Author: Carma Henry

       Congress is now in August recess, when members return home to reconnect with constituents. For Democrats, this month isn’t vacation time; it’s a lifeline. While Republicans flee tough questions, Democrats can prove they’re listening through town halls, door-knocking, and direct engagement with working families who’ve lost faith in the party.

Controlling Our Communities and Because DC is Black

     Yeah, I said it, not abstractly or politically, but personally. It’s not simply that “people” are going to die, or “you” are going to die. I’m going to die. I don’t know when. I’m full of determination, just shy of age 79, to stay alive and functional, but doing so ain’t what it used to be. Ouch. Simply standing up now takes the sort of effort I once exerted walking a mile. Our Hero (as I call myself) is functionally ebbing.

     If I’m completely honest, I can’t recall all the twists and turns of 1984. I probably read it in high school or maybe as an undergrad, somewhere alongside Animal Farm. They’re the kind of books teachers press into young hands to spark critical thinking, to push us to look beyond the surface, question the official story, and spot the sleight of hand in politics and power. What has stayed with me isn’t the fine detail of the plot, but the feeling it left behind: that the words on the page were not just fiction, but a warning, one I wasn’t sure I needed at the time, but which feels uncomfortably relevant now.

     Nebraska’s Congressman Mike Flood had just gotten a tongue-lashing from constituents at a town hall meeting, facing tough questions and ultimately chants of “vote him out!” by Democrats angered by his support for Trump’s policies.

      For 80 years, since the atomic bombs were dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world has stood at the brink of nuclear war with the potential for catastrophic loss, threatening all of humanity. Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara said in the years after the Cuban missile crisis that indeed sheer luck was what prevented nuclear war, not superior weapons, brinkmanship, or knowledge. There have been multiple other times where nuclear launch countdowns have begun from misinterpretation, human error, or technological glitch. In the end, like Las Vegas gamblers, the question is how long will our luck hold out? The odds are not in our favor. The only way to prevent nuclear war is by the complete elimination of these weapons.

     The use of atomic bombs was rationalized after-the-fact using myths that transformed the burning of children into a positive good. President Truman and government propagandists justified the attacks claiming they “ended the war” and “saved lives” ⸺ stories still believed today ⸺ but, as historian Gar Alperovitz has demonstrated in The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb, and the Architecture of an American Myth the pretext of “saving lives” was fabricated.

OBBBA: Learning the Deduction Details

       This vital work can continue due to a recent federal court ordering the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to release nearly $32 million in already-appropriated funds to organizations that support fair housing enforcement, to ensure that all people have equal access to home sales and rentals, finance, insurance, appraisals and more.

       More than a decade later, our just-released 2025 Black Women in American Politics Report shows how far we’ve come. The United States has seen a steady increase in the number of Black women running, winning and leading in elected representation. As of this year, eight of the 37 women leading America’s 100 largest cities are Black. That’s more than a third of all women mayors in major cities, clear evidence of not just progress, but momentum.