Local Success, National Paralysis: How Does it Balance Out?
The GOP/Fox last night was genuinely depressing. Donald Trump has brought the other candidates down to his level, in the process of demolishing the Republican party. No living American has…
Civic Life
164 posts
Hmmm, This Sounds Like Something I Would Agree With
From Thomas Friedman in the NYT, emphasis added: … what will be required to produce resilient citizens and communities [is] forcing a politics that is much more of a hybrid of left…
How America Is Putting Itself Back Together
Most people in the U.S. believe their country is going to hell. But they’re wrong. What a three-year journey by single-engine plane reveals about reinvention and renewal.
A Police Shooting Case in Mississippi
Over the past few years we’ve mentioned many of the positive developments underway in the three counties of northern Mississippi (Lowndes, Clay, and Oktibbeha) collectively known as the “Golden Triangle.”…
What Presidential Campaigns Show About Civic Fiber
The end of my current story in the magazine, on “How America Is Putting Itself Back Together,” explores the contrast between what I’m describing as healthy civic society at the…
Can America Put Itself Back Together? Kicking Off Another Season
Across the country, people think America is going to hell—but things look better here locally. Why the general tone of the moment's politics is wrong.
Civic Engagement Talk in America’s Original Engaged Communities
The Chautauqua Institution is one of America’s great centers for civil, cultural, and intellectual engagement. A talk about 21st-century American renewal, at a place whose history traces to a great 19th-century reform movement.
The San Bernardino Story: Fire Fighters Weigh In
Who is to blame when a struggling city runs out of money? A public-safety worker says it's unfair to point the finger at him and his colleagues. Plus, a young resident of the city discovers reasons to hope.
How to Tell Oregon Apart From New Jersey
If Chris Christie had thought of this for his state's gas stations, maybe he'd be doing better in the 2016 race now.
Sports and Civic Life, Bend Elks Edition
An evening at the ballpark, with Vinnie the Elk and friends
Summer in the Pacific Northwest
The Bend, Oregon, Elks open their baseball season
American Futures Updates, from MS to AZ to CA
NPR conveys the sound of an innovative school in Mississippi, plus other news from the road
Isabella Greenway, Pioneering American Woman
The first Arizonan congresswoman, a lifelong friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, lived a remarkable life.
Today a Bankrupt City Votes on Its Next Steps
"We've gotten used to gridlock and stalemate at the national level. This is what it looks like for a city." What civic dysfunction has in common with excessive CEO pay, and why it matters.
‘Generation Now’—What People Do, When There Seems to Be Nothing to Do
In the next few installments I will be talking about two cities in inland Southern California that have some things in common but have headed in very different directions, and…
Boulder, Colorado: A Special Kind of Community
An exaggerated version of a college town, it's the perfect setting for an unusually participatory conference.