What is changing is that despite decades of anti-immigrant rhetoric, I believed the line would be drawn at turning these services into weapons. That the government would not use school records, Medicaid applications, or tax forms to target the families that feed our nation.
Five years after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police, Black Lives Matter activist Martin Henson reflects on Floyd’s legacy and the change that hasn’t come.
If the church really wants to entice an increasingly nonreligious society to come back into its fold, it is their responsibility to move past its own ego and provide a place for people to process their church hurt.
My church hurt was simple. One of my pastors cheated on his wife. The church fractured. I felt betrayed by the contradictions I witnessed, not yet old enough to understand that the church is made up of people who make mistakes.
Regardless of party, most people hate politics, they distrust the system, and they feel left behind, unheard, and sidelined. I understood how they felt. So how could I reconcile this with being an elected official? I decided on an “ambitious” idea — aiming to talk to people.
These town halls have very little format, lots of me answering questions, sharing frustrations, and inviting people to help me solve the problems. It’s risky, no doubt, for an elected official to deviate from the script, but to meet this moment it’s also necessary. Opening yourself to a dialogue, answering any question asked can be a challenge, but importantly it also humanizes our decision-makers.
We depend on Duke for electricity. They need to deliver that. But Duke also shouldn’t put shareholder profits over careful stewardship of the natural resources that we all depend on.
A staggering 86 percent of voters between 30-40 years old say housing costs are impacting their ability to reach other financial goals, like saving for retirement, starting a family, or buying a first home.
I see this data as a call to action—not just for lawmakers, but for all of us.