The Joy of Being Human
In the summer of 2026, we mark 250 years since the Declaration of Independence recognized the unalienable human rights of all people and changed the course of history. It is easy to forget that much of the breakthrough political thinking of that moment was rooted not in rugged individualism but in the Golden Rule. Our basic rights and dignity are inherent in our being human, shared with all other human beings, and deserve the full protection of the law, everywhere. That was the revolution—affirming that power can be legitimate only if it acts in service of our humanity.
Our Summer 2026 selection of stories centers the value of honoring each other’s humanity, cultivating what is best and most constructive in our aspirations and abilities, and building the best future we can, together.
Honoring Unalienable Rights
The United States of America was founded on the recognition of a transcendent truth—that all human beings are endowed with inherent, unalienable human rights. No person can be separated from their humanity or their rights, and any authority that seeks…
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The joy of being human
When people are displaced by war and famine, and forced to live in tent cities, far from home, without basic services, children suffer many hardships and deprivations. Not only do they face the hardship of displacement and the perils of…
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Freedom Day
June 19 is Freedom Day. The Juneteenth holiday commemorates the moment when the last enslaved people in the United States were liberated, by order of the Union Army, in Galveston, Texas. While the Emancipation Proclamation had ended human enslavement in…
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Nova Knicks win NBA Championship
The New York Knicks have won their first NBA championship since 1973. That 53-year wait has defined the culture of a diehard fan base that never gives up on their team. Those fans showed up in arenas around the country,…
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Wildfire smoke limits human freedom
Midsummer wildfire smoke from Canada has again flooded the skies across much of the United States. The dangerous levels of smoke stretch from Minnesota to the Atlantic Ocean and as far south as Maryland and Washington, DC.
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Above the climate redline
Climate value is the overall picture of climate-related risk and resilience, tied to and working through planetary systems, local ecology, and the instruments of sustainable human development. Climate value is not priced by the marketplace for consumer goods, so we…
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