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What a 700-year-old fresco can teach America

Columns

There are moments when history reaches across the centuries with startling clarity. Standing in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, Italy, and looking at Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s “Allegory of Good and Bad Government,” I had one of those moments. Nearly 700 years old, the series of fresco paintings includes a depiction of a bustling city that illustrates the effects of good government, as well as representations of the decay that results from arbitrary and unjust rulers. The visual treatise on political economy holds important lessons for us today. Lorenzetti’s city isn’t thriving ...

Americans are not as well off as people in peer nations – US safety net’s shortfalls show up in global data

Columns

As the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence, the global data we collect and analyze shows that the country is failing to “promote the general Welfare,” as the Constitution’s framers promised a little more than a decade later. We are scholars of human rights. Alongside the Human Rights Measurement Initiative, a nonprofit that tracks how well more than 200 countries and territories are meeting the human rights commitments their governments have made, we annually update scores measuring whether people can actually get the basics of a ...

Dear Annie: Hoping to heal a hurting family

Columns

Dear Annie: I’ve been married for 35 years and have four children and seven grandchildren. We are a blended family. All the children lived with, and were raised by, my husband and me. One of my daughters was always kind of a black sheep, always doing things outside the box. As a young child, teen and adult, she always did it differently. So much so that, as she got older, it actually started to hurt our family and the other children. She moved out in her early 20s, and I thought things would get better, but they just got worse. Then she came and told us she was pregnant and getting ...

Looking at therapeutic plasma exchange for MS prevention

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: I was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) at the age of 46. The course of the disease was mild for me with only three identifiable MS attacks (in both my spine and brain). Although I initially resisted treatment, I took Copaxone shots for seven years before my neurologist believed that it was safe to discontinue treatment. Since this time, I haven’t had any new attacks, only some occasional balance issues and lingering weakness in my left leg. My concern is secondary progressive MS (SPMS) and the possible consequences of an occurrence. I’ve ...

The Smithsonian’s patriotism problem

Columns

“Warning: The exhibits in this museum were prepared by people who don’t want you to love your country.” That’s a disclaimer every entrance to the National Museum of American History ought to display, according to a new report by the White House excoriating the Smithsonian Institution and its flagship museum. But it doesn’t take a 160-page report to show what’s wrong with the Smithsonian — just walk into any of its museums. With a bit of time on my hands in the Chinatown area of Washington, D.C., last year, I decided to take a stroll through the National Portrait ...

Dear Annie: When social media likes define self-worth

Columns

Dear Annie: My 14-year-old daughter spends far too much time on social media, and I am beginning to see it affect her mood, confidence and sleep. She checks her phone the moment she wakes up and often stays online long after she is supposed to be asleep. If a friend posts a picture without her, she becomes upset. If one of her own posts does not get enough likes, she worries that people are mad at her or no longer think she is popular. Recently, I took her phone away for the weekend after discovering she had been awake past midnight scrolling through videos. She cried and told me I ...