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Democracy
To Remain
Raja Shehadeh on Living through Destruction in Palestine
I have been thinking that people all over the world these days are feeling a sense of despair because, like me, they are seeing the destruction of the world as they knew it. But it has occurred to me that the real destruction of my world happened in 1948, when the Palestinians lost Palestine.
July 2026Lesson Plan
Pranav Jani on Free Speech and College Activism
The Right and I agree on the potential of universities as a space in which students develop ideas that can transform the world. The difference is, they want to stamp it out, and I want to encourage it.
April 2026Sunbeams
April 2026Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power.
Los Vecinos
And we’re included in the golden circle / of familia, through no virtue / of our own, yet here she is again at our door / with a plate of something delicious, or a big plastic bag / filled with nopales from the edible pads / of the giant cactus in their yard
March 2026The Fourth Estate
Sheila Coronel on the Future of News Media
I don’t believe we’re confined to the media business models that we know. As the information landscape evolves, there will still be journalism about what is happening now, and that will help people in the future who are trying to make sense of it. This work has value.
February 2026Sleeping Children
What was happening in and to Gaza was not really about democracy at all—or any kind of universal, God-given values. It was simply about power.
February 2026Sunbeams
February 2026The press must be free. It has always been so, and much evil has been corrected by it. If government finds itself annoyed by it, let it examine its own conduct, and it will find the cause.
Stirring the Pot
Leading a strike, starting trouble between sisters, feeding strangers
January 2026Sunbeams
August 2025In every election in American history both parties have their clichés. The party that has the clichés that ring true wins.
Opportunity Knocked
Lily Geismer on the Democratic Party’s Failed Vision for the Working Class
A lot of the Biden administration’s pitch was “In ten years, we promise you you’re going to have a job.” Most people can’t afford to have that long-term view.
August 2025Personal, political, provocative writing delivered to your doorstep every month—without a single ad.
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