Author: Brandy W. Walt-Rose

Amendment X — The Balance of Federal and State Power

The Tenth Amendment defines how power is divided in the United States, reserving undelegated authority to the states or the people. As federal and state responsibilities evolve, the amendment remains central to debates over governance, rights, and constitutional structure.

The Barn Owl Who Guarded the Quiet

When a strange tension settles over the Moonridge fields, a barn owl named Embera senses danger long before anyone else. By listening to the quiet others overlook, she helps the animals prepare for what’s coming—and teaches them the power of paying attention.

Black Friday Without Buying: The Rise of the Consumer Blackout Movement

A growing movement is calling for a full consumer blackout over Black Friday weekend—urging people to skip the sales and resist the hyper-capitalist pressure to buy. The blackout shines a light on exploitative labor, environmental damage, psychological manipulation, and the animal suffering embedded in the holiday retail spike. Through the Humane Party lens, it’s an act of ethical realism: choosing not to feed a system built on harm.

Why We Write: A Note on Timing, Purpose, and Our Commitment to the Record

As an all-volunteer publication, The Humane Herald isn’t always able to publish at the pace of the daily news cycle—but we remain committed to documenting the stories that matter. Our goal is to preserve truth, provide context, and give voice to the voiceless, even when the world has already moved on.

The Quiet Revolution or a Quiet Trap?

The FDA’s expanded approval of cultivated meat marks a major shift in U.S. food policy. But beneath the promise of slaughter-free protein lies a harder ethical question: Are we truly ending our exploitation of animals, or simply modernizing it? A technology that begins with the taking of another being’s cells cannot deliver liberation. It can only deliver a cleaner mirror for our existing beliefs.

A Broken Clock and a Broken System

HHS’s recent shift away from federally funded animal testing is a meaningful win for the animals trapped in America’s laboratories. But when progress arrives from a political figure widely regarded as unreliable, it exposes a deeper problem: true leadership was missing long before this moment. The credit belongs to public pressure, not to the man temporarily occupying the seat.

America’s Wild Horses & Burros in Crisis

A recent UnchainedTV emergency town hall spotlighted the growing crisis facing America’s wild horses and burros. Through the Humane Party’s ethical and abolitionist lens, this article examines how federal management practices, land-use policy, and transparency failures intersect to shape the fate of these legally protected herds—and what their struggle reveals about governance, stewardship, and the treatment of vulnerable beings.

When Human Rights Are Turned Upside Down

The State Department’s new directive classifying abortion access and DEI programs as potential human-rights violations marks a major shift in U.S. foreign-policy language. By reframing reproductive autonomy and equity initiatives as infringements on “God-given rights,” the policy reverses long-standing human-rights interpretations and raises constitutional concerns. This editorial examines the implications of the directive, its conflict with the Ninth Amendment, and its potential impact on global human-rights reporting.

Amendment IX — Rights That Remain Unwritten

The Ninth Amendment affirms that the rights listed in the Constitution do not limit the broader liberties retained by the people. Designed to prevent the narrowing of freedom, it recognizes that constitutional protections extend beyond what is written on the page and evolve as society changes.

The River Otter Who Refused to Drift

When a strange darkness begins drifting down the River of Murmurs, one young otter refuses to accept that the water must carry harm unchecked. Her courage—and the creatures who join her—show that even the smallest among us can change the current of an entire world.

U.S. Senate Cracks Big Dairy’s School-Milk Monopoly

The U.S. Senate has voted to end the long-standing milk mandate in American schools, breaking an 80-year dairy monopoly. If approved by the House, the reform would allow schools to serve plant-based milks without medical exemptions, opening the door to nutritional equity and humane, evidence-based policy.