An interview with Bishop Samuel Ruiz
Commentary
Randy Kehler 4-01-1994
The last day of the year is, somehow, a good day to settle things. And so it was for us on December 31, 1993.
Lonnae O'Neal Parker 4-01-1994
As I was driving home from work recently, I heard a new song on the radio. Encouraged by the driving beat and engaging tune, I turned up the volume, only to be sorely disappointed.
Kathleen and James McGinnis 2-01-1994
We are created in the image and likeness of a trinitarian God, a community of three coequal persons: a model of perfect mutuality.
Julie Polter 2-01-1994
Aprototypical white suburban mom walking toward her minivan in a dimly lit parking garage glances fearfully over her shoulder at some real or perceived threat lurking off camera.
Jim Rice 2-01-1994
The front lines of the culture wars shifted to Cincinnati this fall, and as is so often the case in wars of all kinds, truth was the first casualty.
John Paul Lederach 1-01-1994
Earlier this year I was present at a series of U.N.-sponsored national reconciliation conferences addressing the Somali conflict.
Polly Duncan Collum 1-01-1994
After carefully reading the pope's latest encyclical, venerable German theologian Bernard Haring said he "looked forward hopefully to leaving the church on Earth for the church in heaven."
Jim Wallis 1-01-1994
I have to admit, it's nice to wake up in the morning without half expecting the White House to launch another intervention in a Third World country or proudly announce another cut in a domestic social program that will make people in my neighborhood even poorer.
Paul Jeffrey 1-01-1994
Still reeling from the U.S.-backed contra war, Nicaragua's road to recovery is a rocky one.
Aaron McCarroll Gallegos 1-01-1994
The recent launching of MTV's Latin American network, MTV Latino, marks a new era in communications characterized by the concentration of control over the world's media outlets into the hands
Rose Marie Berger 7-01-1993
Scott Beale / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The eagle on the red and black banner of the United Farm Workers union can be likened to the Aztec deity, Quetzacoatl, the plumed, phoenix-like serpent-god that dies descending into the Earth, only
Jim Wallis 1-01-1993
THE LINES AT OUR LOCAL polling place stretched way outside, down the block, and around the corner. From the reports I've heard in the days after the election, that scene was repeated all across the country.
The pundits point to the now-famous sign at Clinton headquarters as defining the major single issue of this presidential campaign: "The economy, stupid." But the underlying themes and tensions during the election point deeper than the obvious reality of Bush's failed economic policies. During this election year, the word on most people's lips was "change."
That hunger for change among the American people may be the most important lesson to be learned from this election. This most unusual political season revealed a longing in the country for a new kind of politics that is more connected to people's lives and values. The public clamor for change set the stage for all the candidates' efforts to be elected—in Ross Perot's brash promises to end the "gridlock," in the populist rhetoric of Bill Clinton, and even in the desperate attempt of George Bush to pledge that things would be different.
Danny Duncan Collum 1-01-1993
IN WATCHING RECENT events in Germany, personal and historical tragedies have sometimes blurred together in my vision. The shocking wave of German neo-Nazi violence against foreigners and Jews (still rising at this writing), and the German government's immigration policy concessions to xenophobia, have appeared alongside news of the death of Social Democratic Party leader Willy Brandt and the tragic murder of Green Party founder Petra Kelly.
The picture that emerged from this blur was one of a shiny new dream dying, while old nightmares revived. Willy Brandt, who was chancellor of West Germany from 1969 to 1975, in many ways represented the best ideals and aspirations both of his generation of Germans and of the European democratic socialist tradition. Brandt was among the only postwar West German political leaders of his generation who had joined the underground opposition during the Nazi era.
Later, as postwar mayor of West Berlin, Brandt stood at the forefront of resistance to the new totalitarianism of the Communist East. Still, as chancellor, Brandt helped open the way for better relations between East and West. He believed that peaceful cooperation, not armed confrontation, was the key to unlocking the gates of the Berlin Wall.
