This week in OtherWords, Sam Pizzigati celebrates Independence Day by explaining how reducing economic inequality in America would honor the Founders’ legacy. Jill Richardson talks about how you can enjoy the best produce summer has to offer all year round if you embrace the tradition of preserving food — even zucchini. And Frances “Sissy” Farenthold teams up with Susan Smith Richardson to weigh in on Wendy Davis and the “unruly mob” making business as usual a bigger challenge than usual in the Texas state capitol.

As always, our commentaries and cartoons are available for publication or cross-posting at no charge in newspapers and new media under a Creative Commons license. Editors may find information about that on our website or contact me with any questions at OtherWords[ AT ]ips-dc.org.

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1. The Orange Uprising / Frances “Sissy” Farenthold and Susan Smith Richardson
   Wendy Davis’s filibuster offered that rare occasion when the government’s overreach into the most intimate details of our lives was made plain.
2. Minding the Nuclear Fault Line / Robert Alvarez
   The federal government should transfer the spent nuclear fuel held at a shuttered nuclear power plant in Southern California before the next earthquake strikes.
3. The Tradeoff Between Apple and Apples / Scott Klinger
   There would be no need for our elected leaders to trim our safety net if our richest corporations didn’t turn avoiding their fair share of taxes into an art form.
4. A Big Season for Falling Stars / Donald Kaul
   Paula Deen and Aaron Hernandez are suffering fates of their own making.
5. A More Perfect Union / Sam Pizzigati
   Our elites have lost that selfless spirit.
6. Canning Ain’t Rocket Science / Jill Richardson
   Even though we’ve got refrigerators now, putting up food still makes good sense.
7. Padding the Bottom Line by Gouging the Customer / Jim Hightower
   Big Food considers corporate chicanery to be a legitimate business practice.
8. Grave New World / William A. Collins
   Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Franz Kafka, and Ray Bradbury long ago explained how the system would work once those in authority got their act together and the technology to spy on us all.
9. One More Untaxed Bite at the Apple / Khalil Bendib CartoonEmily Schwartz Greco is the managing editor of OtherWords, a non-profit national editorial service run by the Institute for Policy Studies OtherWords.org
   

   One More Untaxed Bite at the Apple, an OtherWords cartoon by Khalil Bendib