BOSTON, MASS.-Nancy Braus reminded me again of a moment I have never forgotten.
I was in my first semester in graduate school at Brandeis University participating in a small, impromptu discussion including the dean, a couple faculty members, and approximately 10 students, all of us with a deep commitment to social justice.
The dean again asserted the message that was being repeated often to all of us green social justice warriors: "We are not training activists, we are training future researchers in order to inform effective policy responses."
Naively, I blurted out that, as an experienced activist, I found that being in a doctoral program was "like slamming into a brick wall."...
TUCSON, ARIZ. AND HEATH, MASS.-John Kenneth Galbraith wrote in his 1983 analysis of power that power rests in the power of persuasion. Persuasion requires effective communication of words, thoughts, and one's vision. The political climate in recent years reflects the stark opposite of communication. Instead, we scream, rant, rage,
Thank you for including the balanced and insightful response of Liam Madden in the discussion of gun violence in the U.S. Since his column, at least two more incidents of mass slaughter have occurred. We can continue to breathlessly rant our indignation. We can continue to debate what the...
I have read with deep personal interest Mindy Haskins Rogers' Viewpoint and all subsequent responses to it. I immediately wanted to respond, but hesitated. Outside of the Catholic Church scandal, we don't hear too much from men who have been sexually abused and how they've coped with it. I wonder why. So, here it is. In 1974, just before my 17th birthday, I was sexually molested by a heterosexual man. He was a good friend. He was 21 years old.
I woke up this morning astonished to find a text message that simply read, “happy anniversary!” It was the first time in 33 years that anyone has ever remembered our anniversary. In 1988, in Boston, long before “gay marriage” seemed a possible reality in our lifetime, I met my partner, Kevin, at the Names Project AIDS Quilt display at the Plaza Castle armory. Eventually, after being together for over a quarter of a century, we married at the Brattleboro Municipal...
The point MacLean Gander makes in “A national dislocation from reality” [Column, March 3] of the importance of how a problem gets defined, who gets to define it, and who then reports on it (hopefully) using “the basic principles of accuracy, fairness, and objectivity” which he also acknowledges as being “shaped in powerful ways by the prevailing culture” seemed more than a little relevant and timely to me. Recently, I remarked that it seems there is no dialogue any more,
Seven years ago, the town of Brattleboro was lauded as a “national leader” by animal advocates around the country after signs warning of the danger of leaving dogs unattended in vehicles were installed in all municipal parking lots. The permanent signs warn that heat can kill animals left in parked cars, and also remind us that it is illegal in Vermont to endanger them. They were strategically placed on all park-and-pay kiosks in town. They're visible from various vantage points,
“Get away from my car, you f-ing a-hole! I don't need any information! I love my dogs!” That was the reaction of an elderly woman in Palm Springs, Calif., when offered printed educational information on the risks to her two small dogs that she left alone in her car while she shopped for groceries for over an hour. “These people are interfering with my right to live my life the way I choose!” So screamed an angry dog owner at...