Inside Story

WE SEEK OUT most of our articles-solicit them from authors or write them ourselves. Once in a while an article is sent in that fits both our plans and our limited space. But in general, we find the writer and words, not the other way around. So it was not business as usual when managing editor Karen Lattea found a message on her voice mail: "My name is Will Campbell, calling from Tennessee. I've just read the galleys of David Halberstam's new book, which the publisher sent with the idea that I'd write something about it. Are you interested?" When a respected preacher, activist, and author calls up of his own accord, editors get real happy. The result is in our feature section-Will's firsthand reflections on early civil rights work as reflected in Halberstam's book The Children. Also in our feature section are two instances of our weekends getting into our work (instead of the other way around). The articles by Ched Myers and Marie Dennis on Jubilee economics first came up in discussions and presentations at a peacemakers gathering at Kirkridge Retreat Center in Pennsylvania. And we were inspired to ask Richard Rohr for his piece on male rites of initiation after several men hereabouts participated in a powerful weekend retreat led by Richard last year. We realized in our own reading of the magazine that Carol Welch's "Commentary" on the Asia financial bail-outs works with the Jubilee articles to give another helpful window into global economics. And Danny Duncan Collum's "Eyes & Ears" column on Medgar Evers relates in history and spirit to Will Campbell's article. We hope you find your own spontaneous connections as you read through!