Questions of Civic Proportions: Can we avoid the dead end of despair?

I want to share a call to arms: “Less despair. More repair.” So says Austin Kleon, a local artist and writer here in Austin, Texas. His most recent book Keep Going [https://austinkleon.com/keepgoing/] wants readers to persist in their creative pursuits. I’m borrowing this call for resolve

Questions of Civic Proportions: What's the danger in being dangerously uninformed?

By now, you’ve heard discussion of the latest book about the Trump presidency [https://www.npr.org/2020/01/17/797457501/the-authors-of-a-very-stable-genius-on-their-book-about-the-trump-white-house?] . You’ve undoubtedly heard one of its key phrases, “dangerously uninformed.” But is any of this news? We have long documented just how comfortably uninformed the American

Questions of Civic Proportions: What do we want when we call for better civics?

It’s that time of year again. It might be unique to election years. Let’s all join hands or shake our fists or whatever it is you do when we join together to call for better civics. Our country is falling apart, y’all. If only there were an