There’s something special and perhaps a little magical about the Holiday Season. As the weather starts to cool and the leaves start to change, there seems to be excitement in the air in anticipation of the holidays. We tend to look for greater human connection as we plan gatherings from Thanksgiving feasts to New Year’s celebrations. While some see the holidays as the opportunity to connect with family and friends through festive celebrations of their faith, others may enjoy the more commercialized aspects of the season.
Category Archives: Make a Difference
Projects that are making a difference, improving lives, and building communities.
Ultra-Processed from Halloween to Thanksgiving – by Deborah Levine
Every year, we struggle to resist the temptation minute to minute to over-sugar ourselves. It begins with Halloween candy and proceeds to Thanksgiving dinner, exploding with holiday eating extravaganzas with the year’s tastiest foods. By the New Year, the scale shows our over-indulgence. It’s no coincidence that 12% of gym members join in January. And it’s discouraging that 80% of New Year’s resolutions disappear in February.
Continue reading Ultra-Processed from Halloween to Thanksgiving – by Deborah Levine
Build a Stronger Economy: Focus on Minorities & Opportunity Zones – by Rachel Hooks
Everyone is familiar with Wall Street in New York where stock trades are made, but are you familiar with Black Wall Street, an area in Tulsa, Oklahoma? It’s the place where African Americans built their own economy with grocery stores, schools, homes, churches, hospitals, hotels, and other businesses. By 1921, they owned 35 square blocks of property in this community where they flourished, until one day, there was the Tulsa race massacre where this entire community was burned to the ground.
Unfortunately, this community was never the same again and very few people were able to keep their family homes that were destroyed. In a time of segregation, this type of community was necessary to carry out the law, “separate by equal”. I can recall my grandmother, Jimmie Hooks, born in 1930, before her passing this year at age 93, stating that her grandfather had a business, but could not own a home. She would say, “Ain’t that crazy”. This is no longer the case today, every man is considered equal, or are they?
Continue reading Build a Stronger Economy: Focus on Minorities & Opportunity Zones – by Rachel Hooks
Letting Go of Perfectionism: an Act of Antiracism – by Janelle Villiers
I’ve attended the Undoing Racism Workshop offered by The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, twice. I’ve gone on to facilitate several DEI workshops and I am also the co-creator of an Intra-Professional Antiracism Dialogue and Discourse Series (IPADDS). While preparing for and facilitating all of these workshops and IPADDS events I was always reminded of a foundational tenant of the Undoing Racism Workshop and that is “Racism de-humanizes us all.” It doesn’t matter what race, Black, White and everything in between, we are all de-humanized by racism.
Continue reading Letting Go of Perfectionism: an Act of Antiracism – by Janelle Villiers
Will Senate Republicans Buckle to Trump on Recess Appointments? – by David Grinberg
Presidential nominations raise red flags
in Congress
If only the public could get inside the head of President-elect Donald Trump to see what he’s really thinking.
Perhaps then we could learn more about Trump’s strategy behind a controversial and reportedly unqualified group of Republicans he intends to nominate to top Cabinet posts at the:
- Department of Defense (DOD)
- Department of Justice (DOJ)
- Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
- Director of National Intelligence (DNI).
Those who are brave enough to openly oppose Trump on anything can end up risking everything, from a political standpoint. No Republican politician wants to be on the receiving end of the president-elect’s wrath.
Continue reading Will Senate Republicans Buckle to Trump on Recess Appointments? – by David Grinberg
Why Biden Deserves Blame for Kamala’s Loss – by David Grinberg
Open primary would have led
to stronger nominee
As the Trump transition moves forward at a frenetic pace, the knives are out in the Democratic Party over who to blame for Kamala Harris’ stunning loss on Election Day.
