Faith And The City :: Issues :: Social Environment

Obama must confront Muslim issue
By Leonard Pitts Jr.
Miami Herald
June 29, 2008
Members of that community are feeling well and truly snubbed by Obama, who has visited a number of churches and synagogues, but has yet to find his way to a single mosque.
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Guantánamo case confirms it: Justices are our conscience
By Bob Braun
Star-Ledger
June 13, 2008
This is one of those rare Supreme Court decisions, maybe a few dozen at most in the history of the republic, that will be remembered and debated and taught -- and not because of 9/11 or terrorism or the war in Iraq.
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Judaism drawing more black Americans
By Rachel Pomerance
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
June 18, 2008
Pamela and Jim Harris have gotten used to the stares. It's not that people have never seen traditional Jewish garb before. They've just rarely seen it on a black couple.
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Religious Americans: My faith isn't the only way
By Eric Gorski
Associated Press
June 23, 2008
America remains a deeply religious nation, but a new survey finds most Americans don't believe their tradition is the only way to eternal life — even if the denomination's teachings say otherwise.
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Race in the sunlight
By Eugene Robinson
Washington Post
June 24, 2008
The question isn't whether race will be an issue in the general election campaign between Barack Obama and John McCain. Race is already an issue, even if it is largely confined to the shadow world of implication and coded language.
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Media charged with sexism in Clinton coverage
By Katharine Q. Seelye and Julie Bosman
New York Times
June 13, 2008
Angered by what they consider sexist news coverage of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, many women and erstwhile Clinton supporters are proposing boycotts of the cable networks, putting up videos on a "Media Hall of Shame," starting a national conversation about sexism and pushing Mrs. Clinton's rival, Senator Barack Obama, to address the matter.
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Juan Crow: The Deep South's new second-class citizens
By Roberto Lovato
The Nation
May 15, 2008
Along with the almost daily arrests, raids and home invasions by federal, state and other authorities, newly resurgent civilian groups like the Ku Klux Klan, in addition to more than 144 new "nativist extremist" groups and 300 anti-immigrant organizations born in the past three years, mostly based in the South, are harassing immigrants as a way to grow their ranks.
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Poor whites are being conned
By Leonard Pitts
Orlando Sentinal
May 27, 2008
The white poor have been victims of a con job going back at least as far as the Civil War, when poor white men were used as cannon fodder for the right of rich white men….. My point is that race has often been used as a means of distracting and diverting the white poor.
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American exception: Unlike others, U.S. defends freedom to offend in speech
By Adam Liptak
New York Times
June 12, 2008
A couple of years ago, a Canadian magazine published an article arguing that the rise of Islam threatened Western values. The article’s tone was mocking and biting, but it said nothing that conservative magazines and blogs in the United States do not say every day without fear of legal reprisal. Things are different here. The magazine is on trial.
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‘Democracy in America is a series of narrow escapes, and we may be running out of luck’
By Bill Moyers
AlterNet
May 17, 2008
We have fallen under the spell of money, faction, and fear, and the great American experience in creating a different future together has been subjugated to individual cunning in the pursuit of wealth and power – and to the claims of empire, with its ravenous demands and stuporous distractions.
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Georgia judge who gave blacks-only lecture teams with Cosby
By Walter Putnam
Associated Press
April 25, 2008
Bill Cosby says apathy among some black Americans about violence, drugs, profanity and teenage sex has sunk to a level of asking someone to "pass the salt." Cosby and Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington spoke at a forum for at-risk youths from the Atlanta area. Both men are black.
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Out of step with many of his faith
By Leonard Pitts Jr.
Knight Ridder Newspapers
April 29, 2008
James Lawson is out of step with modern Christianity. Ours is still an era wherein war, hatred and intolerance often wear a clerical collar. As Lawson puts it, "Much of Christianity in the United States has been more influenced by violence and sexism and racism and greed than by the teachings of Jesus."
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PJB: A brief for Whitey
By Patrick J. Buchanan
March 21, 2008
How would Barack explain to his press groupies why he sat silent in a pew for 20 years as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright delivered racist rants against white America for our maligning of Fidel and Gadhafi, and inventing AIDS to infect and kill black people?
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A blind governor adjusts, and so does Albany
By Jeremy W. Peters
New York Times
April 21, 2008
Lots of governors rely on thick briefing books and helpful e-mail notes from their staffs. New York’s governor, David A. Paterson, who is legally blind, has his ears and what his aides call his Batphone.
