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Sky gazers across the U.S. will have a chance to see an extraordinary celestial event on Friday as all of the planets in our solar system appear in the evening sky. This phenomenon, known as a “planet parade,” will feature Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all visible at the same time along a line or arc in the sky, NASA says. Though “planet parade” is not an official astronomical term, it typically refers to when four or more planets are seen together in the sky—a rare alignment that won’t happen again for decades.

Dr. Jackie Faherty, curator in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History says, "The misnomer on it is that it's an alignment…if you took your finger and you pointed it up and towards one of the planets, all of the planets would be in a line along that finger. And that's just not the case.”

Instead, Faherty likens the planets’ motion to cars on a racetrack. “The Earth is on a side of the racetrack as it's going around the Sun that the other planets…are also on that side. So right now, if you go out, you have to do this right at sunset or else you're not going to catch the planets as they're setting. They're always there, but they are currently on the side of the race track that we're on.”

Why This Planetary Parade Is Special

While planetary parades are not unheard of, Faherty explains, “It happened a year and a half ago…it's just related to the orbital periods, the amount of time it takes any one of the planets to make its way around the Sun.” Mercury orbits in roughly 88 days, Venus in just over 200, Earth in 365, and Mars takes about twice that. Outer planets take even longer, which makes this simultaneous appearance a rare visual treat.
"This planetary parade just means that we are catching them on that planetary disk that they're going around on where it's dark at night where we can see a bunch of them," Dr. Faherty said.

How to Spot the Planets Visible Tonight

Not all planets are visible to the naked eye, Faherty notes, and timing is key. “Your eye can see to a magnitude of six. Uranus is like at the hairy edge of that…Neptune is like 7.8 on the number scale, so no human can see Neptune by eye. Mercury…should be bright, but the problem is Mercury and Venus are very close to the Sun…you're fighting the sunset if you're trying to see them.”

For casual skywatchers, she recommends starting with the brightest planets: “Venus should pop out at you because Venus is very bright…The easiest one you're going to have to find is going to be Jupiter. Jupiter is super bright right now and it's high…it doesn't set until like 2:00 in the morning. Mercury and Venus and then Saturn…If you want to find Uranus and Neptune, I suggest binoculars or a telescope because those two are very, very faint.”

A Chance to Connect With the Cosmos

Faherty emphasizes that the planetary parade is as much about engagement as discovery. “It's 100% an engagement…watching the planets as they move across the sky was state-of-the-art astrophysics several hundred years ago. We've solved all of the planetary motion questions that exist…So right now it's both a way to engage the public in looking up and a reminder of how far we've come and how much we understand about the universe.”

For those hoping to catch the planetary parade in the evening sky, patience and practice are key. “You need to go outside, try it tonight, practice every night…Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then the planets start to get a little bit further, but you can still try Sunday, Monday,” Faherty said.

Reducing food waste could be one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to cut climate pollution in New York. A new statewide coalition launching today — the New York Food Waste Action Network — aims to do just that.

The coalition brings together farmers, businesses, hunger relief organizations and environmental advocates to reduce the amount of food sent to landfills, where it generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The goal: curb emissions while redirecting more surplus food to communities in need.

New Yorkers waste roughly 22,000 metric tons of food each year, costing households an estimated $141 million in lost grocery spending. When that food ends up in landfills, it produces significant emissions — accounting for more than half of landfill methane statewide.

“This is something, as you can imagine, I’m incredibly excited about,” said Niamh Moore, director of Healthy Communities at Environmental Advocates NY. “The Food Waste Action Network is a group of environmental climate and food rescue organizations who all come together to reduce the amount of food that New Yorkers are wasting, which will save us money, help reduce emissions and really hopefully get through to those who most need it.”

A Statewide Coalition

Founding partners include City Harvest, Island Harvest Food Bank, Earthjustice, and Environmental Advocates NY.

