Podcast: Are state legislators really accountable to their voters?

Recently, I gathered with a group of dads outside Philadelphia to clear out a neighborhood park through Dads for All, the organization I co-founded. Some of us grew up in that neighborhood, some had never set foot in it, and plenty of us had no idea what we were doing. Our kids, ages three to seventeen, hauled branches and swung tools nearly as long as they were tall — and they were delighted.

Here's what I watched them figure out: A park is where a kid gets to be free. It's where you run, where you pretend to be a superhero, where the ground belongs to you. And you assume it just shows up. That morning, our children learned that it doesn't. Somebody has to see what it could be. Somebody has to partner with the people who own it and the people who use it. And then somebody has to pick up the loppers. That was the most honest civics lesson my son has ever had, and unfortunately, that is where the problem is.