Obama loves to talk about "going after" business, but America was supposed to be a place where people could pursue their dreams and visions, even if some of us might not like them. We give tolerance and get it.

One answer is to redefine gun control so that it's not something we inflict on good, law-abiding people, but rather, part of the package of punishments that we impose on those who have shown criminal and antisocial behavior.

Which of these two incidents made it into The Philadelphia Inquirer's Dec. 15 editorial about "Racism in Philadelphia"? The editorial preached about the sin of racism in this town. You might guess the former, but it's the latter. The former case is the murder of a white by a group of black teens who had ventured in Fairmount, and the latter, a case that arose when a black couple tried to move into Port Richmond.

After removing an automatic rifle from his duffel bag, he ordered all of the other men in the room to leave. Then he opened fire on the women and went on a rampage through the building, killing a total of 14 women and injuring 10 more before taking his own life.

Anyone who plans to vote in the mayoral election should ponder the case of Imette St. Guillen. A 24-year-old Venezuelan-American who grew up in Boston, St. Guillen was, coincidentally, pursuing a degree at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York when she unexpectedly learned firsthand about how "compassion" toward felons often affects people in America.

When the Grinnell College alumni magazine came in the mail the other day, I never expected to find out that someone had been murdered. Let alone Derek.

Forgetting that for much of our history, America was both a heavily armed and a relatively peaceful society, the prosecutors blasted the availability of guns in Pennsylvania. We have heard similar arguments about the need to fight crime in Philadelphia by giving the city different laws from those that the "pro-gun rednecks" in other parts of the state take for granted.

By supporting the death penalty, both in Abu-Jamal's case and in general, I court that most dreaded of epithets: white racist. But let me ask the anti-death-penalty crowd a simple question. If a white criminal murdered someone I care about, do you think I would not want the depraved murderer to pay with his life?

It's a charged atmosphere as thousands of students wait for the heavyset hero to stride onto the Temple University auditorium stage.