“Our mission is clear,” Moore said. “What we want to do is we want to influence New York State and local food waste policy so that we can increase food access, stop the flow of food to landfills and reduce unnecessary methane emissions.”

Why Food Waste Is “Low-Hanging Fruit” for Climate Action

Moore calls food waste “low-hanging fruit” in the fight against climate change.

“It’s really low-hanging fruit because food waste simply doesn’t have to happen,” she said. “We can stop buying food that we don’t need. We can donate excess food before it goes out of date so that we can get it to those most in need and stop it going to landfills.”

When food decomposes in landfills, it releases methane — a greenhouse gas far more powerful than carbon dioxide in the near term.

“Methane is a powerful and potent greenhouse gas that I’m not sure if folks are aware, but it’s 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide, particularly over the first 20 years of it reaching the atmosphere,” Moore said. “Even though carbon dioxide has longer lasting effects, methane itself drives the pace for global warming in the near term.”

She added: “When we think about getting food out of landfills, that’s a real positive step in the right direction to stop methane from being produced to begin with.”

Addressing Hunger Alongside Emissions

The coalition is also focused on food access.

“It can be real easy to look at food waste and just look at the climate perspective,” Moore said. “But also look at folks who are limited in their access to food and not think about what ways we could increase the access that it gets to them.”

“At every level, whether it be at a farm, a kitchen table or in a food bank, when we waste food, it just means people are going to go hungry. It’s simple demand,” she said. “If we can keep it out of landfills, we can increase the opportunity that folks have to donate this food to partners like City Harvest or Island Harvest, who are incredible at getting it to those who most need it.”

Confusing Food Date Labels

One policy priority for the coalition is standardizing food date labeling. Currently, most food date labels are not federally regulated, leading to widespread confusion.

“We’ve heard from so many people that they’re not aware that food date labels aren’t federally regulated,” Moore said. “The vast majority of states aren’t regulating them either apart from California.”

“As a result, we have seen research that states that about 20% of edible food that is wasted is a direct result of confusion around food date labeling,” she said. “When people don’t understand what a label means, how can we expect them to understand if the food is safe or not?”

Moore points to new legislation in California, which will standardize food date labels starting January 1, 2027. She hopes New York will follow suit.

“We should have simpler labeling available to folks so that we’re not throwing out perfectly good foods that many New Yorkers could eat,” she said.

Policy and Practical Changes

Beyond labeling, the coalition is closely watching New York City’s solid waste management plan, which governs how waste is handled and exported.

“Hundreds of millions is spent on exporting waste from New York City every year,” Moore said. “And if we just simply stop this waste from occurring, local governments and New Yorkers as individuals get to reap the benefits.”

The network is also encouraging farmers, grocery stores and restaurants to rethink purchasing and donation practices — and asking consumers to do the same.

“It’s very easy to see the two-for-one offer, but I myself am guilty of maybe not being able to actually consume all that food,” Moore said. She urged businesses and households to ensure surplus food “actually goes to rescue organizations just like City Harvest and Island Harvest.”

What New Yorkers Can Do Now

For individuals, Moore says change starts at home.

“When you’re looking at the dates on a package, try to remember right now we don’t have any regulation around the terms that are used,” she said. “If you see ‘packaged on,’ ‘sell by,’ ‘use by’ — any of these different 60-plus different terms that are out there — just remember they’re not regulated.”

“What you do need to do though is use your senses — use your taste, your smell, your eyes — to understand whether food is fresh and safe to eat,” she said. “You’ll be able to throw a lot less away by doing this. You’ll be able to have a lot more food available for your family to eat and you’ll be able to have a really big impact on this food waste and climate crisis that we’re experiencing right now.”

Former U.S. Representative Marc Molinaro announced his bid on Monday to return to New York state politics. Molinaro briefly served as Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration after his appointment by President Donald Trump, stepping down in February.

