Civic Essays
What We Owe the Next Generation
There is a kind of conversation that has gone out of fashion in this country, and we are paying for its absence. It is the conversation older people used to [...]
The Havok Journal | Military & Veteran News, Commentary, Culture
- The Day You Stop Learning is the Day You Stop Leading October 14, 2026There is a dangerous point in the career of every successful leader when experience begins to masquerade as expertise. You have been doing the job for twenty years. Maybe thirty. You have led large and small organizations, managed real and imagined crises, built teams, fired people, promoted people, survived failures, and accumulated enough scars to […]Charles Faint
- Flock Cameras See More Than License Plates October 14, 2026Communities across the United States are debating the rapid expansion of Flock Safety cameras and similar automated license plate reader systems. To supporters, these cameras are practical tools that help police locate stolen vehicles, identify suspect vehicles, find missing or endangered people, and develop investigative leads more quickly. To critics, the same technology creates a […]Daniel Dodds
- When the News Started Telling Us How to Feel October 14, 2026Somewhere along the way, news stopped telling us what happened and started telling us how we should feel about it. What was once the art of fact-based observation has morphed into a contest of outrage, sympathy, and partisan identity. Today’s headlines are often less about informing the reader and more about mobilizing emotion — fear, […]Dave Chamberlin
- Moral Injury in Law Enforcement and the Cost of Broken Trust October 13, 2026I have watched officers celebrate an arrest while I was still thinking about how easily someone could have been killed. I have also stood outside a house where a mother and her daughter were barricaded in a bedroom after a request for SWAT had been denied. In both cases, taking the suspect into custody left […]Sergeant Ayman Kafel, MSC
- The Fourth Estate Has Elected Itself Minority Whip October 13, 2026Somewhere in Washington, a cable-news producer has connected a breaking-news siren to Donald Trump’s vocal cords. He clears his throat, the screen turns red, and six political analysts convene to determine whether presidential mucus constitutes an assault on democracy. Meanwhile, nobody bothers explaining what the executive order actually says. Welcome to American journalism, where the […]Tammy Pondsmith
