One of my daily news sources is the 1440 Daily Digest. I find it to be an unbiased daily snapshot of what happened in the last 24 hours. Here's an excerpt from their July 3 digest that I found to be very uplifting:
Tuesday (July 4th) marks the 247th commemoration of the day the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress. The Congress actually voted to separate from Great Britain two days earlier, and most didn't sign the document until August ... and some argue the US didn't really become a country until we began operating under the Constitution in 1789.
Still, since then, the country has grown from 13 colonies with about 2.5 million people to 50 states and 14 territories with a population of more than 330 million. The economy has swelled to over $26T, with a median household income above $70K.
Scientific and technological advances—public sanitation, the germ theory of disease, and more—have revolutionized public health, with our citizens living 35 years longer on average since the mid-20th century. Deaths during childbirth have dropped fiftyfold, while the child mortality rate—the percentage of children dying before age five—has plummeted from 45% to 1%.
We've built almost 4 million miles of paved roads and more than 5,000 public airports. More than 2.7 million miles of power lines electrify the country, with about 85% of households having access to broadband internet and 92% having at least one computer. In 1800, 95% of the population lived in rural areas, and now about 83% live in urban areas.
Almost 90% of adults have a high school degree or equivalent, while just over one-third have a college degree. About 45 million immigrants call America home—the most of any country—while a roughly equal number of international tourists visit each year.
While there will always be challenges to face and improvements to make, we've come a long way since the beginning.
I would not have started Speak Up for Good Government if I wasn't very concerned about our democracy and didn't feel that we can expect much more from Congress and the Federal government. But we have come a long way in 247 years. Hopefully that progress will continue in the next 247 years!
Also this month:
I agreed to chair the Center for Electoral Quality and Integrity. Much more on that in August.
I've added some new website resources:
Allsides and the News Literacy Project to Accurate and Unbiased Voter Info.
AllSides is a media technology and solutions company that strengthens our democratic society with balanced news, media bias ratings, diverse perspectives, and real conversation. They expose people to information and ideas from all sides of the political spectrum so they can better understand the world — and each other.
The mission of the News Literacy Project is to build a national movement to advance the practice of news literacy throughout American society, creating better informed, more engaged and more empowered individuals — and ultimately a stronger democracy.
Win Together to Commitment to Excellence. Win Together® exists to enable performance excellence in local governments.
Have a great month!
