4 states have passed acts this past November to end gerrymandering. This is incredibly encouraging, as gerrymandering ensures that our votes are meaningless. As long as gerrymandering exists we do not have representative government and cannot say we live in a democracy. That is not just my opinion, it is a fact.
Read MoreWas austerity the only possible response to the debt that many nations incurred after the global economic mess post 2008? The answer, if one looks at Portugal and some other places, is NO. In other words, what was fed to us—that austerity was inevitable and necessary—was a lie. There was and is another way.
Read MoreNations around the world, one by one, are eliminating their old laws and statutes that make homosexuality illegal. The largest and most recent of these is India, where an old law–section 377–imposed by the former British occupiers, has recently been struck down.
Read MoreDecades of unchecked speculative land investment have helped to make houses in most major cities some of the most inaccessible and unaffordable in the world. This crisis of affordability hurts people who are least able to pay the most: people living on the fringes of the city, renters, new migrants and low-income groups.
Innovations are currently happening in housing that are concerned less with formal or material changes and much more with innovation in the ways we live together. It is in thinking beyond the exclusivity of private land ownership, that solutions to the vexed issues of housing are beginning to emerge.
Read MoreCreative Growth Art Center is a studio for artists with disabilities, supporting a multitude of world-renowned artists and bolstering burgeoning talents. The common ground for most artists here is a shared experience of an inequitable amount of hardship and tragedy during some point in their lives. When joined together in shared space and by a mutually fundamental desire to create artwork, it almost invariably fosters a heightened social awareness and sense of empathy. Having the freedom to discuss these issues openly with peers while simultaneously engaging creatively can result in both emotional and artistic catharsis.
Read MoreThe only non-fossil way we have, as things stand, of meeting our energy needs realistically is with nuclear. That doesn't mean we stop developing renewables—quite the opposite: nuclear just gives us a little more breathing space in which to do that.
Read MoreIn 2010, I was working at a church as the senior pastor’s assistant. My boss was invited to participate in an immersion trip to Mexico to learn about immigration, but wasn’t available to attend. After reading the fine print, the words All expenses paid trip to Mexico jumped out, and I eagerly offered to go. It sounded like a vacation! I pictured myself on the beach having a grand old time. I went into it lightly, but the things I learned at the border and the people I met turned my world upside down. I began to imagine ways to put families back together again, right where they belong.
Read MoreAnthony Cardenales was only seventeen when he went to prison. Seventeen years later, when he went home to the Bronx, he quickly found a job at a recycling company in Westchester. A few years later, he had become its manager. How did Anthony defy the more common fate of returning to prison within three-to-five years after release? The answer is simple: he went to college in prison.
Read MoreIn high school, I never imagined finding online spaces boldly embracing the terms “Queer” and “West Virginia”. Despite growing up with two gay aunts and other close queer influences, the things I was told and the things I told myself about who I was and where I came from wrongly left me believing there weren’t any people like me in West Virginia. I believed this until I began discovering the digital queer community.
Read MoreTrás-Os-Montes is a place with infinite beauty, ancient culture and a lot of character. Known for their generosity and good food, Transmontanos have been forgotten for too long. That was the starting point for us at INDIEROR, a non-profit organization from Chaves, Portugal. We work with the community to develop cultural alternatives in a very isolated and deserted region of the country, in order to give visibility to our town and region.
Read MoreIn parrhesia, the speaker uses his freedom and chooses frankness instead of persuasion, truth instead of falsehood or silence. Governed by these principles on a more or less conscious level, a colourful band found itself gathered in an old but cosy library in Zagreb, Croatia on a Tuesday afternoon in the autumn of 2015.
Read MoreEskenazi Health is Indianapolis’ public health system. It comprises a downtown hospital and ten primary healthcare clinics throughout the city. While the hospital has had different names over its 160-year history, the mission has always been to serve the health needs of the community regardless of their ability to pay. While there are other hospital systems in the city, as the public hospital, Eskenazi Health supports uninsured individuals and those that are vulnerable to rising healthcare costs.
Read MoreFear rippled through the science community in early 2017 as a new president and Congress took office. Research grants and communications from key government science offices, especially those associated with the environment, were suspended. The science community—not just researchers, doctors and academics, but also average Americans—rose up.
Read MoreI sat down with some of my friends and an idea: instead of cooking for ourselves, what if we allowed students to cook for people outside of our school? With our reputation as a school that doesn’t give back as much as we could, why couldn't we motivate people who like to cook and allow them to use their skills as a community service?
Read MoreMy friend and collaborator Brian Eno recently mentioned to me an organization he is involved with. ClientEarth is an organization that has taken a somewhat unique approach to pushing for change regarding issues of pollution, fossil fuel emissions and more.
Read MoreIn February 2017, the Mayor of Mexico City, Miguel Ángel Mancera, made a major announcement—the city would prioritize parking reform. This announcement was the first of several from the city, culminating in the implementation of a major, progressive policy change enacted on July 11th, 2017.
Read MoreMost countries’ prison systems are failures—the rate of recidivism is abysmal. In the US, 76.6 percent of prisoners end up back in prison within five years of their release. Can this be fixed? Yes, it can.
Read MoreWhen I saw what the DSA students did with my song, it completely changed the way I thought of the song. In fact, it changed the meaning of the song—I realized it was about inclusion, welcoming and not being alone. It's a more generous interpretation of the song than what I do with my voice. Just goes to show how a song can change (radically!) depending on who is singing it.
Read MoreAround the world, the right and left are increasingly ensconcing themselves in their partisan bubbles, behaving and voting along tribal lines rather than according to what might actually make the most sense for them. These examples (and I’d love to have some from the liberal/Democrat side too) show that this needn’t be the case.
Read More