Continue reading You Are a Woman: Exploring the Mandate – by Lydia Taylor
Category Archives: Transforming
Projects that are making a difference, improving lives, and building communities.
Making Dago and the World A Better Place, One Child at a Time – by Brett Weiss
DAGO, KENYA
In 2009, I spent about two weeks in the tiny village of Dago, Kenya and came away determined to do what I could to improve the lives of these hard-working, incredibly kind but extremely poor people. I decided I wanted to make the world a better place, one child at a time. Most of us think about how we can make the world a better place but we all struggle with just how to do it. The challenge is daunting.
Dago is a village in southwestern Kenya of 3,000 people where the average family income is less than $2 per day. They live in tiny mud huts with no plumbing. There has been no electricity but this year the school, orphanage and a few homes have obtained limited electricity. AIDS is a major problem and most people will have little to no medical care in their life. Average life expectancy is early forties. Most clothes are hand-me-downs from charities and food insecurity is a major problem. The average person has only four years of education and few have ever gone to high school because the government does not pay any of the costs of high school.
Continue reading Making Dago and the World A Better Place, One Child at a Time – by Brett Weiss
Exorcising the disease of “perfection” – by Terry Howard
How about a show of hands from those of you out there who consider yourselves perfect?
Humm, not a single hand went up. Maybe you didn’t hear me right, so I’ll cuff my ears, kick the volume up, italicize, capitalize and repeat the question; HOW ABOUT A SHOW OF HANDS FROM THOSE OF YOU WHO CONSIDER YOURSELVES PERFECT?
Continue reading Exorcising the disease of “perfection” – by Terry Howard
Homage to The Slants – by Carlos E. Cortés
The Slants won. I’m glad. And with that victory, the field of Diversity & Inclusion enters a new era, whether or not it wants to.
In 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a rare nearly unanimous decision (8-0 with one abstention) in the case of Lee v. Tam (also known as Matal v. Tam). The substance of the case was this.
Bill Maher and the N-Word Debate – Elwood Watson
Bill Maher, host of the quasi political/entertainment program HBO Real Time with Bill Maher, recently had renowned Black intellectual and ordained Baptist minister Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and rapper Ice Cube as guests. They discussed the n-word controversy that erupted on the May 31 edition of the program when Maher flippantly referred to himself as a “house nigger” in an interview with Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska). The senator had been invited to the program to discuss his book on what he sees as the increasing problem on prolonged adolescence occurring in American society. Sasse and Maher agreed on the issue and provided examples and suggestions on how to rectify the problem. Things seemed to be going well up until this exchange transpired between both men:
Maher: Adults dress up for Halloween. They don’t do that in Nebraska?
Sasse: It’s frowned upon. We don’t do that quite as much.
Maher: I gotta get to Nebraska more.
Sasse: You’re welcome. We’d love to have you work in the fields with us.
Maher: Work in the fields? Senator, I’m a house nigger.
Continue reading Bill Maher and the N-Word Debate – Elwood Watson
Rejecting rejection! – by Terry Howard
Rejection!
Who the heck needs it? It’s personal, can hurt deeply and can leave an indelible emotional scar. Fact is, just like the air we breathe, we live in a world where rejection is all around us, always has been, always will be.
Rejection is part and parcel to life in general, to systems and eco-systems, to processes, to negotiations, to decisions, to change and reactions to change. Arguably, the worst types of rejection occurs when the body rejects an organ transplant or chemotherapy.
The First 1,000 Days Shape a Lifetime – by Robin M. Cayce, Ed.D.
Every child deserves the opportunity to have a healthy and successful life – and the first 1,000 days are the most crucial. Across the state of Tennessee, 13 innovation grants funded by Governor and Mrs. Haslam were chosen as a part of the statewide “Building Strong Brains Initiative” to promote public awareness about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). ACEs are caused by traumatic experiences and severe neglect or toxic stress, which can damage the connections being built in a child’s brain in the earliest years of life.
Continue reading The First 1,000 Days Shape a Lifetime – by Robin M. Cayce, Ed.D.
Leonard Sipes – Crime, Justice & the Media
Sipes has 35 years of national & state experience as media affairs & social media manager. He served as the Sr. Public Affairs Specialist for a federal justice agency and has over 50 awards for his media relations work. – http://leonardsipes.com
A former police officer, Sipes managed America’s most popular audio & video podcasting site for crime & justice issues. He was the primary spokesperson on crime prevention for the federal government for 10 years, advised presidential & gubernatorial campaigns, and owns/writes for Crime in America: http://crimeinamerica.net.
A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Sipes is a former Associate Professor for criminology & public affairs and the author of Success With the Media: Everything You Need To Survive Reporters and Your Organization (Available at Amazon: https://amzn.com/151948965X)
CLICK to hear Leonard’s Podcast Interview
Consider the Iceberg: Untold Challenges of the Boys in Blue – by Terry Howard
Readers, you’ll need to rely on your imagination to read this narrative.
Let’s start with a few actual “voices from the ranks.”
First Donnie, a middle age white police officer who got out of his hospital bed after recovering from a brutal beating by a drug dealer and returned to street duty, to the profession he still loves.
Continue reading Consider the Iceberg: Untold Challenges of the Boys in Blue – by Terry Howard
The Art and Civics of Publisher Ruth Holmberg: Making History — by Deborah Levine
Long before The New York Times had its first woman Executive Editor, Ruth Holmberg was the Editor of The Chattanooga Times. Holmberg is a member of the family that founded both newspapers and she has shared her compelling life story as friends and admirers gathered to hear her speak. Holmberg is a former director of The Associated Press and of The New York Times Company, a former president of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce and of the Southern Newspaper Publisher Association and a member of the Board of Directors of the Public Education Network (PEN).
The petite, soft-voiced woman is also a member of one of the nation’s most prominent publishing families.
Editor’s note: Publishing icon and Chattanooga civic leader Ruth Holmberg passed away at age 96. In her honor, here is the ADR interview with Ms. Holmberg several years ago.
Continue reading The Art and Civics of Publisher Ruth Holmberg: Making History — by Deborah Levine