Ideas

Three Generations, Two Immigrations

A Salvadoran American-Turned-Israeli Reflects on Moving Between Cultures and Finding Home, Again and Again

The first time I immigrated, 34 years ago, I was a toddler brought to the United States by my parents from our native El Salvador. A year ago, I immigrated again, becoming a Salvadoran American living in the State of Israel.

This is my second time learning a new culture, language, and rules. And it’s been entirely different.

As a child, I quickly integrated, took part in the school system, and made friends. Joining English-speaking society didn’t feel like work. It was my environment, my home, my life.

Today, as an adult, it’s …

by Lola Ravid |

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More In: Ideas

Jimmy Carter’s Pragmatic Path to Power

An Idealist in and After Office, He Became a Governor and a President By Appealing to Racial and Class Prejudice

by James C. Cobb |

Former president Jimmy Carter, who will be 99 this Sunday, October 1, was only 46 when he first popped up on the national political radar. After declaring in his 1971 …

What the GOP Gets Wrong About the Puritans

Reagan and Pence Invoked Them as Inspiration, But a True Reckoning With Their History Provides a Different Vision of the Nation’s Future

by Peter C. Mancall |

During the first Republican presidential primary debate, on August 23, former Vice President Mike Pence spoke of founders of the nation conquering the American “wilderness.” It was one …

I Hereby Censure the Censure | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

I Hereby Censure the Censure

When California Politicians Pass Resolutions Denouncing One Another, They Make a Mockery of Democracy

by Joe Mathews |

It’s time that we Californians censure the whole idea of censure.

Because it’s consuming the precious time and money of our local governments.

Censure is the name often given to resolutions or …

What Asteroids Can Teach Us About Climate Change | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

What Asteroids Can Teach Us About Climate Change

Scientists Are Aware of the Perils of Near-Earth Objects and Rising Temperatures. Humanity Can’t Come Together to Deal With Them

by Andy Bruno |

On June 30, 1908, a sudden blast knocked down over 2,000 square kilometers of forest in a sparsely inhabited part of Siberia. Witnesses saw a fireball from hundreds of miles …

Finding a Good Society in the Mud of Burning Man

Humans Are Human—And Governments Need to Help Them Achieve Self-Reliance and Avoid Panic in the Face of Disaster

by Micah Weinberg |

Since leaving Burning Man, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the role that principles play in a society, and what to do when people don’t live up to …


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