Philosopher George Santayana famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” That warning sounds more ominous once you realize how many college students can’t understand a history book.

In a recent story for The Atlantic, Rose Horowitch addressed the decline in the ability of college students at elite ...Read more

Certitude in viewing the other side as malevolent might just break the country apart, but putting faith in one another and our institutions might be the glue that can keep us together.

Just days before Election Day, I chose to go see a movie in a theater as a way to break away from the horse race politics and hyperpolarized rhetoric. Little did...Read more

Where is the sensible balance between respecting a family's privacy and protecting people from what can happen behind closed doors? That's one of the many questions raised by the horrific slaughter of a couple and three of their five children near Fall City, Washington, on the morning of Oct. 21.

The family's eldest child, a 15-year-old boy, ...Read more

Remember when election season just meant getting bombarded with television advertisements and direct mail?

Now, we are in the age of polarizing, hyperbolic headlines and strangers launching withering personal attacks against each other on social media.

Americans are so exhausted with our nation’s political tone that most now limit how much ...Read more

Almost 35 years ago, the mainstream environmental movement was put on notice. In 1990, the Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) sent a powerful letter to major environmental organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund and others exposing their exclusionary practices that omitted and ignored the voices and needs of communities most ...Read more

If you’re in pain and have to go to the emergency room, it’s good to be a white man.

A new study finds that women who go to the ER for treatment of pain are less likely to get the needed pain medication, regardless of their age or ethnicity or even the sex of the medical professional — female doctors and nurses were as unlikely to provide...Read more

As soon as the University of Minnesota announced the state’s first-ever LGBTQ farming conference on social media, it had to restrict the comment section.

People from Minnesota and around the United States were mocking it.

“And this is why other countries are laughing at us,” wrote a Mankato man in what was one of the safer comments for a...Read more

Too many of our nation’s veterans struggle with homelessness and hopelessness. Across the U.S. and here in Virginia, we must continue efforts to give those who have served the support they need to have safe, rewarding lives when their time in uniform is over.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said in September that it had found shelter ...Read more

Napa Valley wineries are facing a problem they can’t drink away — overzealous regulators.

For decades, tourists have come to Napa Valley to tour and drink at its world-famous wineries. This has been a lucrative business. There are a large number of people who enjoy wine, but few places on Earth have the right combination of sun and rain to ...Read more

Before I left for the airport to attend a conference in Washington, D.C., I double checked with my wife that she was OK with me leaving while a hurricane was brewing in the Gulf of Mexico. We had been in Miami for a little more than a year at that point, and it doesn’t take long to become acutely attentive to storms when you live in Florida. ...Read more

In September, I went to the infamous Darién Gap. Over the last year and a half, more than 700,000 people have traversed this unforgiving slice of jungle that divides Colombia from Panama. It is so riddled with violence and rape that women there told me they have to travel with the morning-after pill.

About 68% of people crossing there are ...Read more

Just two weeks after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm, carving a trail of destruction and causing at least 227 deaths throughout six states, Hurricane Milton pummeled Sarasota, Florida, where I live, with Category 3 winds of more than 100 mph.

Like many other people in the state, I lost power and cell phone ...Read more

WASHINGTON — It's easy to argue why Americans should vote against Donald Trump.

The former president neither understands nor respects the Constitution. He would use the powers of the federal government as an instrument of his whims, prosecuting political opponents and rewarding donors instead of serving the public interest. Armed with a ...Read more

Donald Trump was already in the classroom when Brown v. Board of Education desegregated schools in 1954. He was about 30 before women were able to obtain their own credit cards, in his 40s before a Black man led a Fortune 500 company, and in his 60s before the election of President Barack Obama.

Trump is among the eldest of the baby boomers, ...Read more

Women of America, how do you feel about a man who says he'll be your protector "like it or not"? Another question: Do you even believe you need a protector?

The fact that Donald Trump thinks you do, and believes that he's the one to safeguard us damsels like it or not, is why he might well fail to win back the White House (please!).

Most women...Read more

Gallup recently published a list of what Americans consider the most pressing issues as they choose the next president. Unsurprisingly, there is no overlap between Republicans and Democrats on the top five.

Republicans say they are concerned about the economy, immigration, terrorism and national security, crime and taxes.

Democrats are ...Read more

One of Donald Trump’s enduring assertions is that Vladimir Putin would never have dared to invade Ukraine if Trump had been reelected in 2020. It’s an interesting hypothetical that relies on the premise that Putin, intimidated by Trump, was afraid to invade during Trump’s four years in office, waiting to act—according to this theory—...Read more

Election day is almost here, and the end of this tumultuous campaign season cannot come soon enough. But it may not come Tuesday night.

Given that the race for president is expected to be close, it’s quite possible that Americans will have to wait days to learn whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump will be the ...Read more

Immigration, especially that of undocumented migrants, is a key issue — perhaps the key issue — in the presidential race.

Despite the Biden administration's efforts to strengthen border security, the Trump campaign has taken a more extreme stance. Former President Donald Trump has spent months on the campaign trail pushing for mass ...Read more

Let’s call him the Bad Samaritan.

After Daniel Penny, a white subway passenger, subdued and choked a menacing Black homeless man, Jordan Neely, to death last year on a Manhattan train, two weeks passed before Penny was arrested.

If the roles had been reversed, Neely would have been in handcuffs before the next train rolled into the station. ...Read more