Author: cary

The Machinery of Democracy: Literature as a Software Service and a Public Good

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In 2020, Kanye West tried to get on the presidential ballot in Wisconsin. He needed 2,000 signatures. He submitted 2,422. Election officials ruled that he had fallen 14 seconds short of the 5 p.m. filing deadline. Fourteen seconds. The decision was appealed, litigated, and ultimately upheld. Whether you think Kanye West should have been on Read More “The Machinery of Democracy: Literature as a Software Service and a Public Good”

The Quiet Return of Taxation Without Representation

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Bruce Richardson has spent a lifetime around tea. He runs Elmwood Inn Fine Teas in Danville, Kentucky, imports leaves from dozens of countries, and advises the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum. Few people alive think more carefully about how a global commodity intersects with American history. When Richardson looks at the current tariff regime, Read More “The Quiet Return of Taxation Without Representation”

The Library as a Blueprint for a Better Society

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A weekday afternoon in a public library offers a small, revealing portrait of the country we actually live in. A high school student spreads out notebooks at a corner table. A job seeker scrolls through postings on a public computer. A retiree settles into a chair with the newspaper. A parent guides a toddler toward Read More “The Library as a Blueprint for a Better Society”

America’s Most Underrated Engine of Opportunity

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Evening light spills across the parking lot of a community college as classrooms begin to fill for the night. Students arrive carrying backpacks that look a little more worn than the glossy ones in admissions brochures. Many come straight from work. Some have already put children to bed. A few will leave early if a Read More “America’s Most Underrated Engine of Opportunity”

How a Consumer Protection Law Became a Corporate Accounting Game

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A woman stands at a pharmacy counter on a gray Tuesday afternoon, sliding her insurance card across the laminate. She does not know that the company paying for her prescription also owns the store that fills it. She does not know that the money moving from insurer to pharmacy never truly leaves the same corporate Read More “How a Consumer Protection Law Became a Corporate Accounting Game”

Adaptive Hiring: A Human-Centered Way to Build Future-Ready Teams

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Tuesday mornings in shared workspaces look the same across the country. Coffee cups gather beside laptops. Notifications blink with quiet urgency. Someone posts a job opening and hopes for the best. Another forwards a résumé that seems good enough to relieve the pressure of being short-staffed. Familiar phrases slide into place. Bachelor’s degree preferred. Five Read More “Adaptive Hiring: A Human-Centered Way to Build Future-Ready Teams”

How Immigration Policy Became a Health Care Shortage

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On a quiet street in Shelby, North Carolina, a medical office sat ready for a colleague who would never arrive. The appointments had been made, the charts prepared, the patients with failing kidneys told that relief was finally coming. The new nephrologist, trained in India and credentialed in the United States, remained thousands of miles Read More “How Immigration Policy Became a Health Care Shortage”

The New Year’s Resolution Hidden in Our Supply Chains

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On a gray Tuesday morning in a former warehouse on the edge of a Midwestern city, a small factory hums to life. The building once stored imported goods that arrived weeks late and left even later, tracked carefully but used slowly. Today, that same space produces what the surrounding community needs within days, sometimes hours. Read More “The New Year’s Resolution Hidden in Our Supply Chains”

January Is for Deployment, Not Declarations

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Every January arrives carrying an unreasonable burden. We ask it to reset habits, clarify purpose, and somehow compensate for everything that felt unfinished the year before. The calendar turns, inboxes slow, and a brief quiet settles over our work. That quiet feels like possibility, like a blank page. But here’s what it actually is: the Read More “January Is for Deployment, Not Declarations”