When Haven Pell stopped by my house a month or so ago, we had not seen each other in 50 years. We had become friends at the age of four, and one year for his birthday, Haven’s mother took us to the Howdy Doody show in New York, where we sat in the legendary Peanut Gallery. We met again this winter because Haven had discovered that we were both “sunset” bloggers, who were interested in thinking about and sharing what we had observed over the years. Our perspectives and our politics are different, but we both believe that something has gone seriously wrong in Washington, and we want, not just to point out the obvious, but to work for change. It is how we try to avoid self-indulgence. Last night Haven’s blog showed up in my inbox. It was short, because we are conscious that our “free” posts demand your valuable time, and we don’t want to abuse it. So he just urged readers to watch Lawrence Lessig’s TED talk on the financing of federal politics. I beg you to do the same. Here is where this country’s growing wealth disparity, the Citizens United case, and feckless career politicians combine to threaten our republic.

PS If the links don't show up above, cut and paste this: http://www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim.htm

Haven's link is www.libertypell.com