Social causes, activism, and projects
Dialogue, derived from the Greek dia logus, meaning “through words and reason,” is a unique communication skill driven by genuine curiosity, and aligned with understanding. Dialogue seeks insights. Dialogue listens closely and asks: What are they saying? Why are they saying that? What are they thinking? What can I learn? What is true? What is the insight?
Continue reading Becoming Insightful: Thinking Together – by Leland Beaumont
As summer winds down and kids head back to school, families often start spending more time in the backyard after school and on weekends. If you have a home playground, now is a good time to take a closer look at it. Months of summer sun, rain, storms and everyday play can leave behind safety hazards that may not be obvious at first glance.
Before the kids return to regular outdoor play, take a few minutes to walk around the playground and surrounding area. A simple inspection can help you spot small problems before they become bigger safety concerns. Here are seven common backyard playground hazards to look for after summer break.
Continue reading Is Your Backyard Playground Ready for Fall? – by Sheryl Berkley
Certain dream stories repeat themselves over time until they no longer hold my interest. I call these Dream Themes. One theme that has lasted a long time centers on my first year or two of college.
I attended the University of California at Santa Cruz in the late 1960s. Back then it was an emerging experiment created in response to the Berkeley uprisings. It featured small classes built around themes, and combined large lectures with smaller, intensely interactive seminars. The first year consisted of only one class, Western Civ, which combined history, English, and art. You didn’t get to deviate from the core curriculum until after the first year or so.
Continue reading Grabbbing Ahold Of Time – by Martin Kimeldorf
Babara Johns
Note: Not long ago, this author co-sponsored a trip from central Virginia to Farmville, Virginia for a visit to the R. R. Moton Museum . Mounted prominently on the wall in the museum’s auditorium is a picture of 16-year-old Barbara Johns, who led a protest that changed trajectory of history. Here’s her story.
20 years ago, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. penned words that have held their meaning and significance to this day….“Few forces are more compelling than a soul grown exhausted enough for change.”
Continue reading Legacy of 16-year-old Barbara Johns – by Terry Howard
Life is never easy in Hong Kong. When I was a kid, the percentage of girls receiving proper education was low. Girls having higher education was much rarer. Boys were expected to do good at school and then at work. No such expectations for girls. Luck was always on my side. I passed all the examinations which I needed to pass to move on to the next level. My formal education ended being a graduate of the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a major in Sociology. I was having a free time at school and then free choice in my career.
Continue reading Growing Up Female in Hong Kong – by Belinda Wong
I
When we talk about equity and inclusion, we often picture classrooms, workplaces, and voting booths. But equity is also built (or blocked) at the checkout counter, in the loan office, and at the kitchen table when a family is trying to plan next month’s bills. Access to stable financial resources and fair lending opportunities shapes who can take a risk, recover from a setback, and invest in the future—across every kind of community.
Continue reading Stable Money, Fair Credit, Stronger Communities – by Julie Morris
A courageous voice in a wilderness of quiet conflict avoidance is refreshing, Pope Leo XIV’s regular critical comments of Trump’s policies are honorable and most important, necessary in today’s theater of hate and division. Pope Leo XIV has been a “moral check” on our present administration, challenging them as not being even humanitarian. He speaks for so many – representing Catholics from all over the world.
Most important to note is how Pope Leo XIV critizes policy, the administration’s actions and not Trump personally. Donald J. Trump spews hate and suspicion every day and is a serial liar and it is Pope Leo XIV who cannot look the other way and “calls out Trump” constantly, regularly. Pope Leo XIV has criticized Trump’s policies on immigrants (“inhuman”), Iran War (“atrocious”) and calls out Trump’s action as not Christian. It is the right approach – separate the person from their actions and focus on their actions and consequences of their actions.
Continue reading Pope Leo XIV is a Change Agent – by Mauricio Velásquez
The fall of the iron curtain can never precede the fall of the spiral curtain. We are witnessing, in real time, the dangers of allowing citizens to rise in power before transcending the human spiral, in a land barren of emotional and energy hygiene, under fire, under pressure. In communities of old, regardless of faith or tradition, we encounter “the human spiral”: cycles of fear, judgment, shame, and misunderstanding that wound us—and others—in invisible ways. The following story explores the luxury of being sheltered, and patterns of reactivity that pass silently through generations, even when we are “raised with love.” Through the wisdom of a trusted elder (*do you have one?*)—a Guru, an ‘Aunty’, an ‘Old Soul’, whoever *your* people recognize as wise—we learn to bear witness to this spiral, to sit with another’s pain and misunderstanding, ultimately finding liberation: transcending through unconditional love, finding the hope of safety to grow in.
Continue reading Fall of the Spiral Curtain – Part 1 – by Regina Sën
Okay, I’ll take my licks and apologize if anyone finds my headline repulsive; Sorry… Lo siento …Je suis désolé(e) …Es tut mir leid …or Entschuldigung …. 对不起 . …..Now if I missed a sorry in another language, well here’s my blanket apology; I’m sorry about that too.
So, with that said and out of the way, how about we consider our “repulsiveness” in a historical context. Let’s talk about the lingering power of images that are burnt into our subconscious and remain buried there sometimes for a lifetime.
Like millions, I was riveted to the breaking news about the passing of Civil Rights advocate Jesse Jackson and at 5:30 pm, during a commercial, I called Bill Willis to follow up on a conversation we’d had two days before.
“Will I see you at this evening’s Board of Commissioners meeting (Douglas County, Georgia) during which I will accept their African American History Month proclamation? It starts at six and will be preceded by an art exhibition on the third floor.” I thanked him for the heads up and promised to get there as soon as I could.
Well as it typically is it is for Bill Willis, not only was he there with one of paintings, but the impeccably dressed Willis was there to accept the Commissioners proclamation.
Continue reading Introducing Professor Bill (“Paul Revere”) Willis – by Terry Howard
