Places to Go for Voter Education
In June, I wrote about my difficulty in finding information to help me vote intelligently in our state and local primary elections. I bemoaned the loss of local news sources…
A Most Unsatisfying Experience
On Tuesday June 23, I went to my regular polling site, an elementary school in Bethesda, MD, to vote in my locale’s primary elections. Beforehand, I tried to learn about…
Language, Liberty & the Weight of America’s 250th Anniversary
Shortly after Planet Word opened, I told our programming staff that we needed to begin thinking about how we would observe special, word-related occasions. Well, the biggest one of all…
On the Coarsening of Public Discourse
I spent a couple weeks trying to draft one of my Messages from the Founder about students not reading whole texts in school (or out of school for that matter)…
Writer’s Block
Wasn’t it fortunate and timely, I thought, that just when words started to be the news — as opposed to simply being used to record and report the news —…
Words Under Threat
My instinctive reaction to the broad, undifferentiated cuts to federal departments and programs was skepticism and distress. Would the cuts affect the cleanliness of our air and water, the safety…