Now, he's running for New York's 102nd State Assembly District. Radio Catskill's Tim Bruno spoke with Molinaro about the decision.

Residents are facing high utility bills this winter as freezing temperatures hit our region. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has made affordability the center of her latest budget, but what about energy affordability? Jason Dole spoke with Laurie Wheelock, Executive Director of the Public Utility Law Project, to learn more.

The NAACP Middletown branch has reactivated its chapter in recent years as a hub for racial justice for Black New Yorkers. Radio Catskill's Kimberly Izar spoke with Cindy-Lee Dorcely, President of the NAACP Middletown branch, to learn what's in store for Black History Month and the year ahead.

The recent death of actor James Van Der Beek has renewed attention on a troubling health trend: colorectal cancer is rising among younger adults.

Colorectal cancer — cancer that develops in the large intestine, including the colon and rectum — was once considered primarily a disease affecting people over 50. But doctors say that’s no longer the case.

“Colorectal cancer is becoming an increasingly common cancer in patients under 50, which is a new trend we’ve seen over the last 10 to 15 years,” said Dr. Brian Kleinman, a board-certified gastroenterologist and internist at Crystal Run Healthcare. “And so it’s very important because of this increase that we make people aware of it as well as provide more information about screening recommendations.”

A significant shift in who’s at risk

The rise in diagnoses among younger adults has been steady — and concerning.

“This trend is pretty significant,” Kleinman said. “About four to five years ago now we saw the national screening recommendations change where the recommendations used to be to start routine colonoscopies at age 50.”

Those guidelines were lowered to 45. But even that may not fully address what doctors are seeing.

“And even since that time we’ve seen patients in their early 40s that are developing advanced polyps and colorectal cancer,” he said. “And so there’s been about 2.9% increase per year over the last like 10 years or so that we’ve seen in people under 50.”

Researchers are still working to understand why. Kleinman points to several possible contributors: diets lower in fiber and fruits and vegetables, higher consumption of processed and ultra-processed foods, obesity, alcohol use and tobacco. Scientists are also studying whether changes in the gut microbiome — the bacteria that live in the digestive tract — may play a role.

Why colonoscopy remains the “gold standard”

As awareness grows, so does the need for screening. Colonoscopy remains the most reliable test.

During the procedure, “a thin flexible camera with a light on the end is passed through the anus and around the entire colon, which is about 5 feet long,” Kleinman explained. Doctors can view the entire colon and identify polyps — growths that can sometimes become cancerous.

“During the colonoscopy, we have the opportunity to identify and also remove those polyps so that they don’t become bigger and potentially more serious in the future,” he said.

The procedure is typically done under sedation. “Patients that undergo a colonoscopy do not experience pain or discomfort during the procedure,” Kleinman said. “It’s a very short-acting sedative. So the recovery time is minimal.”

Most patients leave within an hour and return to normal activity the next day.

Addressing fear and hesitation

Despite its effectiveness, screening rates remain below national targets.

“I think the most common fear I have is that people are nervous about the prep,” Kleinman said. The preparation involves avoiding solid foods for 24 hours and drinking a laxative solution the night before.

“A lot of patients will come in for the procedure and they’ll tell me I was so nervous about the prep. It really wasn’t so bad,” he said. “Those are small things to do in terms of what we could potentially prevent by actually getting the colonoscopy done. It’s one day or a day and a half out of your life, and hopefully, are able to prolong that life by detecting polyps.”

Other barriers include anxiety about anesthesia or fear of what a test might reveal.

“But hopefully, more outreach and more awareness that we can spread, we’ll see more patients coming in to get these tests done,” he said.

Family history and earlier screening

For people with a family history of colorectal cancer, screening often needs to begin sooner.

“The typical recommendation is to start at age 40 or 10 years younger than when their relative was diagnosed with colon cancer,” Kleinman said.

Certain inherited conditions require even earlier and more intensive monitoring. For younger adults without symptoms but with concerns, Kleinman urges proactive conversations with primary care providers.

