January 2026 Magazine

I met my first civilian bully in the small Iowa town where I grew up.  A group of us who lived within blocks of one another were outside most of the year, doing everything from playing school in an old coal shed at our house, to afternoons spent at the swimming pool or at our small public library.  We also played softball and tag football regularly, and traded comic books.  Several of us also tracked Hit Parade sheet music and learned it, pretending to offer concerts in the park.  Pretty innocuous, except for the neighborhood bully who lurked on the sidelines or interrupted our activities or our walks by threatening us and impeding our activities.

The explosive growth of economic inequality over the last fifty years and its impact on education, have led to festering, inchoate resentment and distrust of many Americans. They have been left behind, and they know it.  

In Part One of this series, we discussed the how the growing inequality has impacted eighty percent of households in the U.S. and particularly those in the bottom half of median income. The concentration of wealth in the top 10% of households has disturbed our educational outcomes both because of the economic stress on lower income households, and because of the structural effects on our economy. The inequitable distribution of income and wealth has meant a tax system that provides inadequate funding for education, and has devastated the social safety nets for families. It has also created economic segregation in our schools. As a result, our public education outcomes are troubling, our civic literacy is abysmal, and our democratic institutions are faltering. (To read Part One of this series, click here.)

In Part Two, we look more closely at the ways in which unregulated capitalism has failed our society and threatens our democracy. While carefully regulated capitalism can provide healthy incentives for effort and innovation, the breakdown of a regulatory framework is simply a recipe for exploitation and greed by the few.  A just economic system can only be revived by leaders who recognize the dangers of unbridled capitalism and who are unafraid to propose bold action to limit the power of wealth and reinstate the guardrails and safety nets of a social democracy. 

We mourn the murder of Renee Good. Like Renee Good, most Americans are compassionate and caring people who want to build better lives for themselves, their children, and their communities. We are enriched by working together to achieve goals that benefit the common good. We believe in our core democratic principles. We the American people uphold the spirit and letter of the law as set forth in our most sacred documents: U.S Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address.