where science and ethics intersect with politics
The federal minimum wage has been frozen at $7.25 since 2009, but workers have not been frozen in time. As rent, food, healthcare, and basic survival costs continue to rise, Congress has allowed the nation’s wage floor to decay into a policy of abandonment. This is not just an economic failure. It is a moral indictment.
Sherry Zitter, a Massachusetts-based vegan activist, musician, social worker, and educator, reflects on food as outreach, compassion as practice, and why veganism belongs in every justice conversation.
Black History Month is not a symbolic observance or a relic of the past—it is a necessary corrective to historical amnesia. From voting rights and policing to education, wealth inequality, and cultural erasure, the struggles and contributions of Black Americans continue to shape the nation’s present. Understanding Black history is essential to understanding America itself—and to confronting the unfinished work of justice that remains.
Martin Luther King Jr. was not a symbol crafted for comfort. He was a radical voice who challenged racism, militarism, and economic injustice at their roots. To honor him today means remembering the full truth—and continuing the work he left unfinished.
The United States finds itself with war-level debt in peacetime, a generational burden no child asked for, and a currency system that rewards the rich and punishes the rest. If we do not restore fiscal ethics, the vulnerable will be the first to be sacrificed—human, non-human and environmental alike. The time for leadership is now.
December opens with World AIDS Day — a global moment of remembrance and resolve — but it also reveals a deeper reality unfolding across the United States: a federal government growing increasingly silent in the face of suffering. From HIV prevention and civil rights protections to hunger, housing, and public health, compassion is receding from national leadership at a time when communities need it most. This month’s This Month in Compassion examines where empathy is thriving at the grassroots level, where it is disappearing at the federal level, and why ethical governance demands that compassion remain at the heart of every policy decision.
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.
The Humane Herald 