Pollsters don’t ask every American for their vote decision, but instead they ask a smaller portion of the population and infer from that what the entire population is going to do. That means there is inevitably plus or minus error in their predictions.

To try to focus (and do their job or get their money’s worth!), patients and doctors both report techniques to minimize distraction including trying to close all the windows on their computer and putting their phone outside of their reach.

For all their benefits, computers, even un-hacked computers, provide the unscrupulous with powerful tools for spreading deceitful and malignant messages — messages intended to disorient rather than inform the electorate. Controlling that contagion is a matter of both individual and societal responsibility. 

The vision of defunding the police tells us that public safety and racial justice go hand in hand, and both are impossible under the status quo. I find power in that vision because it attests that a better future is necessary. And possible.

“How do we affirm and extend the ethic that welcoming religiously diverse people, nurturing positive relations among them, and facilitating their contributions to the nation is part of the definition of America?” When it comes to the religious practices of our fellow citizens, the answer to that question begins with a commitment to empathy and charity rather than bigotry or ignorance.