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If we treated violence as a disease, would that help us find a cure?
Rachel Dissell
Cleveland Plain Dealer
April 28, 2008
"When we say violence is a public health problem, what we're really saying is that it's a preventable problem," Prothrow-Stith told a group of teachers, students and community activists recently at John Hay High School.
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Large majorities say big business, PACs, and lobbyists have too much influence
Research Report
Harris Interactive
March 17, 2008
Four in five Americans (80%) say political lobbyists have too much power, while almost three-quarters (74%) say the same about the news media.
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Armed with camera: An associate professor takes photos of women and their firearms
By Drew Jubera
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
April 11, 2008
Nancy Floyd grew up in gun country —- small-town south Texas —- but didn't buy a gun until 1991, with the onset of the Gulf War. She wanted to connect with her brother Jimmy, a gun lover who died in Vietnam when she was 12.
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Big Brother endorses these playthings
By Bob Barr
For the Journal-Constitution
March 5, 2008
Two years ago in this column, I lamented the fact that toy manufacturers were cashing in on society's headlong rush toward constant and ubiquitous surveillance.
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The incalculable price of faulty eyewitness IDs
By Cynthia Tucker
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
March 5, 2008
The Georgia General Assembly is once again preparing to compensate a man for a grave injustice, once again considering a cash payment to a victim of a wrongful conviction.
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French women don't get fat and do get lucky
By Pamela Druckerman
Washington Post
Feb. 10, 2008
Older women in Paris don't actually look any better than the ones in New York. The difference is that the French typically don't see sex as a privilege for the young and beautiful. They see it as one of life's most basic pleasures.
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Obama should be proud to be named Hussein
By Juan Cole
Salon.com
Feb. 28, 2008
The attacks on Barack Obama's middle name have begun, but the likely Democratic nominee joins a long line of famous Americans with Semitic names, from Benjamin Franklin to Omar Bradley.
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Time out of mind
By Stefan Klein
The New York Times
March 7, 2008
People in industrial nations lose more years from disability and premature death due to stress-related illnesses like heart disease and depression than from other ailments. In scrambling to use time to the hilt, we wind up with less of it.
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A bracing slap of tradition would do guys a world of good
By Rod Dreher
Dallas Morning News
Jan. 30, 2008 (posted by Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Young men have been rendered incapable of recognizing and submitting to authority. Today's child-men have been formed by a culture that has lost —- or, rather, thrown away —- a relatively fixed standard of manhood.
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Unsung heroes deserve credit for victories
By Leonard Pitts Jr.
Miami Herald
Jan. 20, 2008
You want to know who deserves credit for the victories of the civil rights movement? Mother Pollard. She's been largely forgotten over the last two weeks as the leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination bicker over who did what in the 13-year epoch that crumbled the walls of American apartheid.
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Civil rights leaders aloof from Obama
By William Jelani Cobb
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jan. 16, 2008
The most amazing thing about the 2008 presidential race is not that a black man is a bona fide contender, but the lukewarm response he has received from the luminaries whose sacrifices made this run possible.
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The myth of color blindness: Cultural biases are embedded in us unawares
By Cynthia Tucker
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jan. 20, 2008
While I am sympathetic to any desire to get past dated and useless habits of mind — especially the contentious politics of the color line — that's just nonsense. Not one of us, black, white or brown, is colorblind.
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Race bait
By Timothy Egan
New York Times
Jan. 16, 2008
On the West Coast, we are the deepest of blue state America. We have ditched our badges of tribal politics for a post-racial era. We can break the padlocks of prejudice, and why not?
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The Immigrant Vote
Editorial
New York Times
Jan. 19, 2008
The citizenship and voter registration drive in immigrant communities should be celebrated by both parties.
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Poll: "'Moral values' mean very different things to the public and to pundits"
Posted By editor
Harris Interactive: Research Report
Jan. 14, 2008
Poll finds public judging political candidates by their perceived character, not their position on controversial issues
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We don't know what we think: Unrecognized attitudes lurk in our subconscious
By Mahzarin R. Banaji
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jan. 23, 2008
Our intense scrutiny of the presidential candidates has produced a relentless stream of questions, some thoughtful and relevant, others spectacularly irrelevant and even embarrassing: Why are you not more likable, Hillary? How good a Christian can he be with the name Hussein?
