Over a month ago, I was going to write a piece in praise of The Progressive magazine. Their 100th anniversary issue had come out and I was duly impressed by the contents sampling their entire 100 year history.

While I've been reading The Progressive off and on for my entire adult life, I really was not aware of the history of the magazine and its pretty consistent, ah, progressive editorial perspective.

For example, in 1925 they took a stand against the attempts to eradicate Indian/Native American culture through the boarding school system.

This got me to thinking about the role of truly left-of-center magazines in US culture. (I use the qualifier "truly" because I don't particularly count, say, The Nation or The Atlantic. Mags like those are examples of the very conventional establishment talking to itself and not significantly challenging the status quo.)

I look at the newsstands packed with lifestyle mags, entertainment and celebrity pablum, and I wonder why people are so easily distracted from the central issues in their lives. We seem so helpless and hopeless, acted upon rather than actors.

I try to remember that revolution is always an option.

You should too.