Author: Melika Willoughby (Melika Willoughby)

On a February day in 1761, in a tiny Massachusetts courthouse, Boston lawyer James Otis rose to fight an “insidious and mischievous” wrong committed by the British Crown. For five hours, he electrified listeners by demonstrating what he called the “illegality,” “iniquity,” and “inhumanity” of the Crown’s action against the American colonies. A young observer named John Adams later wrote that “American independence was then and there born; the seeds of patriots and heroes were then and there sown, …[it] was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child independence was born. In fifteen years, namely in 1776, he grew up to manhood, and declared himself free.”

“Governor, we’ve lost control of the capitol.” Thousands of protesters mobbed the Wisconsin Capitol in March 2011, ripping hinges off doors and crawling through open windows. Outraged by the legislature’s passage of a collective bargaining reform bill championed by Gov. Scott Walker, the crowds quickly overran the capitol police. For weeks the swelling mob occupied...

When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie hosts a town hall meeting, attendees can count on two things: flaring tempers and off-color language. At a town hall in May, the Republican Governor defended post-Superstorm Sandy measures to build protective sand dunes along the Jersey shore. While most homeowners accepted government compensation for portions of their land,...

“I heard the killers call my name. I cowered in the corner of our tiny secret bathroom. My mind echoed with one thought: If they catch me, they will kill me.” Immaculée Ilibagiza, a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, writes about her escape from racial slaughter in her autobiography, “Left to Tell.” Ilibagiza’s raw...

Every little boy knows you need three things to fight a war: good guys, bad guys, and a way to beat the bad guys. President Barack Obama seems to have forgotten his childhood. On Saturday, the president requested congressional approval for military action in Syria, a conflict with no good guys, plenty of bad guys,...