We are a people who need a frontier. Carl Sagan provided these words as he reflected on space exploration long before Atlantis launched into space for the last time. You’ve seen these reflections on Politicolor through our imagined conversation between Cicero and astronaut Michael Collins. As Sagan notes in this video, the space program did not provide [...]
Posts under ‘YELLOW/Humanity’
Madison on Facebook
In a 1791 essay printed in the National Gazette, James Madison contemplated public opinion and a “general intercourse of sentiments.” He imagined that roads, domestic commerce, and a free press would all work to reveal true public opinion in an expansive country where it would otherwise be easy to counterfeit. Imagine what he would have [...]
Knowing Political Knowledge
In The Politics, Aristotle suggests political knowledge is sovereign knowledge: In all the branches of knowledge and in every kind of craft the end in view is some good. In the most sovereign of these, the capacity for [leadership in] political matters, the end in view is the greatest good and the good which is [...]
Ubuntu and the Birthplace of Cool
I’ve been recently reminded that my own activism has roots in the campaigns for Africa in the 80′s. I convinced my mother to make a donation so I could order a Live Aid t-shirt. I’m sure she hoped the purchase would buy her some quiet time but it wasn’t about the t-shirt for me. I [...]
Project Citizen
Having been briefly introduced to Project Citizen at the National Academy, I decided to try it out this year. It’s an ideal, outcome-based activity as much about the journey as the finish. And the great thing about the finish is that it’s really just the beginning, for students receive the tools to research and formulate [...]
Federalism and the Last Word
Discussing federalism in class? The supremacy clause? International law? Human rights? It’s all here! Supreme Court case pits Bush against Texas over death penalty for Mexican In a case to be heard by the Supreme Court, President Bush wants to stop a Texas execution. With 152 executions carried out during his term as governor, Bush [...]
