Asking For the Right Tool Isn't Asking For a Handout

The need for better analogies and narratives

Years ago, back in college, I went on an alternative spring break program where we spent a week in Harlan County, Kentucky: the heart of the coal region. We were there under the auspices of the environment studies department to learn about mountaintop-removal coal mining (we were instructed not to tell anybody why we were there; apparently, a previous g…