Category Archives: Transforming

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

Advisors, Authors A-H, Education

Renewing Diversity #5: Wrestling with History – by Carlos Cortés 

In his new book, A Century of Tomorrows: How Imagining the Future Shapes the Present, historian Glenn Adamson muses, “every story about the future is also a demand to intervene in the present.”  I should also add that every story about the present has its roots in the past.

I was trained as a historian, receiving a Ph.D. in Latin American history way back in 1969.   I taught history for twenty-six years at the University of California, Riverside.  Different kinds of history.  Latin American history.  Chicano history.  Film and history.  History of the mass media.

Continue reading Renewing Diversity #5: Wrestling with History – by Carlos Cortés  →

Authors I-Q, Social Issues

Catalyze Change and Empower Your Community – by Julie Morris

Try These Purposeful Actions

Are you driven by the desire to create a positive impact in your community? Whether your focus is on social justice, environmental sustainability, or educational reform, there are countless avenues to make a meaningful difference. Engaging in community initiatives not only empowers you but also inspires those around you to contribute to lasting change. By taking deliberate steps, you can transform your passion into tangible outcomes that benefit your community and beyond.

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Advisors, Authors A-H, Social Issues

Holiday Connections – by Dr. Gail Dawson

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. 

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Healthcare, Levine articles

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.

Authors R-Z, PSK, Race & Ethnicity, Social Issues

Letting Go of Perfectionism: an Act of Antiracism – by Janelle Villiers

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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 →

Authors A-H, PSK, Social Issues

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 →

Authors R-Z, Politics

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-of-1972 Richard Nixon and George McGovern and 1984 contest between presidential-election-of-1984 Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale. These elections were indeed BLOWOUTS!

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Advisors, Authors A-H, Politics

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 →

Authors I-Q, Go Green

Coming together in our climate crises – by Papa Balla Ndong

climate crises 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 →

Authors R-Z, Books, Holocaust/antisemitism, Politics

A Survivor’s Story of Neo-Nazis: Part 2 – by Kathleen Sullivan

neo-NazisOur country’s government is again in danger. The white supremacists and neo-Nazis who conspired to meet Hitler’s long-term goal of Ordis Templar, Circa 2000 are mostly long-gone. But many of them have recruited, groomed and brainwashed next-generation children and other recruits to fulfill their insanely grandiose goal – specifically, of taking over the US government from the inside-out. And making it an Aryan-run government that would eventually lead the world. 

I have watched many of the brainwashing and so-called “mind control” techniques that were perfected on us as human Guinea pigs, being used regularly by White supremacist and neo-Nazi leaders and media representatives. Those techniques include Ericksonian hypnosis, Neuro-Linguistic programming, wearing down listeners’ mental resistance in a variety of ways, triggering their midbrains and knocking their frontal lobes offline via messages of fear and disgust, and much more. 

Continue reading A Survivor’s Story of Neo-Nazis: Part 2 – by Kathleen Sullivan →