I used to think the word “government” was interchangeable with “they.”
“They raised taxes.” “They cut the library budget.” “They passed another law.”
The pronoun sat like a wall be

Last year, in a Midwestern town I was visiting, a city council meeting stretched past midnight. The issue was whether to convert a shuttered factory into affordable housing or a lo

The air cools. Streetlights flicker on. A crowd gathers along the water’s edge, phones half-drawn, eyes darting toward the horizon. Everyone is waiting for the same cue, yet nobody

Most residents of Greater Manchester only register the police in fragments: a flashing light in the rear-view mirror, a tweet about a road closure, a knock at the door after someth