I'll keep on golfing

The honest way to get into college is tough

Michelle Obama was an adept first lady, but could she have done more?

There's a lot to learn from the good McCarthys

The women of the 116th Congress will make a difference by being different