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Harold Bloom: "What we are seeing is the Fall of America"
By Eva Sohlman
The Wip
Jan. 15, 2008
"Democracy, whether in Sweden or the United States, depends on the voter's capacity to think…. So what this decline into half-literature and mediocre media really means is de facto a self-destruction of democracy."
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Facebook: The new look of surveillance
By Ari Melber
The Nation
Jan. 16, 2008 (posted on AlterNet)
And why do people continue to give pictures and personal information to a company that reserves the right to use their photos -- and their very identities -- to sell more advertising, products and market targeting in the future?
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The meaning of the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday
By Coretta Scott King
King Center Website
Jan. 11, 2008 (posted by FATC)
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday celebrates the life and legacy of a man who brought hope and healing to America. We commemorate as well the timeless values he taught us through his example -- the values of courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility and service that so radiantly defined Dr. King's character and empowered his leadership. On this holiday, we commemorate the universal, unconditional love, forgiveness and nonviolence that empowered his revolutionary spirit.
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List of metro Atlanta events for January

Cherokee Nation in Georgia: Experts identify rightful, most legit tribe
By Bill Torpy
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jan. 7, 2008
A long-standing feud among four groups claiming to be the true descendants of Georgia's exiled Cherokee Nation may be heading for resolution.
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Lakota Tribes: Stop this country, we want to get off!
By Joshua Holland
AlterNet
Dec. 21, 2007
Well, well, well. This is certainly interesting …
The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States.
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English only? Give immigrants a break
By Victor Landa
San Antonio Express-News
Dec. 19, 2007 (published in Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Most linguists agree that for newcomers language is fully acquired (or native language lost) in two generations. Our proud history of the immigrant experience bears the fact.
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Millions in the slammer: We must reverse America's zeal to incarcerate
By Nomi Prins
The Women's International Perspective
Dec. 30, 2007 (posted on AlterNet)
The United States has more inmates and a higher incarceration rate than any other nation: more than Russia, South Africa, Mexico, Iran, India, Australia, Brazil and Canada combined. Nearly 1 in every 136 US residents is in jail or prison.
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At 60% of total, Texas is bucking execution trend
By Adam Liptak
The New York Times
Dec. 26, 2007
For the first time in the modern history of the death penalty, more than 60 percent of all American executions took place in Texas.
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Steroid use investigation is a carnival show
By Bob Barr
For the Journal-Constitution
Dec. 19, 2007
Even federal law enforcement agencies can't seem to resist the urge to dip their investigative toes into the shallow water of major league sports scandals.
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The American Dream, or a nightmare for black America?
By Joshua Holland
AlterNet
Dec. 17, 2007
Thirty years after the civil rights era, middle-class African-American families face a grim reality: their kids are far more likely to experience downward mobility in today's economy than they are to move up.
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Does death penalty save lives? A new debate
By Adam Liptak
New York Times
Nov. 18, 2007
For the first time in a generation, the question of whether the death penalty deters murders has captured the attention of scholars in law and economics, setting off an intense new debate about one of the central justifications for capital punishment.
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Justice Dept. numbers show prison trends
By Solomon Moore
New York Times
Dec. 6, 2007
About one in every 31 adults in the United States was in prison, in jail or on supervised release at the end of last year, the Department of Justice reported yesterday.
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Reduced to the small screen
By DeNeen L. Brown and Darryl Fears
Washington Post
Nov. 11, 2007
Has racial conflict become amusement? Is the conversation about racism mere entertainment, dialogue rendered for show, inflammatory words tossed back and forth over a racial divide to excite an audience?
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Atlanta Jewish Film Festival expands 2008 dates, venues
AJFF Website
Sep. 17, 2007
The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (AJFF) announced today new dates and venues for its annual showcase of outstanding international and independent films. The 8th Annual Atlanta Jewish Film Festival will run from January 16-27, 2008, expanding from 7 to 12 days. Screenings will take place at the Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 16 and Lefont Sandy Springs theaters, as well as at a new North Metro venue, the Regal Medlock Crossing Stadium 18 in Duluth.
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Why Black people support Michael Vick
By David Wright
ColorLines
Sept/Oct 2007
The thing that seems to mystify the mainstream media and much of the white public is that a significant number of Black people see the Michael Vick saga as a racial issue.
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Editorial: What part of 'illegal' don't you understand?
By Lawrence Downes
New York Times
October 28, 2007
America has a big problem with illegal immigration, but a big part of it stems from the word "illegal." It pollutes the debate. It blocks solutions.
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Does Barbie need a man?
