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Recent Articles
  • [ May 15, 2026 ] What We Owe the Next Generation Civic Essays
  • [ May 9, 2026 ] Veterans and the Civic Compact Veterans
  • [ April 28, 2026 ] Local Power: Where the Country Actually Changes Civic Essays
  • [ April 11, 2026 ] The Constitution Is Not Poetry: A Citizen’s Reading List Civic Essays
  • [ March 24, 2026 ] How to Spot a Real Leader: A Four-Pillar Test Civic Essays
  • [ March 8, 2026 ] Reading the News Like a Citizen: A Media Literacy Field Guide Civic Essays
  • [ February 22, 2026 ] Why Outrage Killed the Argument Civic Essays
  • [ February 5, 2026 ] Personal Accountability Before Public Outrage Civic Essays
  • [ January 19, 2026 ] Reflecting on Dr. Bernice King’s Message of Building Bridges, Not Walls Civic Essays
  • [ January 14, 2026 ] The Independent Voter: The Audience Both Parties Forgot Politics
  • [ December 29, 2025 ] The Long Surrender: How Comfort Becomes Complicity Civic Essays
  • [ November 21, 2025 ] Standing in Silence Civic Essays
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  • [ December 15, 2024 ] Coach Rod Returns to the Mountain State Sidetracks
  • [ January 10, 2024 ] The Ticking Clock of Transformation: How Ignorance Shapes a Nation Civic Essays
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  • [ December 11, 2023 ] Mega Crab Meat Cheat Sheet Sidetracks
  • [ December 11, 2023 ] Joe Biden’s Quest for the Perfect Ice Cream Flavor: A Satirical Odyssey Chuckle Chamber
  • [ December 11, 2023 ] The Evolution of Behavior: From Asshole Children to Asshole Adults Chuckle Chamber
  • [ December 11, 2023 ] Joining Forces for Truth: An Open Invitation to Like-Minded Independents Civic Essays
  • [ December 10, 2023 ] A Call to Unblemished Independence: Fostering a New Wave of Visionary Leaders Civic Essays
  • [ December 9, 2023 ] Divisiveness in a Nation: Tracing the Trajectory of Discord Civic Essays
  • [ December 8, 2023 ] Embracing Independence: The Compelling Case for Independent Candidates Politics
  • [ December 7, 2023 ] The Imperative of Leadership Excellence: Why Our Leaders Must Be the Best of Us Civic Essays
  • [ December 6, 2023 ] Ode to the Unyoked Civic Essays
  • [ December 5, 2023 ] A Voter’s Guide to Responsible Citizenship: Civic Essays
  • [ December 4, 2023 ] Unveiling Incompetency: Assessing Politicians’ Mental Cognition Politics
  • [ April 5, 2021 ] Joe Manchin and What Influence May Come Politics
  • [ March 29, 2021 ] Zach Snyder’s Cut Sidetracks
  • [ October 5, 2020 ] New Candidate in West Virginia’s 1st Congressional District Election Politics
  • [ September 15, 2020 ] YOU, Are Not Worthy of the Title, American Civic Essays
  • [ July 1, 2020 ] Bostock v. Clayton County Analysis Civic Essays
  • [ June 22, 2020 ] Green Energy – The Future of Solar Energy Sidetracks
  • [ June 22, 2020 ] Broken System Politics
  • [ June 20, 2020 ] Where Is The Love Civic Essays
  • [ June 10, 2020 ] “Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be.” Civic Essays
  • [ June 10, 2020 ] Yes, Black Lives Matter! Civic Essays
  • [ March 23, 2020 ] You’ll Rebel to Anything- MSI Sidetracks
  • [ March 20, 2020 ] Together-We Can Civic Essays
  • [ March 19, 2020 ] Please Stop Moving Sidetracks
  • [ March 14, 2020 ] Why Are Our Leaders Continuing To Fail US? Civic Essays
  • [ June 5, 2017 ] Lightning Savior Kids Corner
  • [ June 5, 2017 ] Starting Out Beards
  • [ June 2, 2017 ] False Security Civic Essays
  • [ June 2, 2017 ] Different Styles for Different Men Beards
  • [ June 1, 2017 ] What to Expect When You’re Expecting Beards
  • [ May 29, 2017 ] Cost of Freedom Civic Essays
  • [ April 10, 2017 ] Guns Civic Essays
  • [ April 10, 2017 ] Facts of Our Fictions and Fictions of Our Facts Civic Essays
  • [ April 9, 2017 ] The Real Epidemic – Suffering From Chronic Pain Sidetracks
HomeAuthorsShawn Paul Cosner

