2019 got off to a bumpy start, but there are good reasons to believe it could be a transformative year. From my latest piece on Huffington Post … … Powerful movements arising from the grassroots are making real change. This activism is largely overlooked by the media, which remains mesmerized by the brinksmanship of Trump… Read More The World is Broken. Here’s How We Fix It.
Originally published in Huffington Post, by Sarah van Gelder The separation of children from parents now taking place at the southern border is not new in American history. Slave families were routinely torn apart by owners. And Native American children were removed from their homes, often forcibly, and sent to boarding schools, foster care or… Read More Healing from the Dark Legacy Of Ripping Children From Their Families
A society that fails to invest in its children, to protect its land and water, or to build a future is courting collapse. Republicans in Congress and President Trump got their big political victory: a tax overhaul that vastly benefits the superrich and corporations at the expense of nearly everyone else. On one hand, it’s… Read More Tax Overhaul and the Immorality of Inequality
Note: Building long-term power in our communities is what PeoplesHub.org is about. New online trainings and workshops launch April 2, designed to get local groups working strategically and inclusively, building power that is independent of any political party. It’s no secret that many voters are ticked off with the Democratic Party. By more than two… Read More 9 Ways to Use the Midterm Elections to Build Sustainable Local Power
It has become an all-too-familiar sight—websites, posters, collection jars with photos of children, mothers, young people who need medical care they can’t afford. Some will not receive life-saving treatment without this help. All too often, the bills will saddle the family with a debt burden that will follow them for years—sometimes for life. Getting sick,… Read More Forgiving Medical Debt: How Occupy, John Oliver, Nurses, and High School Students Made It Happen
Wisconsin dairy farmers reminded me not to allow Fox News and the NRA to define groups of people. I thought I knew something about Wisconsin politics. I assumed the state was neatly divided between blue cities, like Madison and Milwaukee, and solidly red rural areas that twice elected Governor Scott Walker, one of the nation’s… Read More What I Got Wrong About the Rural–Urban Divide
One of the most chilling reasons for being sent back to prison is failure to pay a fine or court or supervision fees. The United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world, climbing from 600,000 to over 2 million in just a few decades. We also have the highest percentage of our population… Read More Yes, Lots of People Go to Jail Because They Can’t Pay a Fine
Imagination, as Hawaiian Native rights advocate Poka Laenui describes it, is more than an antidote to hopelessness. It is a source of power. There are many consequences to the near daily barrage of lies, violence, bigotry, and vulgarity produced by the Trump administration. One impact: This atmosphere crowds out space for imagining and creating… Read More We Need Radical Imagination
The next women’s march is in the works. Although big mobilizations are important, if we want to build power, we have to build sustained organization. Last year at this time, a giant women’s march was in the planning stages. It turned out to be among the largest in U.S. history, according to theWashington Post. Between 4… Read More We Must March. But We Must Also Organize Locally
The place where we live is where we can find our power. I’ve been writing a year-end column for YES! for years. Previously, my aim was to find the strands of hope from the past year that can be woven into new possibilities in the next year. But as I sat down to write this… Read More We Can Reimagine and Reinvent Our Society in 2018
The Revolution Where You Live 