Category Archives: Make a Difference

Projects that are making a difference, improving lives, and building communities.

Holocaust, Levine articles, Social Issues

Holocaust Education with WW II Liberator Letters – by Deborah Levine

The Liberator's DaughterIt took me decades to write my historical memoir, The Liberator’s Daughter. Sifting through my father’s letters and diaries from World War II was both hypnotic and repulsive. As an ambitious first generation born American, he progressed from the son of a shoe peddler to a Harvard scholar before becoming a US military intelligence officer deployed to England, France, Belgium, and Germany towards the end of the war. He gathered intelligence from the populations about Nazi troop movements and activities. Post-war, his role was to interrogate Nazi prisoners of war, determining who should be prosecuted.

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Authors A-H, Social Issues

Examining Rank and Privilege – by Rosalie Chamberlain

Discussion of rank and privilege is not an everyday topic. In fact, it is often avoided and stirs up a multitude of feelings and emotions. It is too often a taboo topic and avoided. We need to discuss this important issue. In one of my speaking engagements on rank and privilege, just before going into the room, I overheard someone say they would not go to that particular discussion because they anticipated it would be too heated. It was not, and it does not have to be.

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Authors A-H, Gender, Social Issues

Don’t interrupt me, for crying out loud! – by Terry Howard

(To Hillary) “Excuse me, I’m talking!” ” I’m not finished; don’t interrupt me!” – Bernie Sanders, Democratic Debate

I glared in awe at the TV screen during the recent Republican and Democrat presidential debates while trying my best to keep tabs on the number of times the debaters interrupted each other. With Republican one, I simply lost account. Insults clearly spearheaded every interruption as the four men duked it out with each other on a variety of issues, including one candidate’s “hand size.”

Research has it that men tend to interrupt women more than women interrupt men. That was my reference point a week later when a woman and a man, Hillary and Bernie, took the debate stage. I was curious as to how the interruption dynamic would manifest itself across gender lines. Not sure if there’s a gender message here – is it? – but Sanders seemed to be the most irritated by being interrupted.

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Authors I-Q, Go Green

Adapting to Climate Change: The Venice of Africa – by Olumide IDOWU

I nearly cried for the lives of people I came across living in affected areas. But I just have to say we have a lot to do when it comes to climate change adaptation after my journey to one of Africa’s slums called MAKOKO. Located in Lagos, Makoko and its three neighboring communities are connected by a bridge over a canal of murky black water.

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Authors I-Q, Social Issues

Convergence of the Extremes: Journaling about our Mortality – by Martin Kimeldorf

Today the word Mortality is being examined in bold letters regarding for our species and in smaller plain print by individuals in this convergent moment. Scientists and religious fundamentalist have been busy writing an obituary for our species in upper case letters. As the Baby Boomers globally turn into Elder Boomers, they again challenge conventional routines and rituals. Likewise younger people put on the zombie costumes of the walking dead and extend the discussion of mortality across space and generations.

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Authors A-H, Social Issues

Dealing with Death and Grief in a Diverse World – by Terry Howard

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A week into 2016 and it  was David Bowie. Then it was Natalie Cole. And it seems that every year a number of news sources will publish a list consisting of “those we lost last year.” Now like so many others, I got an uneasy reminder of the reality of death in 2015 with the loss of my brother and, before that, vicariously through related stories of others.

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Education, Levine articles, Social Issues

A Grass Roots Response to Education Inequity – by Deborah Levine

Carvent ‘Leon’ Webb II is the Founder/CEO of The Open Book Foundation based in Charlotte, North Carolina. He created the nonprofit organization in 2013 to bridge the gap between Title I schools and literacy competency. The African American men involved with the nonprofit could no longer sit on the sidelines and watch the education system in these low-income communities deteriorate. According to Webb, “We realized the best way to counteract the decline was through the promotion of literacy.”

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Around the world, Authors A-H, Social Issues

Diversity, Dialogue, and Mindsight – by Greg Nees

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Have you ever entered a conversation with the best of intentions, only to end up in an argument? I suspect we have all had this experience and I’d like to suggest that one reason this happens so often is because of mind distance. When we try to communicate with people whose experiences and world views are very different from our own, we often run into invisible walls. It’s like trying to describe colors to a friend who has been blind from birth. No matter how much we try to explain what the world looks, sounds, and feels like to us, if the other person’s experiences have been significantly different, they will have trouble listening and understanding. In my work as an interculturalist, I encounter such mind distance on a regular basis.

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Authors I-Q, Go Green

TRANSPARENCY in The PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT – by Olumide Idowu

The Paris Climate Agreement sets crucial goals: to limit global temperature increase, and specific goals in three areas – mitigation, adaptation and finance. The long-term goal for mitigation is 2 °C strengthening to 1.5 °C which guides the Agreement. There is a global goal adaptation which includes increasing adaptive capacity and resilience; and a finance goal to increase post 2020 from $100 billion per year. Finance flows will have to balance adaptation and mitigation.

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Authors I-Q, Social Issues

Year End Poem Revisited — by Sanjay Prasad

The solemn year ends, songs and rejoicings amidst anxiety
The summit ended with no concrete solution
The emissions continue so does the carbon level rise
The nature held in ransom with all the deeds of man
The coronation of a new leader ushered with lots of hope
Anxious to end terrorism, global warming and bring peace
would end up as faux pas with the human lives at stake.
With closed eyes I say my Last Prayers that could be heard,

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