"It's a republic, not a democracy" say the defenders of minority rule, sliding into authoritarianism. For the founders, and Noah Webster after them, there wasn't remotely as much daylight between t...
It was an American, General Douglas MacArthur, who coined the phrase “rules are made to be broken.” Rule breaking and rule rewriting have been American traditions since the founding of the nation....
Infrastructure Week has become a running gag, but it's no laughing matter; our infrastructure is not only key to overcoming a surprising array of challenges we face, but may be our best chance to unit...
The bright side of our current political environment is that there has been a renewed focus on civic engagement. In this edition we highlight selected activities in this emerging era of 21st century ...
Issues of opportunity, the common good, and government’s role in promoting each have been fundamental since the founding of the Republic. How they are addressed and who benefits has not always been ...
The Greek root for "-topia" is "topos," which just means "place," as in "topography." As we map the future, whether technology will produce a utopia, a dystopia, or just what a techtopia is genericall...
Great Britain didn't just colonize the US, she gave birth to our nation. We rebelled against her as youngsters, have grown close since, fought beside her, like family, many times. As we hit middle age...
It's customary for many publications to wrap up the year with "best of" lists of one kind or another. For each of our standard categories, we present the articles that you liked the best--people's cho...
The November elections were like rains in California fire country, or calm blue skies in Florida after a monster tropical depression. When we survive a brush with death in a natural disaster, our ta...
People are saying' we can't tax (or spend) our way out of the challenges ahead of us. They're right. To take on problems that seem so much bigger than we are, we can't just eat the pie, we have to mak...
Never in our lifetimes has the famous aphorism of early 18th century Prussian general and military theorist Carl von Clausewitz, that 'politics is war by other means,' seemed so apt......
The 'post-truth' era of 'alternative facts' obscures a deeper reality. That in politics, as in life, it's not what we don't know that's getting us into trouble, it's what we're sure we know that just ...
In our bodies, we have a word and a name for untrammeled growth: cancer. In the body politic, it seems ultimately to lead to dissolution as well......
In times like these, moral arcs become a source of comfort. Should they be? We trace these rainbows across the sky of history–individual, social, even biological......
As it becomes increasingly clear that all of us will have to be accountable for what our leaders will not, we head into a 21st century Freedom Summer that can have no end......
With all the chaos emanating out of Washington daily, it's hard to know where to turn–but some are managing to ignore the noise and keep their eyes on the prize......
The arc of justice seemed to quicken in its pace and pliability this month, in thrall to the high metabolism of the social media generation and their double-edged sword......
Looking back on the past month, we're reminded that predicting how history will view events is like playing pool with the balls in constant motion......
Announcing the Frank Islam Institute for 21st Century Citizenship, created to address an increasing civic engagement deficit and enhance the concept of citizenship for the challenges and opportunities...
