Published inPoliticolor·Jan 14, 2020Surviving Election 2020: How will you resist the “prophets of doom?”Frederick Douglass’s vision for the United States in 1869 can help. — Like everyone else, I’m trying to distract myself from the headlines the headlines. …Civic Engagement4 min readCivic Engagement4 min read
Published inPoliticolor·Jun 12, 2019What was your first political act?Connecting to an idea of something bigger than yourself — The basic premise of Politicolor is that we can make it easier to see what active citizens do, how they push against opposition or the status quo and connect with allies, and that showing our work will improve the likelihood that our communities will overflow with good work. At the…Call For Submissions2 min readCall For Submissions2 min read
Published inPoliticolor·Jun 5, 2019Questions of Civic Proportions: Stories that Carry Us Forward(And have nothing to do with who the President is) — John Dickerson made a simple statement on Slate’s Political Gabfest. It sounded like a public service announcement: There are narratives about who we are in the U.S. that have nothing to do with who the President is. 😱 These other narratives have their sources of power, difficulty, and all kinds…Civic Engagement7 min readCivic Engagement7 min read
Published inPoliticolor·May 21, 2019Keep Dreaming Democracy: Lessons from ancient Athens on practicing democracy todayWe believe reading is a civic duty. The titles getting the spotlight in our #CitizensRead Book Club make their own case for what we can accomplish by reading together. For one of our first books, we chose Paul Woodruff’s book First Democracy: The Challenge of an Ancient Idea. While turning…Politics4 min readPolitics4 min read
Published inPoliticolor·May 10, 2019Questions of Civic Proportions: How to respond to “I don’t know where to start.”I don’t know where to start. News goes by at a staggering pace. This past week has included shootings in public spaces, a showdown between the Executive and Legislative branches, a new “religious freedom” rule for healthcare workers, and a list of dangerous individuals banned from Facebook. “I don’t know…Politics5 min readPolitics5 min read
Published inPoliticolor·Mar 1, 2019The Citizen’s Job is to Ask Big QuestionsHow to engage the ideas of good government — The questions we ask often say everything about the answers we expect. What passes for political discussion today rarely escapes the smallest questions of self-government — who will win and what will they do with that new power? With every iteration of this discussion, we grow more comfortable with the…Civic Engagement5 min readCivic Engagement5 min read
Published inPoliticolor·Aug 14, 2018Better Civics: How to Get the Questions RightA popular refrain of the moment is that we need civics education in classrooms again. More civics. New voices join that chorus without offering ideas about what that civics might look like. …Education5 min readEducation5 min read
Published inPoliticolor·Feb 28, 2018Let’s Talk More: Austin’s Ben Franklin Circle finds that temperance isn’t as outdated as it soundsThere has been a lot of hand-wringing over whether or not Americans can still talk to each other. Online or off, political discussions are rarely civil. I knew Ben Franklin Circles sounded like a good idea, but I still didn’t know what to expect from our first meeting. We met…Civic Engagement5 min readCivic Engagement5 min read
Published inPoliticolor·Oct 24, 2017Daily Sketch: For the Sake of the Fallen, Sgt. La David JohnsonFor October 24, 2017 Casual news-watchers might think the controversy over the attack in Niger started this week. The attack, however, occurred at the beginning of October. …Current Events3 min readCurrent Events3 min read
Published inOpen Austin·Oct 9, 2017Open Austin Asks: What’s with You and Civic Tech?A seemingly simple question refuses to settle on a fixed answer. The most recognizable names in civic tech all have their own answers to “what is civic tech?” …Civictech3 min readCivictech3 min read