Connecting California
The new film Civil War is a historic cinematic achievement. British director Alex Garland has made a movie that might be worse than a real American civil war.
Perhaps that was …
Essay
At the end of 2023, four environmental groups sued the National Park Service and invoked the Wilderness Act to stop the replanting of trees following a catastrophic wildfire in Sequoia and …
Essay
Twenty years ago, I published Taking Back the Vote: Getting American Youth Involved in Our Democracy. The book grew out of a personal passion: Once my oldest child was able …
Essay
I began to notice Animal Farm references proliferating in Zimbabwe in 2008.
That was the year hyperinflation nosedived the economy, and long-time leader Robert Mugabe felt threatened enough by a newly …
Connecting California
The Oakland A’s are baseball’s biggest losers. But their new temporary home—West Sacramento—is one of California’s greatest winners.
No California city has had a better 21st century than West Sacramento. The …
Up For Discussion
The public square is the meeting ground where people make society happen. In these spaces, physical or metaphorical or digital, we work through our shared dramas and map our collective …
Up For Discussion
The public square is the meeting ground where people make society happen. In these spaces, physical or metaphorical or digital, we work through our shared dramas and map our collective …
Democracy Local
Californians vote on many ballot measures, but we almost never participate in significant public debates and discussions about the measures’ contents and impacts.
This isn’t simply a result of apathy or …
Essay
There is only one person more obsessed than I when it comes to the memory of Don Andrés Bermúdez: his son, Andrés Junior. Junior lives with his family in the …
