All results / Stories / Ben Jealous
Protecting Their Dream Homes from a Fracking Nightmare
Forever home. That’s how folks from Aurora I met last week describe the houses they bought outside Denver. Now those dream homes are caught in what may be America's most dire urban fracking nightmare.
Cutting Tailpipe Pollution Starts at Home for New York City
For Leslie Vasquez, an activist with South Bronx Unite, the same word describes the need and the timeline for New York City to act on climate pollution -- immediate.
Having Our Say Against Carbon Pollution
More than one million Americans told the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week that they aren’t willing to wait any longer.
Unlikely Allies and Uncomfortably Large Coalitions
“Spend your energy figuring out what’s the one thing that you can agree on with a political foe,” Gen. Colin Powell told me years ago. “Figure that out and you can get a lot done.”
Bold Leadership and Historic Investment are Launching Climate Renewal
The last Apollo mission launched a few weeks before I was born. I grew up hearing people describe an audacious goal as a “moonshot.”
Good Jobs Will Come from a Cleaner EconomyGood Jobs Will Come from a Cleaner Economy
I traveled recently from Baltimore, the city where my mother grew up, to Portland, Maine, where my dad did. It’s easy for many to see differences between one of the Blackest cities in America and largest city in one of the whitest states in the country.
What We Shouldn’t Permit
Picture a mountain valley somewhere in the Alleghanies, Appalachians or Blue Ridge. It’s a safe bet what you just imagined didn’t include a metal pipeline more than three feet wide running down a steep ridge or crossing a pristine stream.
It Shouldn't Take a Fiery Crash and Toxic Spill to Push Action on Railroad Safety
People around East Palestine, Ohio, have been warned not to run their vacuum cleaners.
Milestones Show Us Where We’ve Come From, Where We Need to Go
Two things happened last week — one public, the other personal — that made me reflect on how far we’ve come as a nation, how we got here, and what it will take to keep that journey moving forward.
One Nation, Indivisble
It strikes me that the days we’re living through represent a metaphor for our national dilemma. January 6th and the weight of history that date carries are in the rearview mirror, at least on the calendar. Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream still is on the horizon.
Seven Top Takeaways from this Year’s Midterms
As the dust settles on the midterm elections and the warnings of a “Red Wave” evaporate, it’s time to take a deep breath and take stock of what we’ve learned. There are many takeaways from the elections this year – and here are a few that top the list for me.
Tell the Supreme Court: We Still Need Affirmative Action
One of the great joys of my life is teaching. I’m fortunate to teach classes on social justice at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the most respected schools in the country. Penn has a longstanding commitment to affirmative action, and I have seen first-hand how diversity in the classroom benefits all my students. There’s just no question that diversity is a core piece of a vibrant academic community and a critical part of the learning experience – for all of us. Bringing together students with different lived experiences forces students to think critically about their assumptions, which is an essential goal of a university education.
Artists Help Capture Our Political Chaos
Art can be a powerful tool for social change. Sometimes that threatens people in power.
Modeling the Spirit of Democracy
Some things are unthinkable—until they happen. For Jamie Raskin, a congressman and father, the first unthinkable thing was the loss of his beloved son Tommy to suicide on New Year’s Eve 2020. As a father myself, my heart breaks when I imagine the grief experienced by Raskin and his family.
This November, Unite to Defend The Black Vote
Right before our last national elections in 2020, thousands of Black voters in Detroit got a call from someone posing as a woman named “Tamika Taylor.” She warned them that if they voted, the government would collect their personal information and come after them for credit card debt, outstanding warrants, even forced vaccinations. The calls were a voter suppression scam, and the two white guys behind it were prosecuted. But we’ll never know how many people were nervous enough to avoid voting that year.
Black Women Holding Trump Accountable
Former President Donald Trump has spent a lifetime getting away with things. Rich and willing to use an army of lawyers to defend his abuses and bully people he has wronged into submission, Trump is a prime example of the inequities in our justice system.
Book Bans Are an Attack on the Freedom to Read, Teach and Learn
Truth is a threat to authoritarianism. Reading is a path to truth. That’s why the freedom to read is essential to the freedom to learn. And that’s why the freedom to learn is often attacked by those who abuse power and those who cling to it.
Accountability: An Insurrectionist Removed From Office
A New Mexico judge has done the country a big favor. Judge Francis Mathew upheld a little-known provision of the U.S. Constitution and removed a public official for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. I hope other judges have the courage to follow his lead.
Prev Next
