Democracy Blog
thinking while knitting
Why the Electoral College is Undemocratic
A couple weeks ago I drove from my home in Central Vermont through Crawford Notch to Conway NH in the White Mountains. The mountains were beautiful and fortunately the road was clear. I managed to avoid the spring snowstorms and their accompanying avalanche warnings....
Why Supreme Court Ethics Matters to All of Us
On Tuesday, I helped create a parade banner from triangles knit and crocheted by participants in Knit Democracy Together sessions in the Mad River Valley. It’s going to be a great entry in the Warren Fourth of July Parade! There were enough triangles left over to make...
What’s the Role of Newspapers in a Democracy?
Do you read a local newspaper? Bravo for you!Do you even have a decent paper in your community? You’re lucky if you do. A growing portion of our country lives in news deserts. Forbes reports that “of the 3,143 counties in the U.S., 200 of them no longer have a daily...
Speaking Up to Stop Gerrymandering
A couple weeks ago, I phoned several dozen strangers in New Hampshire. Joining with other volunteers on Zoom, I tapped into the enthusiasm and youthful energy of the organizer. Then I logged in to the phone bank on my computer. Frankly, I would rather have spent the...
Shining Light on the “Big Lie”
On the seventh night of Chanukah, Knit Democracy Together was the focus in my local synagogue’s Shine a Light series. This program highlights a different social action project each night. There were oohs and aahs for the three state capitols we’ve constructed (The New...
Restoring Representative Government with Majority Rule
After holding half a dozen Zoom-based knitting circles, I held an in-person Knit Democracy Together circle on Saturday. The setting was the historic 19th century Kent Tavern in rural Calais, Vermont. The state-owned building is open one month a year for a wonderful...