The Highlighter features four great articles every week. But which are most popular among loyal readers? Here were the five most popular articles of 2020. Please enjoy!

#1: On Witness And Respair

Jesmyn Ward: “My Beloved died in January. He was a foot taller than me and had large, beautiful dark eyes and dexterous, kind hands. He fixed me breakfast and pots of loose-leaf tea every morning. He cried at both of our children’s births, silently, tears glazing his face. Before I drove our children to school in the pale dawn light, he would put both hands on the top of his head and dance in the driveway to make the kids laugh. He was funny, quick-witted, and could inspire the kind of laughter that cramped my whole torso. He traveled with me often on business trips, carried our children in the back of lecture halls, watchful and quietly proud as I spoke to audiences, as I met readers and shook hands and signed books. He indulged my penchant for Christmas movies, for meandering trips through museums, even though he would have much preferred to be in a stadium somewhere, watching football. One of my favorite places in the world was beside him, under his warm arm, the color of deep, dark river water.” (10 min) (Issue #259)

#2: What Is Owed

Nikole Hannah-Jones: “If Black lives are to truly matter in America, this nation must move beyond slogans and symbolism. Citizens don’t inherit just the glory of their nation, but its wrongs too. A truly great country does not ignore or excuse its sins. It confronts them and then works to make them right. If we are to be redeemed, if we are to live up to the magnificent ideals upon which we were founded, we must do what is just. It is time for this country to pay its debt. It is time for reparations.” (39 min) (Issue #249)

#3: What Happened In Room 10?

At the Life Care Center of Kirkland, Washington, where the first American outbreak of the coronavirus killed 46 people, 85-year-old Twilla and 98-year-old Helen shared Room 10. This big, well-written article poignantly tells their story, revealing not only our lack of preparation for the pandemic but also our lack of care for the elderly, who account for more than a quarter of total COVID-related deaths. You’ll root for Helen, rage against the nursing home industry, and wonder why we’re so callous toward our country’s most vulnerable. (71 min) (Issue #259)

#4: Is Freedom White?

Americans love freedom. But we don’t agree on a common definition. There are three types of freedom, according to sociologist Orlando Patterson: personal freedom (to do as we please), civic freedom (to participate in public life), and sovereign freedom (to exercise power over others). According to Jefferson Cowie, this third type of freedom — “the unrestrained capacity to dominate” — is the most dangerous, given our country’s racism.

Prof. Cowie writes, “Freedom was used to steal land from Native Americans, defend slavery, defeat Reconstruction, justify lynching, fight the New Deal, oppose civil rights, elect Trump, and label Black Lives Matter as seditious.”

The only way for all Americans to achieve equality, Prof. Cowie argues, is for white people to stop presuming that freedom means the right to dominate everyone else. (14 min) (Issue #263)

#5: The Unraveling of America

Wade Davis: “In a dark season of pestilence, COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism. At the height of the crisis, with more than 2,000 dying each day, Americans found themselves members of a failed state, ruled by a dysfunctional and incompetent government largely responsible for death rates that added a tragic coda to America’s claim to supremacy in the world.

As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country.

The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom. In a land that once welcomed the huddled masses of the world, more people today favor building a wall along the southern border than supporting health care and protection for the undocumented mothers and children arriving in desperation at its doors. In a complete abandonment of the collective good, U.S. laws define freedom as an individual’s inalienable right to own a personal arsenal of weaponry, a natural entitlement that trumps even the safety of children.” (19 min) (Issue #256)