It's been a tough time for progressives. Health care passed, but it came at the cost of the public option and women's reproductive rights. Don't Ask Don't Tell remains in place -- as does Guantanamo -- and the White House continues to shy away from progressive ideas for fear of Tea Party-type retaliation. No wonder a story asking whether Americans are a broken people resonated so deeply with so many AlterNet readers.
Indeed, a lot of the stories we publish on AlterNet tell you about the often dismal state of affairs in the country (and world), but a couple weeks ago -- as the result of feedback from many of you -- we made a commitment to our readers to offer constructive, solution-driven pieces to balance out the muckraking and critical writing you deserve.
We've always published these kinds of stories, but with the launch of the Vision section we are committed to publishing at least one article a day that will provide progressives with creative, innovative ways of rethinking and tackling our society's most pressing problems. The solutions and ideas in these stories range from changes suggested on the societal level to those you can implement in your daily life -- right now.
Here are 10 of the best stories (in no particular order) that we've run in Vision since we launched. We hope the ideas contained therein and the debate and discussion that may result from them will provide progressives with the creative thinking and, yes, vision to press on and fight back.
- We Are in the Middle of Transformational Change: It's Time the Debate Matches Up With the Huge Challenges Ahead of Us (Frank Joyce): Our methods of solving problems for the past 200-300 years are not adequate for the issues we face. The current reality requires much more. We must begin anew.
- The Growing Movement for Publicly Owned Banks (Ellen Brown): We the people have given away our sovereign money-creating power to private, for-profit lending institutions Some states are moving to take that power back.
- Generation Mixed: Breaking the Race Barrier (Adrienne Maree Brown): We can only transform and love ourselves if we accept both the honorable and shameful aspects of our history and our humanity.
- 3 Steps Americans Must Take to Prevent Another Economic Meltdown (Matthew Bishop & Michael Green): We are not going to build a more sustainable, healthier capitalism unless we tackle problems like financial illiteracy and greedy myopia.
- Fighting School Failure Isn't Rocket Science -- We Know What Works (Colin Greer): In the U.S., 30% of youth fail high school every year, and the vast majority come from poor communities and populations of color. We must solve this problem.
- "The Only Way to Survive Is By Taking Care of Each Other" -- Legendary Activist, Philosopher Grace Lee Boggs (Amy Goodman): Do we really want to be equal with the people who ripped us off?
- 7 Food and Resource Crises on the Horizon and What You Can Do About It (Roberta Cruger): There are big problems facing the food industry and agriculture -- a look at what's on the horizon.
- Why Are We Afraid to Say "Socialism"? (Frances Moore Lappé): Knee-jerk reactions to words like "socialism" and "capitalism" get us nowhere. We need to first define the terms.
- Are We Selfish Individuals or an Empathic Society? The Answer Could Determine Whether We Have a Future (Jeremy Rifkin): The industrial age built on and propelled by fossil fuels is coming to an end. What replaces it is at the center of our fight for survival.
- What You're Eating Could Make or Break Our Planet -- 7 Principles of a Climate-Friendly Diet (Jill Richardson): Anna Lappe talks about her new book "Diet for a Hot Planet" and explains how to change our diet so it becomes part of the solution, not the problem.