Author: Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig
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Yesterday I was on campus at the University of Michigan for a VIP event and announcement that gathered faculty, students, and alumni in a celebration. However, it’s not public yet, so I can’t announce it here. The air in Ann Arbor carried that crispness that only early autumn seems to hold, a mix of clarity…
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History always gives names to moments that once felt impossible to define. We talk about the Roaring Twenties, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Great Depression as if they were simple, unified eras instead of turbulent, overlapping struggles. Those labels compress confusion into clarity. They tell future generations what a time was about—what it fought for, what it feared,…
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I was watching a TED Talk by Kevin Rutherford recently when his story about LeBron James stopped me in my tracks. Rutherford reminded the audience that LeBron didn’t win championships in Miami until Shane Battier joined the team. Then they went back-to-back. Yes, Miami had other stars like Dwyane Wade. Yes, they had talent and…
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The first of the “No Kings” protests took place in June 2025 and brought an estimated 4 to 6 million people into the streets across more than 2,100 cities and towns in all fifty states (The Guardian). Data journalists later estimated that the protests represented nearly 2 percent of the U.S. adult population. That scale…
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Texas Governor Greg Abbott has forcibly taken over Fort Worth ISD. In October 2025, the Texas Education Agency officially booted Fort Worth’s democratically elected school board and replaced it with a state-appointed board of managers. Commissioner Mike Morath announced that the state would assume full control of the 70,000-student district, making it the second-largest takeover…
Cloaking Inequity 