In this editorial published in the NY Times, conservative columnist David Brooks discusses Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama.
Kennedy went on to talk about the 1960s. But he didn’t talk much about the late ’60s, when Bill and Hillary came to political activism. He talked about the early ’60s, and the idealism of the generation that had seen World War II, the idealism of the generation that marched in jackets and ties, the idealism of a generation whose activism was relatively unmarked by drug use and self-indulgence…
And in the students’ rapture for Kennedy’s message, you began to see the folding over of generations, the service generation of John and Robert Kennedy united with the service generation of the One Campaign. The grandparents and children united against the parents…
The respect for institutions that was prevalent during the early ’60s is prevalent with the young again today. The earnest industriousness that was common then is back today. The awareness that we are not self-made individualists, free to be you and me, but emerge as parts of networks, webs and communities - that awareness is back again today.
02-11-2008 |
8 Comments »“The reality is that we have a lot more power than we imagine, and we have to dare to do the irresponsible, the dangerous, the strange if it is the right thing even if we are in a minority of one.”
- Joe Turner, from What Is My Part?
07-03-2007 |
6 Comments »You know how you can start searching for something on the internet and then wind up someplace else? Recently, I discovered this video of Bill Clinton annoucing his “wish” at the TED awards. It was on someone’s blog (http://www.matchmine.com/blog/2007/05/03/the-ted-prize).
From the blog,
Bill Clinton won the prize this year, and elected to speak about his attempts to right the non-deeds of his administration in Rwanda.
I was so moved by that statement and Bill’s speech, I had to share it wth others. I ask as you listen and watch the video that you set aside any of your preconceived notions of who Bill Clinton is. Read the rest of this entry »
05-08-2007 |
5 Comments »“The central message of the cross is that there is something worth dying for, but there is nothing worth killing for.”
Recently I had the privilege of interviewing Shane Claiborne for our blog. Shane is a founding member of the New Monastic community the Simple Way and author of The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical. While in college, Shane spent a summer in Calcutta working with Mother Teresa and in 2003, he traveled to Baghdad as part of the Iraq Peace Team.
In preparation for our telephone conversation, I had asked our blog participants to contribute questions. I read the questions to Shane and asked him to share his thoughts…
The first question was from Joe, “Ask him about making his own clothes. Yes, you heard me correctly. The guy. Makes. His own. Clothing.” Laughing, Shane explained, “I love making my clothes! My mom taught me; we sew together almost liturgically every Christmas the clothes for the next year.”
He shared that he caught the vision while living in Calcutta in a village of people with leprosy. Since they were completely cut off from the rest of society, they had to make their own clothes and shoes, grow their own food and be a fully self-sustaining community. Shane found himself mesmerized with the way of life that they had created, “a new society in the shell of the old.”
05-01-2007 |
11 Comments »This is the text of a Letter to the Editor that was published last week in our local newspaper. It was written by my friend Marti Berger, who is active in the Save Darfur Coalition in our area.
Sudan divestment is critical
With Senate Bill 1089, the Oregon Human Rights and Anti-Genocide Act of 2005, our state divested its public funds from Sudan in acknowledgment of the genocide and humanitarian crisis taking place there, created and sustained by the government of Omar al Bashir, voted Parade Magazine’s “world’s worst dictator”.
In a January annual report to the legislative assembly, it was reported that $38 million had been reduced to identified companies in the region since the Act was instituted. Although I am proud that Oregon was one of the first of fewer than 10 states to divest, and the impact meaningful, it is not enough!
There is a current movement called Fidelity Out of Sudan. Fidelity Investments currently holds $1.2 billion in Petrochina, a Chinese oil company in the region. Given the fact that 70-80% of Sudan’s oil revenues are used to purchase weapons of war, Americans with investments in Fidelity are inadvertently funding the war. Please check with your financial planners to see if your money is invested in Fidelity and consider moving it unless the investment company changes its policy.
Read the rest of this entry »
04-30-2007 |
1 Comment »Invisible Children is inviting us to imagine for 24 hours what it is like to be displaced for 10 years. On April 28th, tens of thousands of people across the U.S. will gather in 15 cities in mock internally displaced persons camps to show our support for the internally displaced persons in northern Uganda.
03-30-2007 |
No Comments »Jim posted this comment on Pray for Uganda:
Sometimes it is difficult to know which crisis to pay the most attention to. What have you two learned about how to cope with all the needs and then where to focus your efforts knowing that in doing so you are ignoring some other critical need?
It is as if our lives are in full time Triage mode since we now “know” what is happening and can’t always bury our heads in the sand.
Jim raises some great questions. Once we choose to become aware of the crushing need in the world around us, it changes and challenges us.
03-08-2007 |
11 Comments »