Turn your classroom into a training ground for community organizing.
Commentary
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Brian Jaudon 6-01-1992
In 1988, during the last presidential election campaign, Congress passed the Family Support Act—a much-heralded welfare reform measure that required all states to implement job training and educational programs for welfare recipients. The legislation symbolized a new "social contract," emphasizing government's responsibility to offer needed support for those seeking self-sufficiency, and a commitment to participate on the part of those seeking the benefits.
The idea was, and still is, a good one. But it hasn't brought the kind of radical social change it promised, as a recent study by SUNY's Rockefeller Institute of Government pointed out. The recession, combined with a lack of political will in many states to expand its services, has limited the effect of the job training program. (Because of budget constraints, states have used only about 60 percent of the $1 billion available in matching federal funds.)
Many experts now say that such welfare-to-work programs, while reducing welfare costs and encouraging self-sufficiency, must be supplemented by other government assistance if welfare recipients are to escape poverty.
Meanwhile, as economic conditions have worsened, the number of parents seeking funds through the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) has skyrocketed. Many states have responded by freezing or slashing welfare programs such as AFDC and tightening eligibility standards.
In Michigan, where manufacturing jobs are on the decline due to closing plants, Gov. John Engler eliminated last fall the entire "general assistance" cash aid program to single adults in need—a move that religious leaders in the state described as "cruel and immoral."
Michael Closson 6-01-1992
Not a few people recognized the irony in the trip to Russia last fall by Deputy Secretary of Defense Donald Atwood. The Russians face the challenge of converting their military production establishment to civilian pursuits. Atwood's visit was to encourage and offer support for that daunting transition process.
The irony of the trip, of course, lies in the fact that while the Bush administration is willing to aid and abet economic conversion in the former Soviet Union, it is stonewalling federal conversion planning efforts here in the United States.
A recent Office of Technology Assessment report, "After the Cold War: Living With Lower Defense Spending," projects that direct job loss from Pentagon cutbacks will average 275,000 per year between 1991 and 1995. Already substantial cuts are under way. For example, Los Angeles County alone lost 38,000 defense jobs in 1991.
How is Washington, D.C., responding to this serious economic dislocation? Very inadequately, indeed!
In October 1990, Congress passed and the president signed very modest economic adjustment legislation that allocated $200 million for assistance to laid-off defense workers and military-dependent communities hit by the closure of military bases and defense plants. That amount of money is a drop in the bucket when measured against the need for assistance. But due to bureaucratic resistance in the Department of Commerce, very little of it has thus far been expended.
Jim Wallis 6-01-1992
I was up early in my Chicago hotel room and turned on the television to get more news of the previous day's Connecticut primary. The first words I heard were insurgent candidate and upset winner Jerry Brown's, intoning the biblical text from which I would be preaching that morning to SCUPE's National Urban Congress: "Without a vision, the people perish." It's becoming apparent to many Americans that we have a vision problem.
The issue was first officially named when George Bush joked, in a now famous remark, that he wasn't very good at "the vision thing." Subsequent events have proven the president right, but they have also shown that it isn't very funny.
In New York two weeks later, Brown and Bill Clinton slugged it out in the nastiest primary so far. The sordid affair featured a media circus, angry voters, and a low turnout that reflected public disgust and the often expressed majority sentiment for better options. Fifty percent of the voters believed the winner (Clinton) lacks the honesty and integrity to be president, and voters seemed to trust his opponent even less.
Low voter turnout, disappointment with the choices, and frustration with the direction of the country have characterized most of the primaries thus far. As many as 100 members of Congress may decide to leave office this year amid the cloud of corruption, paralysis, and growing public resentment. And all the candidates, including George Bush, can't say enough about how much they stand for change.
So far, most of the energy and enthusiasm of this presidential election campaign have been generated by the three "protest candidates." Jerry Brown, Pat Buchanan, and now Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot have each struck a nerve. Though the three have wildly different platforms, each has articulated the political alienation in growing sectors of the electorate.
Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. 6-01-1992
Maurice Strong, secretary-general of the upcoming Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, described the primary purpose of the summit as "to lay the foundation for a global partnership between developing and more industrialized countries, based on mutual agreements and common interests, to ensure the future of the planet."
Some feel the Bush administration, in contrast, views environmental issues as cannon fodder in the partisan war between the Republicans and Democrats. Bush has threatened to skip the June 1-12 gathering—known formally as the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)—unless it produces a treaty the administration feels "serves U.S. interests."
June 5, 1992, will mark the international observance of World Environment Day and is the 20th anniversary of the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment, convened in Sweden in 1972. Since then, however, the health of the planet's environment has been dangerously injured with substantive increases in ozone depletion, global warming, and production of toxic substances.
Leaders from environmental organizations around the world are viewing the Earth Summit as a historic moment when governmental leaders can be challenged to take more effective measures to bring development and industrialization questions in line with the growing worldwide demand that the planet's environment be protected.
Joe Nangle 2-01-1992
December 7, 1991, was the anniversary of another tragedy besides the bombing of Pearl Harbor: the beginning of East Timor's crucifixion in 1975.
Joyce Hollyday 12-01-1991
On Friday morning October 11, there was a sense that the nation was about to witness a rare and overdue milestone in history.