Do you yell at the TV while watching the news? Do you repost maddening articles on Facebook? Do you find yourself overwhelmed by the 200 new political emails in your inbox every day? Left, right, center, far left, or far right, we can't escape the political battles of our times.

These essays and op-eds from LA Progressive, The Salt Lake Tribune, and Main Street Plaza help us understand and address many of the concerns that affect almost every aspect of our lives: structural racism, gerrymandering, voting rights, regressive taxes, political infighting, the failure of capitalism, and the ever present overstep of religion in public policy.

But of all the issues covered here, the most urgent is climate change. Because if we can't address that one, the others don't much matter, since every one of us all too soon becomes nothing more than a tiny, inescapable part of Dead Mankind Walking.