It's in voters' hands now

Also: My daily walk through Boston’s suffering and wealth [View in browser](    [❤️]( November 6, 2022 Dear Cog reader, “In what kind of America is there no consequence for politicians spinning homophobic conspiracy theories and snickering like schoolyard bullies about an attack with a hammer that left an 82-year-old man in the intensive care unit with a shattered skull?” Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Eileen McNamara [asks this week](. “This is the sordid world Trump has left us, but we need not embrace it.” And so, we turn to Election Day, along with the rest of the country. If the polls are to be believed, Democrats will be washed away in the House, and the Senate is up for grabs. Republicans have been attacking Democrats on inflation and crime; pundits say Democrats’ messaging has been muddled (to their peril), though President Biden delivered another national address this week, warning voters that nothing less than American democracy is on the ballot. Some 300 candidates for elected office this year — the majority of Republican nominees — have either [denied or questioned]( the outcome of the 2020 election. Hearkening back to my days in electoral politics and the wise words of one hardened politico I used to know: Voters are voting; it's in their hands now. Closer to home, Attorney General Maura Healey is poised to [make history]( Tuesday night, becoming the first woman and first lesbian ever elected to the office of governor in Massachusetts. She’ll be one of a record-breaking [seven women on the ballot]( for six statewide offices. This is all to say, we’ll be watching the results as closely as you are Tuesday night. This week we also published our third of four editors' essays to mark the 10th anniversary of Cognoscenti. There has been so much news in the last decade, but maybe never more so than in 2020, when we were all navigating a global pandemic and a national reckoning on race. I imagine you’ll agree with us that Cog’s contributors responded with [gripping, wrenching, generous work](. And we were right there with them — metabolizing this new way of being, in real time. Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to vote, Cloe Axelson Editor, Cognoscenti [Follow]( Support the news   Must Reads [My daily walk through Boston’s suffering and wealth]( I never realized how much segregation continues to shape Boston, not just geographically but medically, measured in health inequities and life expectancies, writes Joshua Budhu. [Read more.]( [My daily walk through Boston’s suffering and wealth]( I never realized how much segregation continues to shape Boston, not just geographically but medically, measured in health inequities and life expectancies, writes Joshua Budhu. [Read more.]( [Cognoscenti at 10: Holding the ordinary and unfathomable]( In 2020, the whole world got turned upside down. Cog became a record of what we were experiencing, collectively and individually, when there were so few answers to be had. [Read more.]( [Cognoscenti at 10: Holding the ordinary and unfathomable]( In 2020, the whole world got turned upside down. Cog became a record of what we were experiencing, collectively and individually, when there were so few answers to be had. [Read more.]( [We need not accept the sordid world Trump left us]( The party of Lincoln has decided that being unmoored from reality is a winning political strategy, writes Eileen McNamara. Vote. [Read more.]( [We need not accept the sordid world Trump left us]( The party of Lincoln has decided that being unmoored from reality is a winning political strategy, writes Eileen McNamara. Vote. [Read more.]( [How Democrats can win, even if they loseÂ]( With Democrats’ midterm election prospects looking grim, the party needs to make sure citizens stay engaged in the political process. They should seek change at the state level, writes Steve Almond. [Read more.]( [How Democrats can win, even if they loseÂ]( With Democrats’ midterm election prospects looking grim, the party needs to make sure citizens stay engaged in the political process. They should seek change at the state level, writes Steve Almond. [Read more.]( [How the MBTA could help Mass. combat the opioid epidemicÂ]( Access to naloxone can be the difference between life and death. Making the drug more widely available in T stations would save lives. [Read more.]( [How the MBTA could help Mass. combat the opioid epidemicÂ]( Access to naloxone can be the difference between life and death. Making the drug more widely available in T stations would save lives. [Read more.]( What We're Reading "[I]f we all put aside our differences for just a moment, we can celebrate the fact that this weekend, nearly all Americans — regardless of where they sit on the DST love-hate spectrum — will be blessed with a 25-hour day, and that freaking rocks." "[Rejoice in the End of Daylight Saving Time]( The Atlantic. "A best friend moving to another state is hardly a tragedy. But even something about this — the smallness of it, how easy it should be to get over, given the state of the world — has left me unmoored." "[Home is Where Your Best Friend Is]( Harper's Bazaar. "Both sides of the political aisle are attacking long-accepted principles of speech law, frequently in ways that are both logically incoherent and deeply concerning." "[How America turned against the First Amendment]( The Verge. "The party of Lincoln has decided that being unmoored from reality is a winning political strategy." — Eileen McNamara, "[We need not accept the sordid world Trump left us]( ICYMI ['Just Ethel': What my grandmother, who was much more than a domestic worker, taught me about Black patriotism]( In the face of discriminatory legislation, racist policies and exploitative practices, waving the American flag can feel dishonest. Other times, writes Kellie Carter Jackson, it can also feel like hope. [Read more.]( ['Just Ethel': What my grandmother, who was much more than a domestic worker, taught me about Black patriotism]( In the face of discriminatory legislation, racist policies and exploitative practices, waving the American flag can feel dishonest. Other times, writes Kellie Carter Jackson, it can also feel like hope. [Read more.]( If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📧 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news     Want to change how you receive these emails? Stop getting this newsletter by [updating your preferences.](  I don't want to hear from WBUR anymore. Unsubscribe from all WBUR editorial newsletters [here.](  Interested in learning more about corporate sponsorship? [Click here.]( Copyright © 2022 WBUR-FM, All rights reserved.