Judy Diers 1-01-1993
GEORGE BUSH'S preoccupation with the character of his opponent was a convenient way to draw attention away from the nasty characters he and previous administrations had been supporting in the name of foreign policy. The bloodshed following Angola's elections this fall are a clear example that although the Cold War may be over, the monsters created, funded, and sustained for those frigid battles are still with us—and still reigning terror in their home countries.
Jonas Savimbi, who had been courted by the White House and held up as a man fighting for the ideals of the "free world," showed his true colors after the country held its first elections September 29-30. Although the elections were declared free and fair by all international observers, Savimbi immediately called foul when early election returns indicated a strong lead for the former ruling party and President Eduardo Dos Santos.
In protest, he removed "his" UNITA soldiers from the unified army and retreated back to the region of Huambo in order to regroup for an apparent attack and renewal of the civil war. The worst was realized. As Americans were busy voting for their character of choice, Angolans were mopping up from a weekend of bloodshed in which more than 1,000 Angolans were killed in UNlTA offensives.
Joyce Hollyday 6-01-1992
On March 26, former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was sent to prison to serve a six-year sentence for raping a Miss Black America contestant. Before the verdict, the odds in Las Vegas (where you could place a bet on the trial) were running 5-to-1 in Tyson's favor.
After the judge's decision, people lined up to call Tyson the victim--of either a racist judicial system or a sporting establishment that encouraged his aggressive violence in the ring and looked the other way when it spilled over into streets, parking lots, and hotel rooms. His buddy Donald Trump suggested that if Tyson would just donate some of his millions to a rape crisis center all would be well.
But this time the perpetrator didn't get away with it. Desiree Washington, an 18-year-old college student, went up against Tyson's notoriety, wealth, and handlers--and won. This, despite the predictable efforts of the defense to blame her for her own suffering; despite Tyson's claim in his pleading before his sentencing that he was innocent because "there were no black eyes, no broken ribs." For rape survivors everywhere, Washington's courage brought new hope that justice is sometimes done.
The Tyson trial was only the most recent in a series of controversial skirmishes in the battle of the genders in late 1991 and early 1992. The one that first riveted the nation's attention, of course, was last October's confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas. Although Anita Hill's charges against Thomas of sexual harassment were not enough to derail the Supreme Court nominee's confirmation, they served to bring the nation to a heightened sensitivity about the issue. According to The Washington Post, formal complaints of sexual harassment against corporate employers jumped substantially in the three months following the hearings, as did requests for sensitivity training and orders for a guidebook on combating sexual harassment in the workplace.
Joe Nangle 6-01-1992
A recent study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Washington, D.C. Commission on Public Health found that AIDS cases in the capital likely will triple within five years. From a total of 3,500 cases last year, 10,000 District residents are expected to have AIDS by the mid-l990s.
This preview of Washington, D.C.'s immediate future constitutes more than a wake-up call; it is a fire alarm that should shake us out of our somnolence and neglect toward the pandemic that grips this city, the entire United States, and the rest of the world. The capital gives witness to a deadly disease now present in 163 countries and, according to World Health Organization projections, destined to infect as many as 40 million people by the year 2000.
Those working directly with AIDS sufferers—particularly those in the gay community—have known the extent of the crisis for years and have desperately tried to focus society's attention on it. Today the virus cuts across all lines in our society. While still devastatingly high among homosexual and bisexual men, the number of new AIDS cases among heterosexuals in Washington, D.C., will explode by 1995, according to the study; drug users will account for more than half of all new cases. The number of D.C. children with AIDS is expected to grow from about 500 now to nearly 1,300 by 1996.
These projections give serious pause to those involved in caring for persons who are HIV positive or have AIDS. One clinical psychologist with an already full case load, on top of group work and supervisory responsibilities, wonders if his burden—and that of others in similar positions—will triple in the next five years.