One of my favorite Grateful Dead songs, belted out with characteristic conviction by Bob Weir, is “I Need a Miracle.” I think of it often when I go to work.
“One more thing I’ve just got to say: I need a miracle ev-e-ry day.”
And, ev-e-ry day at The Progressive, it happens.
It may be an announcement of a major donation just when we need it most, which is always. It may be a nice note with a small check from a longtime supporter, appreciatively read aloud to the staff. It may be landing a beautifully reported dispatch from Afghanistan by peace activist Kathy Kelly. It may be how we work together to plow through thousands of words of copy each day, all reviewed by multiple editors and painstakingly fact-checked.
Brent Nicastro
Ed Staff
Back row: Alexandra Tempus, Jess Pernsteiner, Mrill Ingram, Daniel Libby. Front row: Norman Stockwell, Bill Lueders with Stella.
You can see from the photo that accompanies this piece what a small operation we are. There are just six of us, working out of an office across the street from the state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin. Just six of us who produce a high-quality national magazine, feed a robust website with fresh daily offerings, and run two major initiatives: the Public School Shakedown, which tracks attacks on public education, and the Progressive Media Project, through which we train writers and distribute op-eds on topics of progressive interest to media outlets throughout the country. This year we are on track to distribute about ninety columns, reaching millions of readers.
Just six of us, plus my dog, Stella, who comes to work most days.
Just six of us, plus our excellent art director, Kerstin Vogdes Diehn, who lives in New Jersey; two outstanding proofreaders; and a changing cast of talented interns. Just us, plus regular contributors including Ruth Conniff, our editor-at-large; John Nichols, the closest modern-day equivalent of Fighting Bob La Follette; and columnists Mike Ervin, Dave Zirin, Maeve Higgins, Negin Farsad, and Jim Hightower.
Plus the dozens of other writers we work with from all around the globe. Some web regulars: Jeff Abbott, who writes from Latin America; Midwest correspondent Sarah Jaffe and political commentator Jud Lounsbury; legal issues reporter Bill Blum; and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Mark Fiore.
Yes, The Progressive is, on one level, just six people and one dog. But we are the stone soup of publications, drawing in flavor from many sources.
We have tens of thousands of loyal subscribers, some of whom have been enjoying the magazine for decades, others who have joined the fold in recent years. We have hundreds of thousands of web readers, drawn to our high-quality daily offerings.
At a time when a distressing number of outlets are folding—in just the last few months, Pacific Standard and Governing magazines and the progressive website ThinkProgress have gone the way of The Village Voice and so many others—The Progressive is still eking out the miracle of survival, issue by issue, day by day.
In fact, our circulation numbers and web readership are both growing, providing mounting evidence of our continued relevance.
This issue offers further proof. We have stories by Elizabeth King and Simon Davis-Cohen on the criminalization of nonviolent protest; by Mike Kuhlenbeck and Michael Sainato on companies that prey on the poor, through aggressive towing and the predatory placement of dollar stores, respectively; by Kalena Thomhave on how states are forcing people to work for their health care, no matter how difficult that may be; and by the aforementioned Jeff Abbott on how President Donald Trump is enabling the rise of authoritarianism throughout Latin America.
But wait, there’s more: a positive piece by animal rights activist Karen Dawn on the advent of cruelty-free cultured meat (if that’s the right term for it); a shocking essay by Kathleen Coskran on an inmate serving what could amount to a life sentence for stealing $136 more than thirty-seven years ago; a look back on the 400th anniversary of the arrival of slaves to the colonies by Kevin Powell; and a lovely excerpt from a new book by the great Imani Perry, who wrote an original piece for The Progressive earlier this year.
Perry’s book is framed as a long essay to her sons; in the excerpt we use, she urges them to have the courage to become who they are. A purpose-driven life—and resistance to injustice—depends on that. Those who rise to the occasion can perform miracles.
Bill Lueders
Editor