The New York Times Magazine this week focused nearly an entire issue on hunger in America.  

America at Hunger’s Edge focuses in words and photos on families across America who are patching together an existence with federal and state programs and local food banks. 

Someone asked me last week if these days of protest feel like 1968. 

No idea. I was 9 years old in 1968. 

But I vividly remember Tommy Smith raising a black gloved, clenched fist on the medal stand at the Mexico City Olympics that year after winning the gold medal and setting a world record in the 200 meters.

Chris Cole is retiring from his job in state government here in Vermont. It’s not a huge deal to the general public. But it matters.

Change takes a long time, especially the good kind. 

You lumber along as a society, a state, a city, a town. Then you wake up one day and things are different. Gay people can get married. Black people and women can vote.  We solve acid rain and ozone depletion. We go to the moon, take down racist monuments, ban plastic bags, defeat AIDS and Ebola. We elect a black president of color.