“It’s important to certainly not ignore any symptoms,” he said. “But also just to discuss things like family history … and just their overall concerns, if they do want to better understand what their risks are and maybe what they can do to lower the risk.”

Prevention beyond screening

Screening saves lives — but lifestyle also matters.

“We know that obesity and lack of exercise as well as poor dietary choices definitely are not great in general for gut health and certainly it can increase … the risk,” Kleinman said.

He encourages diets high in fiber, fruits and vegetables, less processed meat, regular exercise and limiting alcohol and tobacco use.

Looking ahead, Kleinman hopes advances in research could lead to even earlier detection. “Everybody would love to see a blood test to detect any type of cancer,” he said. “Those things are potentially on the horizon in the future to help with early detection and increased screening.”

LIBERTY, NY — What if professional development didn’t end when the workshop did?

At Liberty Elementary School, teachers are reshaping how they improve their craft through Lesson Structure Study (LSS) — a collaborative process that puts educators in charge of refining their own teaching, with student engagement at the center.

A Shift from Traditional Professional Development

For years, professional development often meant outside experts delivering strategies and sending teachers back to busy classrooms to figure out implementation on their own.

Voigtland, who first encountered Lesson Structure Study 15 to 20 years ago as a classroom teacher, said this model is different.

Instead of being told what to do, teachers:

• Set a goal for improvement
• Plan a lesson collaboratively
• Teach and observe student engagement
• Debrief and revise
• Reteach and refine

The five-step cycle is repeated three times before findings are shared with the entire school.

Focused on Students — Not Teachers

Unlike formal evaluations, LSS observations center on students.

Teachers observing the lesson track how students interact with instruction, then gather feedback to guide improvements.

The result? A culture where teachers feel comfortable experimenting and “failing forward.”

Real Changes in the Classroom

First-grade teachers Christina Burns and Megan Henry say the process led them to implement student-centered math rotations and choice boards.

Students now:

• Choose learning centers
• Take on leadership roles
• Engage in peer-to-peer problem solving

Burns added that student choice has not only increased engagement but also helped her differentiate instruction more effectively.

Teachers Learning from Teachers

After piloting the program in the math department last year, teachers shared their findings school-wide. The impact spread quickly.

Colleagues began implementing LSS-inspired strategies in their own classrooms — even if they weren’t part of the original cohort.

Voigtland’s long-term vision is for LSS to become fully teacher-driven.

Building a Culture of Growth

Liberty Elementary is a Leader in Me school, and administrators say LSS aligns closely with that philosophy — empowering both teachers and students to take ownership.

Looking ahead, Voigtland hopes the model expands not just within the elementary school, but eventually to the middle and high school levels.

“Our goal,” he said, “is continuous improvement — sharpening teaching so students get the best education possible.”

Playful, self-aware and just a little absurd — that defines the creative partnership between fellow Sullivan County cartoonists Lia Strasser and Bizzy Coy. The duo will bring that chemistry to Narrowsburg on February 22, for “Talk Toons,” a behind-the-scenes look at their work.

From Sullivan County Walk to The New Yorker

Strasser had been trying to break into The New Yorker for years before she approached Coy.

“I had been trying to submit cartoons to the New Yorker for quite some time before I approached Bizzy,” Strasser says. “And we took a nice walk and I said, ‘Listen, Bizzy, you know, I’ve got these cartoons, I have these drawings, and I think they’re wonderful, but nobody else does.’ And I was wondering if you might look at them and perhaps take a new perspective on some of the captions because Bizzy is a brilliant comedic writer.”

Coy’s initial response?

“She said, ‘No.’”

“That’s true. That’s true,” Coy says, laughing. “You know, but Leah’s persistent. You know, she’s a persistent person. She knows what she wants.”

Six months later, persistence paid off.

