Yet another reason raising the Social Security retirement age is a terrible idea

  Social Security has long been a bedrock of economic security for American workers and their families, helping them stay afloat when a breadwinner can no longer work because of old age, disability, or death. Today, some 240 million Americans ages 20 and older are insured under the program.

  The benefits that Social Security provides are modest—the typical retired worker receives just $16,140 each year, not far above the federal poverty line. But these benefits are vital to Americans’ retirement security. More than half of seniors rely on Social Security for all or most of their income, and the program protects more than 16 million elderly Americans from poverty each year.

Paul Vann: Do you know the real meaning of Memorial Day?

  There is something special about observing Memorial Day and it involves reconciliation. In other words, the history of this observance finds its genesis in the Civil War and the families who carried on with their lives after losing loved ones in combat.

  There are a lot of claims as to its actual beginnings, with many cities claiming to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. Organized women groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War to observe the lost of the war dead.

Laurence M. Vance: Should marijuana be legalized and taxed?

  Although 24 states and the District of Columbia have legalized the medical use of marijuana, the federal government still classifies marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule I drug with “a high potential for abuse,” “no currently accepted medical use,” and “a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug under medical supervision.”

  Beginning with Oregon in 1973, 18 states and the District of Columbia have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana. Three of them (Alaska, Colorado, and Oregon) and the District of Columbia went on to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. They were joined by the state of Washington. Nevertheless, the federal government still considers growing, distributing, buying, selling, possessing, or smoking marijuana to be a violation of federal law.

Charles C. Haynes: Without virtue, freedom fails

  Civic virtue – or the loss of civic virtue – doesn’t make the top ten list of issues pollsters ask voters to rank. But I suspect many, if not most, Americans are doing a fair amount of private handwringing these days about our collective descent into the proverbial mud.

  In the brave new world of presidential politics, personal attacks, insults and ridicule are becoming the new normal. Protesters shout down candidates, partisans get into violent confrontations, and users of social media create daily streams of vitriol and hate.

  The easy answer, of course, is to blame Donald Trump. After all, Trump has broken every unspoken rule about how presidential candidates speak and behave (apparently a significant part of his appeal). Because Trump hurls insults, intimidates the media, mocks the disabled, the argument goes, the lid is off for the rest of us to do likewise.

Craig Ford: Another missed opportunity to vote on the lottery

  Another legislative session has come and gone, and the Republican leadership in Montgomery has still not allowed lottery or casino legislation to come up for a vote.

  Every year the Republican leadership tells us they need more money to fund the budget, but they refuse to consider the most popular revenue-raising tool we could have. (I would argue the lottery is the only popular way we could raise revenue.)

  A lottery and casino gambling are “voluntary taxes.” If you don’t want to pay it, don’t play it. And it sure beats the $86 million in new taxes on medicine and nursing home beds that the Republicans passed last year, or transferring more money out of education, like the $80 million they transferred out of the education budget last year.

Sam Fulwood III: Buchanan’s fantasy past isn’t prologue to America’s future

  I’ve lived in many Americas.

  As a child of the 1960s, I remember the racial segregation of separate bathrooms and drinking fountains in my North Carolina hometown. In the late ‘70s, I was a beneficiary of affirmative action programs that provided both educational and occupational opportunities that my parents and grandparents were denied. Through the ‘80s, ‘90s, and early part of this century, I witnessed the rise, fall, and rebound of our nation’s economy; the decimation of jobs and industries; a growing chasm between the haves and the have-nots; amazing advances in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, rights; and a persistently stubborn gap in wages between men and women. In 2008—and again in 2012—I saw something I thought impossible: the election and re-election of an African American as president of the United States.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Remembering Chief Justice Perry Hooper, Sr.

  A few weeks ago former Alabama Chief Justice Perry O. Hooper Sr. died at his home in Montgomery at age 91. He was the epitome of the southern gentleman. He was also one of the founding fathers of the modern Republican Party in Alabama.

  Hooper Sr. was a GOP leader long before it was cool to be a Republican in Alabama. He was the state’s longtime National Committee Chairman as well as a one-time party chairman. Many of Hooper’s early GOP stalwarts, like Wynton Blount and Jim Martin, used to jest that there were so few Republicans in the state that they could call a state executive committee meeting or convention in a phone booth.

Darrio Melton: Republicans aren't practicing what they preach

  As a member of the clergy, "practice what you preach" has a very literal meaning in my life. When I deliver a sermon or lead a Bible study, I'm called not just to be a messenger, but a teacher and example of the lessons set forth on Sundays. That's not to say I don't fall short, because we all fall short. But it is to say that I have an obligation to my parishioners not to lead a Bible study on Wednesday then go out and act like a fool on Friday.

  Being a lawmaker is very similar. When I hold a town hall event or write one of these articles, I have an obligation to my constituents not to say one thing in a stump speech and turn around and go to Montgomery and do something completely different.

  It's called integrity. It's about standing by your values.

Gene Policinski: Hello Facebook! Welcome to the wide, wild world of news media

  Forgive me for a little old-fashioned smirking when following the digital-era dilemma of Facebook having to own up to some human involvement in its tidy, algorithmic universe.

  Millennials and others were outraged — outraged! — at the recent disclosure that the internet social media giant’s “trending topics” report may have had more than a smidge of real people decision-making involved in the daily determination of what’s hot in posted news.

  On May 9, web tech blog Gizmodo carried a report citing an anonymous former contractor who claimed that while he worked on the “topics” report, he and colleagues were directed to regularly insert liberal topics into the report while suppressing conservative subjects.

Craig Ford: Expanding pre-K is a step in the right direction

  With all the bad we see in our political news, it's good to know there is some good news out there, too!

  These days, it’s easy to think nothing good ever comes out of our government – especially here in Alabama! But for all the bad you hear about, there are a lot of great things going on in our state and in our public schools. A perfect example is Alabama’s pre-K program, which has just been named the best pre-K program in the country for the tenth year in a row by the National Institute for Early Education Research.