John de Graaf is currently directing a new film about America’s champion of beauty in public policy. Stewart Udall was Secretary of the Interior during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. As such, he was the lead advocate for many of the most important environmental laws we now take for granted.
Annie Searle writes about A Divided Country. A significant number of Americans continue to believe that the presidential election was “stolen” from former President Trump and that the current administration is bogus. What does that mean for the rest of us?
I’m happy to announce that I’ve read my snob book for the year. This brilliant collection of essays had me hungering for the lunatic-fringe side of writing.
The first line of John Keats’ poem "Endymion" has long been quoted by pundits and other poets. "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever," wrote Keats. But I wonder if beauty provides lasting joy? I often think of beauty as something we experience in the moment.
The story of Dorothy Day's life reveals the paradoxical struggle between her profound loneliness and intense joy. The two emotions of loneliness and joy are never at cross purposes and instead hang in the balance, protected by the bliss of knowing God.
For the first time in four decades, we have a new national holiday, the Juneteenth National Independence Day. It celebrates the liberation of Black American slaves from the last city enslaving them in Galveston, Texas.
Barbara Lloyd McMichael’s monthly column examines the history of key government agencies and how they are “Building Back Better” under the Biden Administration.