“She followed up with me about six months later,” Coy says. “And I had kind of gotten used to the idea. And I said, ‘All right, send me some of your cartoons.’ And she had a treasure trove of amazing cartoons. And it didn’t take much word smithing to kind of tweak her captions and tweak what she had. And it was really fun. It’s very addicting to like come up with a caption.”

That’s how their partnership — part caption contest, part comedy duo — began.

Playing the Caption Contest

If you’ve ever flipped to the back page of The New Yorker, you know the caption contest: a single cartoon, thousands of possible punchlines.

Coy says that’s often exactly how they work.

“Leah, isn’t that exactly what I call it sometimes — is I’m playing caption contest with Leah’s illustrations?”

Strasser agrees. “As a matter of fact, I texted Bizzy an illustration late last night. Late last night, too late. ‘Hey, you know, do you want to play? The caption contest, the caption contest.’”

“You can guess what I said,” Coy adds.

“She said no.”

“Yeah, well Bizzy said no.”

“A lot of our comedy comes from my eagerness to connect and Bizzy’s not wanting to,” Strasser says. “And my persistence, you know, and the comedy there that ensues.”

The Hardest Part: Rejection

Breaking into The New Yorker without being on staff means pitching — again and again.

“You’re kind of pitching these ideas every time, right?” the interviewer asks.

“Yeah,” Coy says. “Not giving up is the huge thing. Tenacity. And Leah is a model of tenacity. This has been a dream of hers for a long time and she really put the work in.”

Strasser’s advice to aspiring cartoonists isn’t about pen technique or joke structure. It’s about ego.

“It truly is developing this kind of rough outer shell and emptying out of your ego,” she says. “And that’s I think that’s actually the hardest thing — not making the drawings, not coming up with ideas, but the continual rejection. Because if you can get through that, there, you know, you might get a yes one day.”

Coy adds, “There is almost no rhyme or reason, which means you just have to generate a lot of work and see what sticks.”

Talk Toons in Narrowsburg: Cartoons, Rejects and Laughs

At Sunday’s Talk Toons event in Narrowsburg, the pair will project Strasser’s drawings and invite the audience to craft their own punchlines in a live cartoon caption contest.

“We’re going to bring some of those cool drawings up on the screen,” Coy says, “and we laugh as a group at the incredible things that people come up with. When we’ve done this in the past, it’s amazing. Don’t you agree, Lia? What people come up with that we never would have thought of.”

“It is so inspiring and so fun,” Strasser says. “What I love that happens is we’ll take one concept and sort of evolve it and push it further, which is definitely how Bizzy and I work together on our own submissions.”

And yes — they’ll share the rejects.

“It’s going to be all rejects,” Strasser jokes. “We really do have a treasure trove… not only work that we’ve sold that also not only has appeared in The New Yorker but has appeared in the pages of the esteemed River Reporter… and in addition a wonderful array of rejected pieces that I think just haven’t found a home yet. But are still wonderfully funny, I think.”

The event is free. More information? Well.

“More information basically nowhere,” Strasser says. “That’s kind of all the information we have at this point. But yes, please connect with us on socials and we’re still looking forward to laughing together on Sunday.”

From a Florida closet to a Main Street stage in Narrowsburg, Strasser and Coy are proof that cartooning is equal parts craft, collaboration and stubborn optimism — with just enough rejection to make the punchlines sweeter.

A sweeping change to New York’s driver penalty system is now in effect — and a single offense could cost some motorists their license.

Under new rules from the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, alcohol- or drug-related driving offenses and aggravated unlicensed operation now carry 11 points — enough to trigger an automatic suspension. Previously, those violations carried zero points.

Other violations, including passing a stopped school bus or speeding in a construction zone, now carry eight points. A cell phone violation remains at five.

The union representing state troopers says it supports holding reckless drivers accountable. But it’s also warning that many motorists may not understand how dramatically the system has changed.

