57Recent Stories
A Post-Thanksgiving Reflection: Rediscovering Hope, Healing, and America’s Better Angels
This Thanksgiving, Holly Knoll’s legacy of bipartisan courage and collaboration reminds Houston and the nation that real progress comes from empathy, solutions, and working together across divides.
Good News in Gary and Pittsburgh — But Still America Declines
As America celebrates billion-dollar steel investments in Gary and Pittsburgh, a darker truth emerges: U.S. manufacturing is still in decline. Despite early gains from clean energy and EV production, shifting policies and stalled investment threaten to erase progress—leaving communities where factories once stood facing the same cycle of job loss, despair, and division.
What 400 Years of Family History Teaches About This American Moment
Ben Jealous reflects on America’s “dark 20s” and shares a message of hope: history shows that every era of cruelty can be followed by breakthroughs, if young people refuse to give up.
When the Blues Hit Home: Why Family Values Require Family Wages
MAGA voters and Democrats alike know workers need $25 an hour. Acting on that consensus is how we save American families.
As the cost of living continues to rise, America faces a crisis not just of wages—but of families. Former NAACP president Ben Jealous argues that rebuilding strong families starts with ensuring workers earn family-sustaining wages, not poverty pay.
We've Crossed the First Tipping Point. All of America Will Pay the Price.
Coral reefs are dying—and the consequences reach far beyond our coasts
As coral reefs collapse in what scientists call the first irreversible climate tipping point, Ben Jealous reflects on the lessons of the ocean—from his childhood at the Monterey Bay Aquarium to today’s urgent warning that humanity is running out of time to act.
Hypocrisy in Holy Robes
When Cardinal Dolan praised Charlie Kirk as a modern-day St. Paul, it sparked outrage amid grief for immigrants killed by ICE — raising urgent questions about faith, morality, and the true message of the Gospel.
When Presidents Can't Take a Joke, Democracy Suffers
Humor has long been a hallmark of American democracy, with presidents from Reagan to Obama proving they could laugh at themselves. But when leaders can’t take a joke—and instead try to silence comedians—the threat goes beyond late-night TV. It strikes at the very heart of freedom
A Forgotten Chapter of Hope: What the Readjusters Teach Us About Healing Our Divided Country
A Forgotten Chapter of Hope examines the Readjuster Party of post–Civil War Virginia, showing how Black and white working-class families once united to protect public education and opportunity for all children — a powerful lesson for bridging today’s political and racial divides.
Rising Waters Will Not Drown the American Spirit
On the Fourth of July, Donald Trump signed his “megabill.” The law boosts the dying fossil fuel industry with tens of billions of taxpayer dollars. It invites an additional 470 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year by 2035 – that’s the equivalent annual emissions of more than 100 million gas-powered cars. And it aims to stop dead in its tracks the clean energy transition and the green manufacturing jobs boom the Inflation Reduction Act was already starting to create.
This Independence Day, Remember Fighting Back is America’s Great Tradition
I told my son recently that we’re descendants of the youngest combatant in the battle of Lexington and Concord. Our ancestor’s teenage ears were among the first to hear “the shot heard ‘round the world.”