Here in New York City, we have weathered an overwhelming storm. Throughout the region, streets and homes lie in ruin. Many of us are without electricity and water. The infrastructure we took for granted is gone, and it is hard to make life feel normal. We worry for our neighbors and loved ones.
I had the privilege of traveling to Venezuela and witnessing the country's October 7 presidential election and watching the South American country's extraordinarily active and engaged citizenry in action. An impressive 81 percent of the electorate participated in a transparent and secure electoral process that former president Jimmy Carter reportedly referred to as the best in the world.
Here we are, one week before the election, in the midst of electoral fatigue. Most citizens feel a deep cynicism about the candidates and the federal government.
As a historic storm hammers the east -- signaling the extremes promised by climate change -- maybe we should listen to the wind. Isn't it telling us to celebrate clean energy's potential and push it forward with new urgency?
As the East Coast and parts of Ohio struggled to regroup in the devastating wake of “Superstorm” Sandy, the Romney campaign hastily transformed a scheduled victory rally in Dayton, Ohio into a non-political “storm relief event” on Tuesday.
If this election is a referendum on the benefit of government then superstorm Sandy should be Exhibit A for the affirmative. The government weather service, using data from government weather satellites delivered a remarkably accurate and sobering long range forecast that both catalyzed action and gave communities sufficient time to prepare. Those visually stunning maps you saw on the web or t.v.
Seaside Height Amusement park is in ruins after Hurricane Sandy made landfall, Seaside Heights, New Jersey, Oct. 30, 2012. (Photo: Tim Husar and Jan Humphreys)We are a week out from the presidential election. We have just had 60 million Americans affected by a hurricane.
Here's a sentence I wish I hadn't written – it rolled out of my Macbook in May, part of an article for Rolling Stone that quickly went viral:Currie Wagner looks over the debris from his grandmother Betty Wagner's house, destroyed by Sandy, in New Jersey. (Photograph: Julio Cortez/AP)
As a historic storm hammers the east -- signaling the extremes promised by climate change -- maybe we should listen to the wind. Isn't it telling us to celebrate clean energy's potential and push it forward with new urgency?
As the East Coast and parts of Ohio struggled to regroup in the devastating wake of “Superstorm” Sandy, the Romney campaign hastily transformed a scheduled victory rally in Dayton, Ohio into a non-political 