“Drivers need to be aware that the point system is coming into effect,” said Charles W. Murphy, president of the New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association. “First and foremost, member safety is a big thing and our people are public servants. So, they don’t just hand the ticket out and walk away.”

Murphy says troopers often stay roadside to answer questions — and that can put them at risk.

“When people have questions on this ticket, they stay and explain it and try to let them know what it is,” he said. “By doing that, they’re in harm’s way longer. And as you know, our troopers get struck unfortunately at a very high rate. It’s one of the things that actually causes most deaths in law enforcement.”

A Single Offense, Immediate Suspension

Previously, alcohol- and drug-related driving offenses carried zero points under the DMV system. Now they jump to 11.

Murphy says the hope is that tougher penalties will deter dangerous behavior before a citation is ever issued.

“We’re hopeful… through the education that we’re going to start seeing people really start to look for those other options — your Ubers, your Lyft — making sure you have a reason to get home in a safe way,” he said. “That’s what we want.”

Look-Back Period Extends to 24 Months
The expansion of the look-back period from 18 to 24 months could also catch drivers off guard.

Previously, Murphy explained, “after 18 months, these points kind of fall off. They wouldn’t affect your insurance and if you were having to pay a driver responsibility fee, then it would come off.”

Now, “by having it go 24 months, you’re going to be paying those responsibility fees at a longer rate… points will be held against the driver for a longer.”

That means someone who assumed older violations were behind them could find themselves at risk of suspension — or higher insurance premiums — for six additional months.

“Unless they’re educated to this… they may choose to try to take some type of responsibility class to have those points reduced off their license,” Murphy said. “But if they don’t have the education, they’re not going to know to do it until they get the bill.”

Distracted Driving Still a Concern
While impaired driving penalties saw a dramatic increase, a cell phone violation remains at five points. Murphy noted that distracted driving remains a persistent issue, even as DWI arrests have slowly declined.

“The numbers say it is slowly going down for the driving while intoxicated. However, distracted driving, it’s still up there,” Murphy said. “People have done it all through times for driving… It’s always going to be a problem with driving. That’s why the education of being out there and telling people the dangers of it.”

More Court Challenges?
Stricter penalties could also mean more drivers contesting tickets in court — something Murphy acknowledged as a possibility.

“It may cause some drivers to be unable to maybe get a reduction… and they’ll want to try to take it all the way through to a trial,” he said. “But again, we’re out here to enforce the laws and we’ll do our jobs as needed.”

For now, the union’s focus is on awareness.

“It might be the one and only time their stop and a citation is issued,” Murphy said of motorists. “They have many questions, concerns, thoughts in their head at that moment… and that’s where our people are standing on the side of the road explaining this longer and longer and putting themselves in harm’s way longer.”

The Bottom Line for Drivers
Murphy’s message is straightforward:

“Just please be aware that before violations that were not going to be penalized with severity are going to be now penalized with a very harsh penalty and it will affect your insurance,” he said. “So please educate yourself from doing these dangerous driving behaviors, so that you don’t have to be corrected by us.”

With the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on the horizon, former Congressman Chris Gibson says the country is facing a defining test — one that echoes the perilous summer of 1787.

He calls it “the spirit of Philadelphia.”

“So, the spirit of Philadelphia is what happened at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 when they finally compromised on the issue of how to work the legislature and representation,” Gibson said in a live interview. “Their back was up against it. And so, they came together.”

Gibson will expand on that theme Sunday at Time and the Valleys Museum, where he’ll discuss his book, The Spirit of Philadelphia: A Call to Recover the Founding Principles, and what he sees as a modern crisis of trust.

A Nation on the Brink — Then and Now

The former Army officer and Republican congressman paints a stark picture of the years under the Articles of Confederation.

“The country at the time, not even really a country — the Confederation was close to failing, and the leaders knew it,” Gibson said.

