New at Zócalo
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Essay
How Librarians Became American Free Speech Heroes
In the Past and Present, They’ve Fought Book Bans and Censorship
At almost 85 years old, the Library Bill of Rights is seeing another round of attacks.
The American Library Association (ALA)—founded in 1876 to professionalize and improve library services across the …
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Connecting California
Dianne Feinstein’s Most Important Job Was an Unofficial One
Appreciating California’s Last Ambassador to the United States
The death of Dianne Feinstein isn’t just the end of a pathbreaking life. Or a generational shift in power in the U.S. Senate.
It’s the …
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Connecting California
Which California Baseball Team Has the Worst Owner in Pro Sports?
The Oakland A’s and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Are in a Race to the Bottom
In California, a land blessed with more than its fair share of winners, we learn our most important lessons by dwelling among the losers.
So, in this final week of the …
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Essay
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 …
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News & Notes
NEH Awards Zócalo and California Humanities Series $50,000 in Funding
“What Connects Us” Is a Recipient of Nationwide “United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture” Initiative
The National Endowment for the Humanities has named California Humanities a funding recipient for its United We Stand initiative, a joint initiative by the National Endowment for the Arts and the …
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Essay
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
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 …
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The Takeaway
Big Brother Is Watching. But We Can Resist
At Last Night’s “What Is the State of Surveillance?” Program, Panelists Spoke About What We Can Do About the Orwellian Present
“Can surveillance be a necessary evil?”
The question came near the end of yesterday’s public program, “What Is the State of Surveillance?,” held at the ASU California Center in the historic …
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Essay
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
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 …
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Connecting California
I Hereby Censure the Censure
When California Politicians Pass Resolutions Denouncing One Another, They Make a Mockery of Democracy
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 …
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Essay
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
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 …