When I was about 20 years old I spent a contemplative day with a friend who told me later that the entire day I’d said three words, “life, death, friend.”  Four decades later the significance of those words still sticks with me.  I shared them recently with the same friend who had just emerged from a coma after a serious bicycle accident and went through a remarkable recovery resuming his teaching.   I now add one word: family.  I think those four words pretty much sum up everything of importance, perhaps with “empathy” thrown in for good measure.  Just last week, another friend, John Payton, President of NAACP Legal Defense Fund and a giant in human rights law, died unexpectedly.  With... more

On June 24 I gave the closing remarks at the UN Global Learning Managers Forum (LMF) in Turin, Italy on the social responsibility of learning, training and staff development in global organizations.  It was an absolutely stellar learning platform: the calibre of content and structure was at the very highest standards to allow for a truly great knowledge exchange among 39 Learning Managers from 35 UN Agencies globally. Before I facilitated a discussion on how they each might best engage their respective internal and external stakeholders, I observed as they shared with each other in various modules on a broad spectrum of important topics.  They are at the cutting edge of utilizing new technologies to reach staff throughout the  world. While the politics... more

With deepest feelings of love for Mama Albertina Sisulu, we share with the Sisulu family members, the South African nation and freedom loving people throughout the world in the sorrow of her death at age 92 and the joy of knowing the magnificence of who she was. We can envision her joining her husband Tata Walter Sisulu, as being side by side is who they are in life and death. South Africa was blessed to have such fearless yet humble leaders who always served their nation, community and family. We knew and loved them for a very long time: we will cherish and honor their memory.  Mama served on our Global Citizens Circle International Advisory Board since its inception. Shortly after... more

As I am about to move to another continent, I’ve found two sets of activities in America profoundly disturbing.   First, the condemnation of a proposed Muslim multi-cultural center several blocks away from Ground Zero ; second, advocates for repealing the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution enacted in 1878 to grant citizenship to Africans who had been brought to America as slaves.   I personally know and deeply admire the couple who have been planning the center for close to a decade: Daisy Khan  and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who are and have been for decades totally devoted to sharing a progressive interpretation of Islam – promoting women’s rights, condemning violence and advocating tolerance – within the Muslim community globally and building bridges with people... more

As a member of the Executive Director’s Leadership Council for Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), what thrilled me the most about the Annual General Meeting (AGM) was the motivation, focus and determination of the multitude of young human rights activists.  OK, having members of Amnesty’s International Secretariat, Country Directors, Board Members and Nicolas Cage sing Happy Birthday to me was pretty cool too!  But, seriously, the myriad times I hear people bemoan, “Where are Gen X, Gen Y and the Millennials?”  I confidently say, “They were out in extraordinary numbers organizing brilliantly, building on the tools Amnesty has developed over its 50 year history and bringing an entirely new fresh twist to it with their energy, insight and technological know-how.”   While... more

I was enthralled when Georgetown University Law Center Professor Emma Coleman Jordan gave the Fourteenth Annual Derrick Bell Lecture on Race in American Society.  Her talk, “Race and New Economic Connection in Subprime Crisis” was the most coherent analysis of economic justice I’ve ever heard.  Everything she spoke about relates to points I’ve made in my recent posts on Inequity and to issues I’ve explored for decades.  But she wove together myriad strands of insight into the most magnificent whole cloth that made simple to grasp incredibly complex topics.  She is best known for establishing the field of economic justice in legal theory and for her work in financial services and civil rights.  Listening to her at NYU Law School... more

I am keeping in mind exhortations for peace, especially Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s words, “Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.” As we commemorate the 37th anniversary of Salt II, Iran plans to build ten new uranium enrichment plants.   Many Americans have just celebrated Thanksgiving and Muslims from around the world have just made their Hajj to Mecca for Eid al-Adha.  So, this news has particular dissonance during the season of hope we’re entering that culminates with different faith-based traditions celebrating in their own way light at the darkest time of the year.  With other nations also pursuing similar ambitions, we are moving away from nuclear disarmament. ... more

I often say my social activist life can be summed up, “from Selma to Soweto with a feminist perspective.”  So, to be with friends from many decades at The Feminist Press kick-off event for their 40th anniversary year was a sheer joy.  Award recipients included: Arianna Huffington, the trailblazing founder of Huffington Post; Taslina Nasrin, an extraordinarily brave Muslim physician, writer and human rights activist from Bangladesh; and Rhonda Copelon, a groundbreaking human rights attorney who worked at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Huffington spoke of a “tribe of women” who as feminists are pioneering a way “to succeed differently than men.”  Nzarin said, “as an exile I have no home; but I have a home with you.”   Copelon said, “a... more

Graham Bowley’s pieces in The New York Times “Bailout Helps Fuel New Era Wall Street Wealth” and “Bonuses Put Goldman in Public Relations Bind” and The Financial Times editorial “Public Needs More Bang for Its Buck” are among a rash of recent articles describing a disparity that virtually everyone is experiencing.  I find great cause for concern about the trend these pieces expose, as history shows that depriving many people of even the fundamental basics while a select few benefit astronomically never is sustainable. Frank Rich’s earlier op-ed “The Rabbit Ragu Democrats” highlights how the main relationships businesses currently cultivate are with lobbyists who can press their pet concerns with government officials.  His is a cautionary tale of the adverse affects... more