Comforts for this Moment
Wherever this moment finds you, know you are not alone. I'd love to throw a log on the fire, bring you a mug of something warm, sit across the soft couch and hear how it is to be you right now. But since I can't, I
Caitie Whelan
A Roundup of Goodness For You
Hello There!
I'm out on the campaign trail, so here's a roundup of a few favorites for you.
See you on the other side of the election,
Caitie
Two Minutes for a Healthier Democracy
An Antidote to Burnout
A Very Hand Tool for Navigating 2024
How to Make a Real Impact This Election
Whenever I see a spray of political signs, I always look for the names I don't recognize. And the reason is simple: those are likely the races where I can have the most impact.
There's a good chance that these are signs for local races – school
Decoding Those Political Ads
One chilly autumn evening, as I watched the Phillies kiss another win farewell, a political ad caught my eye.
A young candidate in flannel was talking to a group of weather-worn fisherman on a pier. A real tough-guy voiceover promised that this candidate would hold so and so accountable, would
The Race We Aren't Talking About
I want to talk about 26 people in a rural pocket of Maine.
But let's set the scene first. We're about 12 miles northwest of Portland in a town called Windham. It's home to about 19,000 people, give or take a few hundred
The Secret to Bipartisanship
White oaks are in a bad way.
They need what we all need: sunlight, nourishment, some room to grow. But those wise old controlled burns – the ones the Narragansett, Wampanoag, Pequot used to do to thin out the beeches, birches, maples so the oaks could have some space already – those
Making Good Change No Matter the Election Outcome
My favorite annual seed catalog just arrived in the mailbox, signaling the start of autumn. It comes on that wonderful old newsprint that leaves ink residue on your fingertips. The page of peach trees has instructions for grilling peaches; the page of shrubs has encouraging reminders not to give up
Understanding Politicians' Power & Our Own
Not too long ago, I was giving a summertime workshop on policymaking. And everything I was saying could be boiled down to two syllables: power.
The bones, marrow, and heart of policymaking is power - who has it, who stands to gain or lose it. And the more we understand
Understanding Why Politicians Take Foolish Votes
It's Washington D.C., 1957, Frank Church's first day as a United States Senator from Idaho. And Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson is turning the screws on him.
"Now Frank, you are the youngest member of this Senate, and you have a great future..." the
How to Beef Up Cancer Funding in Two Steps
Who do you think the largest funder of cancer research in the world is?
It's not Susan G. Komen or Lance Armstrong, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation or the American Cancer Society.
It's actually you and me.
Our taxpayer dollars fund