Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories

Write your song for America

Artists recording "We Are the World"

"We Are the World" united American on a common cause. Let's try to do that again.

Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

We have only four weeks until Election Day, but there’s still time for you to write your song for America.

This election is so close and we are so divided as a nation that half of us are going to be unhappy with the result of the presidential election. The Fulcrum wants to counter the rancor and divide, so we are offering our readers the chance to write a song — one that celebrates our common bonds. A song that calls out to every American to express their patriotism, no matter who wins, through positive action.


We want to hear what a better America means to you. How would you use music to encourage all of us to get off the sidelines?

One new song featured this summer, “This Country Tis of Thee,” performed by chart-topping international songwriter Candace Asher, expresses this message loud and clear:

We are a nation trying to heal herself
We’re a nation who is we.
We’re a nation who has to make tough choices now
To remain the land of the free
We all hear the call from sea to signing sea
But leave it up to someone else to lead the way
When in fact it is up to each and one of us.
That’s the real American way
So what will you do? - What will you say ?

Now it’s your turn to write a song for America. Not a musician? It doesn’t matter — write the lyrics and we’ll put the top three to music and publish them in The Fulcrum.

It’s time to celebrate America! Write your song for America.

And as a bonus, $100 will be awarded to each of the top five!

Rules and details

  • Must be original.
  • No more than 450 words (including repeating refrains).
  • Eligibility: Contestants must be at least 18 years of age.
  • Winners will be notified via email or phone.
  • By entering, participants grant The Fulcrum permission to use their name likeness, and entry for publication or promotional purposes without compensation.



Read More

A Tonal Shift in American Clergy
people inside room
Photo by Pedro Lima on Unsplash

A Tonal Shift in American Clergy

I. From Statements to Bodies

When a New Hampshire bishop urged his clergy to "get their affairs in order" and prepare their bodies—not just their voices—for public witness, the language landed with unusual force. Martyrdom■adjacent rhetoric is rare in contemporary American clergy discourse, and its emergence signals a tonal shift with civic implications. The question is not only why this language surfaced now, but why it stands out so sharply against the responses of other religious traditions facing the same events.

Keep ReadingShow less
Faith: Is There a Role to Play in Bringing Compromise?
man holding his hands on open book
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

Faith: Is There a Role to Play in Bringing Compromise?

Congress may open with prayer, but it is not a religious body. Yet religion is something that moves so very many, inescapably impacting Congress. Perhaps our attempts to increase civility and boost the best in our democracy should not neglect the role of faith in our lives. Perhaps we can even have faith play a role in uniting us.

Philia, in the sense of “brotherly love,” is one of the loves that is part of the great Christian tradition. Should not this mean Christians should love our political opponents – enough to create a functioning democracy? Then there is Paul’s letter to the Philippians: “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.” And Paul’s letter to the Galatians: “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” The flesh could be seen as a politics of ego, or holding grudges, or hating opponents, or lying, or even setting up straw men to knock down; serving one another in the context of a legislative body means working with each other to get to “yes” on how best to help others.

Keep ReadingShow less
People joined hand in hand.

A Star Trek allegory reveals how outrage culture, media incentives, and political polarization feed on our anger—and who benefits when we keep fighting.

Getty Images//Stock Photo

What Star Trek Understood About Division—and Why We Keep Falling for It

The more divided we become, the more absurd it all starts to look.

Not because the problems aren’t real—they are—but because the patterns are. The outrage cycles. The villains rotate. The language escalates. And yet the outcomes remain stubbornly the same: more anger, less trust, and very little that resembles progress.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sheet music in front of an American flag

An exploration of American patriotic songs and how their ideals of liberty, dignity, and belonging clash with today’s ICE immigration policies.

merrymoonmary/Getty Images

Patriotic Songs Reveal the America ICE Is Betraying

For over two hundred years, Americans have used songs to express who we are and who we want to be. Before political parties became so divided and before social media made arguments public, our national identity grew from songs sung in schools, ballparks, churches, and public spaces.

Our patriotic songs are more than just music. They describe a country built on dignity, equality, and belonging. Today, as ICE enforces harsh and fearful policies, these songs remind us how far we have moved from the nation we say we are.

Keep ReadingShow less