Reasons For Celebration

As we began sorting today's news stories for our commentary, the thread we noticed among today's reports was one of mostly positive change and progress happening - which is fitting since it's our tradition to look at more positive topics on Friday.

Before you think we're going to be all sunshine and roses today, we'll admit - this week hasn't been perfect.

The decision by the FDA this week to approve over-the-counter sales of emergency contraceptives was dealt a blow on Thursday when the Justice Department decided to appeal the U.S. District Court's ruling to allow it. While thorough scientific studies show that nothing is likely to change if the medication is allowed to be sold over the counter to women of any age, the Justice Department's appeal did draw the ire of a number of women's health groups.

Of course, some serious snow fell also in the Midwest this week. In MAY.

Still, the good this week far outweighed the bad.

To start with, the entirety of New England as of midnight last night, has legalized same sex marriage, thanks to the legislature and governor of Rhode Island. That Americans in ten states - including a large, contiguous region of the country - can now feel free to move from state to state, without fear of being legally treated as a lesser citizen, is a great thing.

It's also been a great week for accountability, both in the media and in politics.

In the media, Howard Kurtz' astoundingly bad commentary on NBA player Jason Collins in The Daily Beast was handled as any blatantly ignorant piece of work by a journalist should be, when Kurtz was fired yesterday from his job at The Daily Beast/Newsweek. The Daily Beast obviously has some higher standards to keep up now, as they won a Webby award this week for news reporting, beating out tough competitors like the New York Times, the BBC and NPR.

In politics, Colorado passed a major expansion of voting rights, and added major protections against election fraud. Too-Big-To-Fail may be on the ropes, as Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Louisiana Republican David Vitter introduced bipartisan legislation that appears to have a very good chance of passing. And President Obama continued his push for immigration reform, this time doing it in Mexico, alongside Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who will be key to any eventual successful immigration policies enacted in the United States.

Smart votes on gun reform also seem to be paying off at home for Senators who chose wisely last week like Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Kay Hagan (D-NC). Meanwhile, Senators who chose to side with gun manufacturers - like Republican Kelly Ayotte - appear to still be paying a heavy price for their poor decisions as they return home to face pissed-off constituents.

And to top it all off − almost literally - the massive spire for One World Trade Center in New York City was lifted to the top of the skyscraper yesterday.

In short, the "good guys" had a pretty good week - and that's as good a reason as any to celebrate.

After all, Monday will be here again before you know it.
Some things never change.

Better Than Money

While the screaming about sequestration cuts grows louder, and some of our media colleagues obsesses about the latest developments in the Boston Marathon bombing, another group of media colleagues keep confusing President Obama for the Green Lantern. Those issues might normally frustrate us, since they're all happening at the same moment in time. Yet, we're generally happy and even calm today.

It's not like we've won the lottery, though that would likely improve our happiness. As economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers confirmed recently, money really can buy you happiness. Or, as Dylan Matthews more accurately notes, blindness to problems.

For a large number of people around the world, that exchange of a loss of clarity and liberty for a bit of temporary financial security is as common a transaction as buying something with a check card is for most Americans.

In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai has been generally enjoying the fruits of that kind of trade for most of the last decade. Karzai recently even felt comfortable enough to admit the CIA has, at times, brought him bags of cash, so he'd be more likely to make the decisions that U.S. interests prefer.

The fact is, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has a pretty good life right now, even considering his position as the President of Afghanistan. Whatever he wants, he can generally buy with large amounts of money given to him by the U.S. government, through the CIA or other channels. We're willing to bet Karzai could even get Jimmy Johns to deliver to the Presidential Palace in Kabul.

What might surprise you is that as much as Americans appear to crave financial security, recent surveys suggest that Americans still prioritize their civil liberties over that security.

As Greg Sargent pointed out Wednesday, after digging through the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, the liberty/security deals some on the right are trying to push again - like trying the Boston bombing suspects in a military court - are ideas Americans don't seem to be too enthralled with these days.

Sargent also points out that in a different CNN/TIME poll, by a 2-to-1 margin, Americans are currently more worried about losing some of their civil liberties than they are about the government failing to enact anti-terrorism policies that would give them more security.

There are plenty of reasons to be pessimistic today. Ongoing political issues like the hunger strikes at Guantanamo Bay, or the confirmation by Sen. Pat Toomey about the obstructionist extremists in the GOP, or even the simple reality that it snowed in much of the central U.S. yesterday on May 1st - all of these are reasons for frustration, or even anger.

That said, proof that most Americans - all across the political spectrum - appear seriously unwilling to sell out their freedom and liberty for a potential bit of non-guaranteed security gives us hope today, that maybe America isn't a completely lost cause after all.

With that knowledge and piece of mind - and a sandwich - we may just be able to make it to the weekend without losing our cool.

The Real American Divide

Too often, the news stories we cover in the media focus on the many divides in America and around the world. Between the haves and have-nots, Republican and Democratic lawmakers, or political extremists and the rest of us, the reasons to be divided sometimes seem endless. So it's with pride that we watched much of America come together this week as NBA player Jason Collins publicly came out of the closet as gay.

That pride was simply described by one of our favorite writers, Dave Zirin of The Nation, who said that reading Collins' announcement "hit me like a triple-shot of espresso cut with a teaspoon of Adderall" - in a very good way.

There were an incredible number of awesome positive reactions to Collins' coming out, from NBA stars like Kobe Bryant and Charles Barkley, to other well-known LGBT allies like star NFL punter Chris Kluwe and even former President Clinton. President Obama called and tweeted his support for Collins, and even gave a special statement of support for Collins at Tuesday's White House press conference. 

That divide we spoke of did raise its ugly head though, through ignorance on social media outlets by people like NFL wide receiver Mike Wallace, and on the TV screens of millions by ESPN sportscaster Chris Broussard.

Of all the comments and actions that we see and write about every day which divide people around the world, the kind of ignorant bigotry displayed by those like Wallace and Broussard is one of the most destructive - and sadly, the most common.

For all the acceptance of LGBT individuals throughout America over the past few years, the top professional men's sports in America - football, baseball, basketball and hockey - have still had a rainbow wall dividing those who felt they could be honest about their sexuality, and those who've felt they had to lie about it.

As Greg Sargent deftly noted this week, Jason Collins vaulted over that barrier with his announcement - though to us Collins' announcement seems more like when Berliners began tearing down the wall that divided them.

Zirin, Sargent, and Collins himself noted that he never could have reached this point on his own. With the fall of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the near certain death of DOMA, the political winds in the U.S. have been very favorable for Collins' vault to freedom. Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones also pointed out that American women have already been tearing down the rainbow wall in the U.S. in pro sports - a fact we've proudly noted for many years now.

In some ways, the ultimate irony of the media frenzy surrounding Collins' announcement this week is that who he's attracted to sexually doesn't matter to us one bit. 

What does matter is that Collins' future now seems much more clear. We hope, as Amanda Terkel notes, that Collins finds his own 'Branch Rickey', just as Jackie Robinson did so many years ago. We hope Collins remains happy and healthy and keeps playing as long as his talent allows. We also hope the kind of ignorant bigotry Collins stood up to this week is finally beginning its own long and permanent retirement from all professional sports in America.

Ignorance and bigotry never make a group of people stronger, something that anyone who's ever played team sports - or been a part of any successful team - already knows. 

What unites us is stronger than what divides us. It's what makes the difference between the winners and the losers in the game of life.