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What if Democracy is actually working?

We are in a moment of viewing our democracy as unstable. But what if it's actually working...what if, instead of being on the cusp of failure, we are emerging into the next successional stage of democracy, a stronger, more stable version? After John Roberts defended the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, my Twitter feed was a chorus of cheeping that it was not. But we are already seeing the balance shift. People forget that the Supreme Court does not make the laws, merely interprets them. What if the Supreme Court accurately assessed that the United States' right to abortion stood on a shaky foundation? We lived in a world where a would-be despot was able to wield the cudgel of abortion rights to split the country and propel himself to power. He got what he and the right claimed to have wanted - the trophy - overturning Roe v. Wade. And now we are seeing how our system, a mosaic of states' rights, a House, and a Senate, is working to correct itself. Kansas, a so-called red st...
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Braiding Sweetgrass and Sugar Snaps in the Garden

This morning I spent some time with the sugar snap pea plants in my garden. I'd never really looked closely at them before, just greedily snatched off the pea pods when they were ready, wondering when the next one would be ripe. This morning's study stemmed from the observation that the top-heavy pea plants, now that they had finally started to produce flowers, had also outgrown their trellis, and folded over. At first I worried that the folded over part would dry up and the baby peas would die. But it's now three days post-fold-over event, and the plants still appear green and healthy. Looking for the tiny pea pods among the greenery, I wondered what the pea plant's process for producing flowers, and hence pea pods is. Today each plant has just a few flowers, near the top of the plant. Each flower emerges from a spot on the stem that produces a set of leaves. Will each little set of leaves produce a flower, starting from the top? Some sets of leaves produce two flowers...
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Letter to the Atlantic: In 2022, Envision the World We Want

Dear Atlantic Editors,  In 2021 I noticed a tendency for your articles to lean towards the doomsday scenarios (examples: Vulture Media; The Autocrats are Winning; January 6th was practice). I appreciate the focus on the things we need to watch out for, and although usually being struck into a place of fear by the titles, upon reading the articles they sometimes end up being solution-oriented. However, since we tend to get what we focus on, I have a suggestion for 2022: Focus on what you want to see, not what you don't want to see.  We can spend a lot of attention worrying that Donald Trump will return. The more time we spend on that, the more likely it is to happen. Why not instead focus on some of the excellent Republicans who have shown true grit and leadership during the pandemic, who might make good leaders for our country? What about DeWine, Chief Justice John Roberts, others.  Instead of focusing on the vulture capitalistic newspapers, why not focus on the new, emer...
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First Pluto Blog Post

 First Pluto Blog Post
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