Democratic leaders — from Nancy Pelosi to Bernie Sanders — have been publicly backstabbing one another, rather than speaking out about why Vice President Kamala Harris lost so badly to Donald Trump, and how the party plans to resurrect itself going forward.While there’s certainly plenty of blame to go around in Democratic circles, it’s President Biden who should be held the most accountable.
Continue reading Why Biden Deserves Blame for Kamala’s Loss – by David Grinberg
The Hundred-Handed Purpose Connector – by Donley Ferguson
Cultivating the Path of Purpose
If I were to tell my story—the story I’d share with the world—it would start with echoes of loss, shadows of hope, and a path carved through trials no one could have foreseen.
The only memory I carry of my father, whose name I bear, is of new Hush Puppies on his feet and the soulful loop of Friends of Distinction’s “Going in Circles” reverberating through the night. I watched his silhouette diminish into the darkness, an untouchable fragment of my life that unraveled into a tragic tale—the stories of his empty pockets, hollow eyes, and the lifeless repose on that frayed couch in a den of broken souls. The whisper of overdose. The finality of it.
In 2020 alone, nearly 70,000 lives were lost to overdoses, a reminder that the pain of addiction reverberates through countless families. My father’s story is one of many, yet it marks the beginning of my journey—a path paved with loss but leading to the discovery of purpose.
Continue reading The Hundred-Handed Purpose Connector – by Donley Ferguson
Glee, Anger and the Unprecedented State of National Affairs – Elwood Watson
For some people, November 5, 2024, was one of the greatest days in American history. Others may well remember it as a day that will live in political infamy. The 2024 presidential election is over, and Donald Trump has been reelected as the forty-seventh president of the United States of America. One can only imagine what Grover Cleveland would think of this chain of events. Cleveland was the only other president to serve nonconsecutive terms — he was the twenty-second and twenty-fourth US president from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897.
If most people are honest with themselves, they would probably admit that Tuesday’s results shocked but did not totally surprise them. Trump went on to win both the popular vote and the Electoral College. The latter ultimately determines who wins the presidency. In all fairness, despite what many pundits, critics, radio hosts and numerous other commentators assessments, the election was not a blowout as opposed to the democratic presidential elections of 1972 between presidential-election-
Continue reading Glee, Anger and the Unprecedented State of National Affairs – Elwood Watson
Are we better than this? Well, obviously not – by Terry Howard
Call it stealing shamelessly, opportunism or laziness, or whatever you choose to accuse me of after reading this narrative. Okay, I plead guilty.
You see, when the unexpected results from the recent election settled into our imaginations, reactions were immediate, passionate and all over the place.
Now like the opportunist you may accuse me of, like the hungry grizzly bear wading into the cold Alaskan waters with her pick from hundreds of spawning salmon, as a writer I got to pick and choose kernels from an assortment of writers who poured out their heartfelt reactions to the results.
Continue reading Are we better than this? Well, obviously not – by Terry Howard
Coming together in our climate crises – by Papa Balla Ndong
After a full work week, I am volunteering with my daughter to help people and villages impacted by the devastating floods in Spain’s city of Valencia, representing SIETAR Europa, (a nonprofit organization: Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research) SIETAR España, and Valencia.
Intense rainfall in eastern Spain produced deadly and destructive flash floods in the province of Valencia. On October 29, 2024, more than 300 millimeters (12 inches) of rain fell in parts of the province, reported Spain’s meteorological agency, AEMET. In the town of Chiva, nearly 500 millimeters (20 inches) fell in 8 hours. ~ NASA Earth Observatory
But just days ago, I was in Madrid, participating in the United Nations International Day for Care and Support( October 29th), discussing the migrant diaspora in Spain. Little did I know that on my return, I would encounter such profound evidence of climate change in my own community. Due to road closures, I spent two nights in my car just 80 kilometers from home, witnessing firsthand the growing intensity of our planet’s climate crises.
These experiences have brought questions to my mind that I’d like to share with you:
Continue reading Coming together in our climate crises – by Papa Balla Ndong