A requirement for working at Sojourners is learning how to survive "multitasking." (Other requirements are learning how to thrive on coffee of dubious quality and being able to open the office refrigerator when it's due for a cleaning without passing out on the spot. But those are other stories.)
For example, outreach director and associate editor Jim Rice was simultaneously orchestrating plans for the May 23 press conference and meetings to mark the release of "The Cry for Renewal" statement (see "Hearts & Minds" and "Commentary") and reviewing World War II-Nuclear Age history in preparation for this issue's cover interview with Gar Alperovitz. Who has time to get bored?
1945 serves as a sort of continental divide for modern times. The political and cultural groundwork of the decades to come would emerge from the rubble of the devastating worldwide war that ended in that year. Along with Alperovitz's discussion of the continuing implications of the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Daniel A. Brown writes of his pilgrimage to the Nazi death camps of Auschwitz and the seeds of hope and reconciliation he found there. In addition, Bob Hulteen's "Worthy of Note" column reviews several books about Hiroshima, and the "New Wineskins" column by Elizabeth Holler Hunter reflects on a trip she took to Dachau.
Remembrance doesn't have to mean nostalgia. In this issue, we look back in the hope that we can go forward differently.