Author: Richard Bell

  • Promoting the Joy of Voting

    by

    Richard Bell
    in

    When we first settled on Citizen Joy as a name, we assumed that we were hardly the first group to emphasize the importance of joy in motivating people to participate in civic life. I recently ran across a Seattle-based organization with a webpage promoting “The Joy of Voting.” The organization is Citizen University, co-founded by…

  • The Power of Joy

    by

    Richard Bell
    in

    When we started working on Citizen Joy, we always assumed that we would be discovering people and organizations out there whose work involved tapping into the power of joy. Here are two examples I’ve discovered recently. First, there’s the work of Ingrid Fetell Lee, author of the 2019 book, The Aesthetics of Joy. On the…

  • Keeping Joy Alive

    by

    Richard Bell
    in

    Political pundits of all persuasions are struggling to deal with the explosion of joy in Democratic ranks with Harris’ ascension to the nomination. It didn’t take long for them to start questioning what they claimed was a lack of “policy” coming from the Harris campaign. They warned that it was just not possible for a…

  • Joy Over Anger

    by

    Richard Bell
    in

    Stevie Wonder calls on Democratic Convention to “choose joy over anger” to get to “Higher Ground.”

  • Joy Takes Center Stage

    by

    Richard Bell
    in

    When we first conceived Citizen Joy late last winter, we were looking at a political landscape that was far from joyful. Donald Trump’s campaign of negativity was on a roll, and there were growing concerns about Biden’s ability to win. People were not happy with government in general. In January 2024, Gallup polling showed that…