Delegates arrived in Philadelphia divided. Large states demanded representation by population. Small states feared being swallowed whole. For weeks, they stalled.

“They didn’t even get a quorum for 10 days,” Gibson noted. “And then for three weeks, they struggled with the same question.”

What broke the deadlock was the Connecticut Compromise — a breakthrough that blended proportional representation in the House with equal representation in the Senate.

“When they finally compromise… that changed the mood of the entire convention,” he said. “All of a sudden, what seemed insurmountable was actually insurmountable.”

That shift — from stalemate to shared purpose — is the “spirit” Gibson believes Americans must rediscover.

Trust at Historic Lows

Gibson argues today’s political dysfunction mirrors that earlier instability.

“This is the lowest level of trust, confidence and faith in institutions and leaders in all the time they’ve been doing this research,” he said, referencing decades of public opinion data. “So regardless of what folks want to see happen, they all agree that it’s not what’s going on right now.”

He draws a sharp distinction between philosophy and ideology. The founders, he argues, set aside partisan agendas to answer more fundamental questions: Who are we? And how should power be structured given human nature?

“They make the conclusion that we’re conflicted as a species,” Gibson said. “Certainly capable of love and sacrifice… but if we’re being very bluntly honest about ourselves, we have a side of us that we don’t hope to show to people.”

Because of that realism, he says, the framers designed a system that checked ambition with ambition — separating and balancing power.

“When you consolidate and centralize power, there just aren’t examples in history where that’s worked out well for us, we the people,” Gibson said.

Emergency Powers and Congressional Drift

One of Gibson’s central arguments is that Congress has gradually surrendered its constitutional responsibilities — particularly to the presidency.

“We have so much accumulated power in the presidency,” he said. “That was never the intent of the founders.”

He points specifically to emergency powers and trade authority.

“How is it that president is doing all this work on tariffs when the Constitution explicitly, Article 1, Section 8 gives that power to the people’s representatives?” he asked. “And I have to tell them it’s just a tortured answer.”

Gibson argues emergency powers should automatically sunset unless reapproved by Congress. War powers, too, should return to legislative debate and recorded votes.

“The people, we the people, were supposed to have a say,” he said.

Rebuilding Trust Starts with Hard Work

Gibson doesn’t sugarcoat the effort required to repair civic life.

“I remember my time in the Army… the workouts were really arduous,” he said. “If you were to wake me up in the middle of the night and say, ‘Do I really enjoy CrossFit?’ I don’t think I would have said yes. But I knew it was good for me.”

Democracy, he suggests, requires similar discipline: reading deeply, thinking critically, engaging respectfully.

“We need to read and we need to think,” Gibson said. “And then we need to reach out to each other.”

He believes collaboration itself can transform hardened attitudes, citing social science research on “cognitive dissonance” — the tension between belief and lived experience.

“When we believe one thing and experience another, the human mind reduces dissonance, and it tends to move toward experience,” he said.

In other words: work together, and minds can change.

“Is the System Basically Fair?”

Gibson proposes a series of reforms — independent redistricting, campaign finance reform, term limits, tax and trade reform — all centered on one guiding question:

“Is the system basically fair?” he asked. “Right now, the overwhelming majority of Americans… think the system’s rigged.”

Then he adds, candidly: “I wish I could tell you after my six years serving in Congress that I didn’t believe that. But I do believe that. I think our system is rigged.”

Still, Gibson insists America’s best days are not behind it.

“I absolutely believe that this Republic — we’re capable of getting back on track and having our best days yet.”

Event Details

Chris Gibson speaks Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Time and the Valleys Museum in Grahamsville, with options to attend in person or virtually. More information is available through the museum and at his website.

As the semiquincentennial approaches, Gibson’s message is less nostalgia than challenge: the founders, he argues, were imperfect but pragmatic — willing to debate fiercely, then compromise.

“We can do this,” he said. “We can recover that spirit that we achieved in Philadelphia in 1787.”