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​U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, sitting behind a desk, appearing for a hearing.

Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick Faces Expulsion Over Pocketing Overpayment

New Iran Strikes Jolt Hormuz and Raise Questions for the U.S.

New Iran Strikes Jolt Hormuz and Raise Questions for the U.S.

Rolling Back Health Equity Training Requirements in Medical Schools Harms Us All

Rolling Back Health Equity Training Requirements in Medical Schools Harms Us All

President Trump and U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth standing next to each other at a news conference.

Hegseth, Trump, and the Desecration of the American Military

Naloxone displayed on a table.

Why Is Harm Reduction on the Chopping Block?

Growing out of chaos

Butterflies emerging
stanley45/Getty Images
Debilyn Molineaux
By Debilyn MolineauxDec 10, 2021
Debilyn Molineaux

Debilyn Molineaux is the catalyst of JEDIfutures.org , a global initiative that helps people imagine and create just, equitable, dignified, and inclusive futures. She is best known for her pioneering work in civic innovation, having co-founded Bridge Alliance, Living Room Conversations, and National Week of Conversation. She formerly acted as co-publisher for The Fulcrum. Across these efforts, Debilyn has brought together unlikely allies to co-create solutions for democracy, governance, and social transformation.

Her work lives at the intersection of strategy, systems change, and spirit. A long-time practitioner of personal and collective growth, she brings a deep commitment to the inner dimensions of change that are often overlooked but essential to transformation. Debilyn speaks of the “interstitial spaces” — the connective tissue between people, institutions, and movements — where new possibilities take root.

She also hosts the podcast Terrified Nation, which helps audiences move from fear and despair into courage and action. Her voice is sought by impact investors, changemakers, and visionary leaders who want to align resources, imagination, and human growth toward a thriving future for all.

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Molineaux is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and President/CEO of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

The beauty of a butterfly does not happen easily. The transformation is a grueling period of cellular warfare. And for a time, there is nothing but gooey chaos.

Our society is in the middle of a human-level gooey chaos.

We see it in the information wars, the fractured relationships and the dysfunction of government. And we, the humans on planet Earth, are prone to fear for our future. Many of us dislike the rapidity of change and we seek solace about our future through order and predictability.

In the world of caterpillars and butterflies, the gooey chaos is the place between. The caterpillar dissolves and the butterfly is not yet formed. As humans, this place in between is very scary but like the caterpillar we contain imaginal discs of what we might become.

The imaginal discs, written into our Constitution and heralded by civil society, offer these possibilities for our future:

  • Government that is of, by and for all the people.
  • Strength through diversity.
  • More prosperity for all.
  • Equality before the law.

Which leads to what many have identified as an inclusive, equitable and beloved community.

The legacy of our founders endures today despite the obvious flaws they had and the inability to see that the words they spoke did not apply to all inhabitants of America.

It is our responsibility to live into the legacy of these words from the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The imaginal discs of the butterfly create a new order. The gooey chaos is what nourishes the new order of the butterfly. In our current human equivalent, we need to co-create, re-create and re-imagine systems and participation that supports the vision expressed but never realized by our founders.

Let’s use this in-between time to discover our imaginal discs and bring them to life. Let’s emerge from this cocoon of gooey chaos and take flight into a beautiful garden of democracy.


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MAGA is starting to question Trump

President Donald Trump speaks to members of the press aboard Air Force One on April 17, 2026, just prior to landing at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.

(Win McNamee/Getty Images/TCA)

MAGA is starting to question Trump

If supporters of Donald Trump were to be studied — and I very much expect they will be for years and years to come — academics may be hard-pressed to find the connective tissue that unites them all together.

It’s clear they’re not with Trump for his ideology — he doesn’t really have one, not that hews to ideas espoused by the traditional political parties at least. His policies have been all over the map, and even within his own presidencies he’s reversed them substantively or abandoned them outright.

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Florida Democrat resigns, moments before the Ethics Committee was supposed to weigh her expulsion

House Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest, R-Miss., says the committee is committed to accountability for members of Congress on both sides of the aisle.

(Photo by Samantha Freeman, MNS)

Florida Democrat resigns, moments before the Ethics Committee was supposed to weigh her expulsion

WASHINGTON – Florida Democrat Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigned from the House of Representatives on Tuesday, moments before the full Ethics Committee convened to weigh expulsion for allegedly stealing millions of dollars and funneling some into her congressional campaign.

Cherfilus-McCormick was not present at the hearing. “After careful reflection and prayer, I have concluded that it is in the best interest of my constituents and the institution that I step aside at this time,” her statement read.

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People protesting in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill, holding tulips and signs that read, "We can't afford another war" and "end the war on iran.'

Veterans, military family members, and supporters occupy the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill calling upon the Trump administration to end the war on Iran on April 20, 2026 in Washington, DC.

Getty Images, Leigh Vogel

Trump’s Iran “Victory” Echoes Iraq’s "Mission Accomplished"

It didn’t exactly end well the last time a president declared victory this quickly. On May 1, 2003, President George W. Bush landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln in a flight suit, strutted across the deck for the cameras, then changed into a suit and tie, stood in front of a banner that read “Mission Accomplished,” and declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq. It was 43 days after the invasion began. Over the next eight years, as the conflict devolved into a protracted insurgency and sectarian war, more than 4,300 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died.

On April 7, Trump—presumably not wearing a flight suit—declared in a telephone interview with AFP that the United States had achieved victory in Iran. “Total and complete victory. 100 percent. No question about it.” This was the day after the President threatened to destroy a “whole civilization,” hours after a two-week ceasefire was announced. It took six days for the whole thing to fall apart. By April 15, he was back on Fox Business: “We've beaten them militarily, totally. I think it’s close to over.”

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A Lesson on “Matters of Morality” for the Vice President

American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost presides over his first Holy Mass as Pope Leo XIV with cardinals in the Sistine Chapel at the conclusion of the Conclave on May 09, 2025 in Vatican City, Vatican.

(Photo by Simone Risoluti - Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)

A Lesson on “Matters of Morality” for the Vice President

The Vice President has stepped into the fray between the President and Pope Leo. For those of you who have not been following this, Pope Leo has been critical of various things that Trump has said regarding his war with Iran, including his statement that he was ready to wipe out the civilization. In response, Trump called Pope Leo too liberal and easy on crime. He also said that the Pope was only elected because he was an American, in response to Trump having been elected President. In response, the Pope said that he had no fear of the Trump administration and that his job was to preach the gospel. He said in response to Secretary of War Hegseth's invoking the name of Jesus for support in battle, that Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”

Into this exchange steps the Vice President, who says he thinks the Pope should stick to "matters of morality" and let the President of the United States dictate American public policy. The Vice President obviously doesn't understand the meaning of morality and its scope.

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