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On average, nearly 34,000 people are killed in the U.S. each year due to gun homicide, suicide or accidents, with another 81,000 who are shot but survive. But zeroing in on the causes of gun violence, in order to thwart them, is no easy task. It’s not just about a glut of available firearms or how easy it is to obtain one. As the Center for American Progress pointed out in its 2016 Progress Index , there is a connected web of social and economic issues that can impact rates of violence in a...

Early in the 2016-17 school year, DeMarcus*—a fifth-grader in Montgomery, Alabama—had his first encounter with bullying. His grandmother, Erma Freeman, knew DeMarcus as a strong-willed kid and initially did not worry much about the incident. She told DeMarcus to either brush it off or to stand up to the bullies. But within a matter of weeks, Freeman found herself bribing DeMarcus to go to school, scheduling counseling appointments for him and making frequent trips to the school and the...

“When cynicism becomes the default language, playfulness and invention become impossible. Cynicism scours through a culture like bleach, wiping out millions of small, seedling ideas.” “There is nothing quite so tragic as a young cynic, because it means the person has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing,”Maya Angelou wrote in contemplating courage in the face of evil . In the decades since, cynicism has become a cultural currency as deadly as blood diamonds, as vacant of integrity...

According to the 2010 U.S. Census , Montana ranks 5th in the nation for the percentage of population living in a rural area (44.1%), eclipsed only by Mississippi, West Virginia, Vermont, and Maine. And as you may know, Montana is the 4th largest state in the nation! There are so many great things about being such a rural state — the charm of small towns, the beauty of farms and ranches, the wide-open spaces, our majestic mountains, rivers, streams, and creeks; and of course, let’s not forget...

College is supposedly the great leveler. But race still affects average pay for graduates, indicating that discrimination is a major cause. [For more on this story by the New York Times Editorial Board, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/20/opinion/college-racial-income-gap.html ]

In “Survivor Cafe,” Elizabeth Rosner writes about how we recognize and cope with the traumas that directly affected previous generations. [For more on this story by John Williams, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/17/books/elizabeth-rosner-survivor-cafe.html ]

“Let’s begin by saying that we are living through a very dangerous time.” So opens “A Talk to Teachers,” which James Baldwin delivered to a group of educators in October, 1963. (He published it in the Saturday Review the following December.) That year, Medgar Evers, a leading civil-rights figure and N.A.A.C.P. state field director, was murdered in his driveway by a white supremacist in Jackson, Mississippi. That year, four young girls—Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and...

Across much of the U.S., a person who’s poor, overweight and a candidate for obesity-related diseases might not visit a doctor until they’ve already contracted diabetes — that is, if they can even find a physician who will accept Medicaid, the federal health insurance program aimed at the neediest Americans. But in Connecticut, they’re doing things differently. There, state employees actually reach out to those at the greatest risk before they’ve exhibited any noticeable symptoms, then work...

A colorful new mural in downtown Duluth, Minnesota, is a potent declaration of the issues facing Native American women such as violence, sex trafficking, and environmental racism. Primarily, however, the enormous portrait of an Ojibwe woman is a symbol of resilience, according to supporters. Painted on an exterior wall of the American Indian Community Housing Organization (AICHO), and completed in August, the mural depicts an Ojibwe woman dressed in a red jingle dress and wearing a red...

More than 100 children in New Hampshire's largest city have witnessed an adult overdose in their home since 2016. Now, a police program that officials hope will be replicated elsewhere is working to prevent kids from meeting the same fate. Political and law enforcement leaders came together Friday to promote early childhood education and intervention to prevent substance misuse. They highlighted Manchester's Adverse Childhood Experiences Response Team, which includes a police officer, crisis...

A new book tracks how a Charlotte, North Carolina, high school went from an integration success story to the city’s most isolated and impoverished school. Stories of school resegregation are common these days, but the historian Pamela Grundy didn’t think she would she would end up telling one. In 1998, Grundy decided to write a book about school integration in her city of Charlotte, North Carolina, particularly at historically black West Charlotte High. “It was at a time when political and...

Thank you, @Scott A Webb, at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, for putting this together. ACEs, Adversity's Impact Every American has a part to play in suicide prevention Immigrant parents report fewer adverse childhood experiences than US-born parents 300,000 families living in US-Mexico border towns face exposure to toxic stress Brain and Biology Childhood maltreatment may change brain's response to threat Scientific discovery explains why stress hormone can...