Articles by Shawn Paul Cosner

About Shawn Paul Cosner
Shawn Paul Cosner writes about civic duty and the kind of leadership that brings the best out of anyone in the room. Much of his work pushes back against the intentional division being sold to citizens as identity — and the corresponding collapse of civility that has made it harder to think clearly, harder to argue honestly, and harder to live as fellow citizens of the same country. He argues that the republic gets the future its citizens deserve, and that the work of building anything better starts with how each of us shows up. U.S. Army veteran. Juris Doctor, Appalachian School of Law.
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Four generations of a family photographed together — baby, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother
Civic Essays

What We Owe the Next Generation

May 15, 2026 Shawn Paul Cosner 0

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 have with younger people about […]

Rows of graves at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day
Veterans

Veterans and the Civic Compact

May 9, 2026 Shawn Paul Cosner 0

There is a kind of contract that gets signed in this country every year by hundreds of thousands of young people, and almost nobody who hasn’t signed it ever reads the fine print. The contract […]

Citizens gathered at a town hall meeting in West Hartford, Connecticut
Civic Essays

Local Power: Where the Country Actually Changes

April 28, 2026 Shawn Paul Cosner 0

Every four years this country has a nervous breakdown over the presidency. We argue, we fund-raise, we yell at our relatives, we vote, and then we spend the next four years either celebrating or grieving. […]

Page one of the United States Constitution
Civic Essays

The Constitution Is Not Poetry: A Citizen’s Reading List

April 11, 2026 Shawn Paul Cosner 0

September 17th is Constitution Day in this country. Most people do not know that, which is itself a quiet indictment. We talk about the Constitution constantly. We invoke it in arguments. We accuse other people […]

The National Capitol Columns at the United States National Arboretum
Civic Essays

How to Spot a Real Leader: A Four-Pillar Test

March 24, 2026 Shawn Paul Cosner 0

Most of the leaders we hand power to in this country are picked the wrong way. We pick them by charisma. We pick them by name recognition. We pick them by who looks the part […]

Front page of The New York Times from November 11, 1918
Civic Essays

Reading the News Like a Citizen: A Media Literacy Field Guide

March 8, 2026 Shawn Paul Cosner 0

There is a difference between consuming news and reading the news. Most Americans do the first. Hardly anyone does the second. Consuming news means letting whatever happens to surface in front of you, on a […]

Crowd of protestors at a public demonstration
Civic Essays

Why Outrage Killed the Argument

February 22, 2026 Shawn Paul Cosner 0

There used to be a thing in this country called an argument. Two people, often disagreeing strongly, would sit in a room or stand in a parking lot or write back and forth in letters, […]

Mount Hood reflected in the still surface of Mirror Lake, Oregon
Civic Essays

Personal Accountability Before Public Outrage

February 5, 2026 Shawn Paul Cosner 0

There is a strange habit that has taken over the way Americans talk about wrongdoing. The moment something terrible happens, the first instinct is not to ask what we should learn from it, but to […]

Dr. Bernice King addressing the audience at East Tennessee State University during Civility Month, 2017
Civic Essays

Reflecting on Dr. Bernice King’s Message of Building Bridges, Not Walls

January 19, 2026 Shawn Paul Cosner 0

Originally published in The East Tennessean, East Tennessee State University’s student newspaper, March 26, 2017, following Dr. Bernice King’s lecture at ETSU during Civility Month. Reprinted on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, 2026, because the […]

A polling station with voters and ballot boxes
Politics

The Independent Voter: The Audience Both Parties Forgot

January 14, 2026 Shawn Paul Cosner 0

Walk into any room in this country and ask people what party they belong to, and you’ll get one of three answers. Republican. Democrat. Or some version of “I don’t really fit anywhere.” That third […]

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