Articles on PR for People

What Does It Take to Effect Change?

As we move closer to the February 13 deadline for a Senate vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), it’s important to remember that DHS contains not only ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), but also the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Coast Guard.  So effecting any form of change in a budget document is challenging with such considerations.

 

 


Samantha Yun Wall Reclaims Her Past

Korean American artist Samantha Yun Wall explores cultural duality, memory, and societal stigma in her first major solo exhibition, which opened earlier this month at the Seattle Art Museum and runs through October 4.


Book Review: Stony The Road We Trod, Volume One and Volume Two

Stony The Road We Trod is a family saga spread across two volumes that are inextricably linked and essential reading to acquire an understanding of the joys, triumphs and struggles borne by the Grimke family. A former slave-holding family in Charleston, South Carolina, the Grimke lineage spans across race ethnicity, religion, and cultural norms. Greater than the usual fare of historical fiction, Stony The Road We Trod is the quintessential American story.  

 


The Threatened Swan by Jan Asselijn

A great painting has many meanings. The oil painting of The Threatened Swan by Dutch Artist Jan Asselijn was created around 1650. The swan appears to be threatened by a dog rearing its ugly head. Some claim the swan is mute. The swan could be protecting its cygnets, as they often ride on their mother’s back, although none are seen. 


Alex Pretti Killed by ICE

On January 24, 2026, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old American intensive care nurse for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, was shot and killed by ICE Agents. In his final moments of life, he was helping a woman who had been pushed to the ground by ICE agents. His last words, “Are you okay?,” will forever echo in American history. He will be remembered.


REVISITING JOHN RAWLS

In Part Three  (Revisiting John Rawls) of the series THE ROOTS OF RESENTMENT, we contrast the ideological underpinnings of the social Darwinist and the communitarian viewpoints as they relate to the economic basis of society.  In responding to this crisis, John Rawls Theory of Justice provides the theoretical framework.  Considering this theory, we propose some of the practical implications for current politics.


EXTINCTION! A Mortality Tale

We have been warned – repeatedly.  We are headed toward the self-destruction of humankind as a species. Indeed, all the other aerobic (oxygen consuming) species on Earth may also be in jeopardy. The latest threat to our species is the rapidly melting permafrost in the Arctic, and the rise there in lethal methane producing sinkholes.  


NOTES FROM THE WORKING CLASS: Belle’s Big Burden

Belle Burden was given the opportunity to write a big book about divorce. Burden’s book, Stranger: A Memoir of Marriage, is a tell-all about nothing at all. It could be perceived as revenge porn, but the characters never take off their clothes to have hot sex.


The Epstein Files Spark a Class Conflict

Class conflict in America has been primarily framed either in economic terms favored by the left or in cultural terms favored by the right. The Epstein files could be presented from either perspective, but their most potent impact has been the cultural division they expose between an elite class and Trump’s populist base.


January 2026 Magazine

The killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent is the equivalent of the canary singing in the coal mine. Numerous eyewitness accounts, along with disturbing video footage, explain how Renee Good was killed. Yet the President and other top administration officials would have us believe that her murder was justified. They are lying to the American people—that’s called Gaslighting.  In her article Rx for an Ailing Nation, Barbara Lloyd McMichael writes about the public health concerns coming out of the federal government. She interviews Dr. Stephen Bezruchka, whose new book Inequality Kills Us All: COVID-19’s Health Lessons for the World examines the ever-expanding gap in healthcare between the haves and the have-nots in America. Rosemary Curran writes about the roots of resentment amid the explosive growth of economic inequality. The second part of her three-part series asks: Can a Capitalist Society be Equitable?  On a lighter note, my essay Krystal and the Deep Blue Sea is a profile of a young San Diego woman who is a self-styled acolyte of Elon Musk. At PR for People, we think the killing of Renee Good has coalesced our American values and propelled us to take action to Standup #ForGood.  –Patricia Vaccarino