By Amie K. Miller,
Greater Good
October 19, 2007 (posted on AlterNet)
According to the National Study of Gay and Lesbian Parents, 85 percent of gay dads and 82 percent of lesbian moms worry about their kids facing prejudice because they have gay parents. It's a real concern.
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Indian-American elected Louisiana's governor
By Adam Nossiter
New York Times
October 21, 2007
Bobby Jindal, a conservative Republican congressman from the New Orleans suburbs and the son of immigrants from India, was elected Louisiana's governor Saturday, inheriting a state that was suffering well before Hurricane Katrina left lingering scars two years ago.
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Nobel to Lessing, incisive voice of women's fate
By Motoko Rich and Sarah Lyall
New York Times
October 12, 2007
Doris Lessing, the Persian-born, Rhodesian-raised and London-residing novelist whose deeply autobiographical writing has swept across continents and reflects her engagement with the social and political issues of her time, yesterday won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature.
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A time to speak
Time Magazine
November 11, 1957
Georgia's standpat segregationists got a shock with their Sunday [Nov. 3, 1957] paper. Glaring from the pages of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution was a statement signed by almost every leading Protestant minister in Atlanta – 80 in all – which came out foursquare for the Christian view of race relations, individual liberty and the law of the land.
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Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia University is as American as apple pie
By Rebecca Evans and Brandon Hammer
AlterNet
September 24, 2007
Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly, in condemning Columbia's invitation to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stated that he's tired of free speech. Ironically, in doing so, he exercised that specific freedom, a privilege that allows critical engagement with elected officials and forces them to defend their actions. He used a right that the people of Iran do not enjoy.
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Companies struggle to accommodate employees' religions
Press Release
The Conference Board
September 12, 2007
What happens when an employee's freedom of religion crosses paths with a company's interests? A recent article in The Conference Board Review looks to answer this question.
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Exoneration using DNA brings change in legal system
By Solomon Moore
New York Times
October 1, 2007
State lawmakers across the country are adopting broad changes to criminal justice procedures as a response to the exoneration of more than 200 convicts through the use of DNA evidence.
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Is ethics futile?
By Rushworth M. Kidder
Institute for Global Ethics Newsline
September 24, 2007
"Does ethics really make any difference?" It was a heartfelt question. The questioner, a corporate finance executive from England, didn't strike me as cynical, ignorant, or confused.
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The whole (Jena 6) story?
By Sean Gonsalves
AlterNet
September 24, 2007
One side can only see black criminality in this case, while downplaying (or ignoring) the existential threat nooses represent to black folk. The other side – rightfully calling attention to a clear-cut case of white-skin privilege – wrongly sees the Jena 6 as the beginning of 21st century civil rights movement.
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The day Louis Armstrong made noise
By David Margolick
New York Times
September 23, 2007
Fifty years ago this week, all eyes were on Little Rock, Ark., where nine black students were trying, for the first time, to desegregate a major Southern high school. With fewer than 150 blacks, the town of Grand Forks, N.D., hardly figured to be a key front in that battle – until, that is, Larry Lubenow talked to Louis Armstrong.
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A journey into the redneck state of mind
By John MacCormack
Texas Observer
Posted on Alternet September 14, 2007
"It used to be America's most respectable ethnic slur. You could say anything about Southern whites, and it was resented only by Southern whites," said James Cobb, author, college professor, and self-pronounced redneck.
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The world comes to Georgia, and an old church adapts
By Warren St. John
New York Times
September 22, 2007
When the Rev. Phil Kitchin steps into the pulpit of the Clarkston International Bible Church on Sunday mornings, he stands eye to eye with the changing face of America. In the pews before him, alongside white-haired Southern women in their Sunday best, sit immigrants from the Philippines and Togo, refugees from war-scarred Liberia, Ethiopia and Sudan, even a convert from Afghanistan.
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Metro Atlanta builds on plan for affordable homes
By Maria Saporta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
September 17, 2007
The Atlanta region continues to have a disconnect of affordable residences, especially near its major work centers. As a result, that forces Atlantans into long commutes to their jobs from homes they can afford -- creating traffic jams along the way.
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Pornography and the end of masculinity
By Don Hazen
AlterNet
September 22, 2007
In his new book, Robert Jensen forces the reader to face the music about the effects of a porn industry gone gonzo and the need to reassess the trappings of masculinity as the source of increased violence against and degradation of women.
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Annual “Empty Bowl Dinner” benefits Project Connect program to aid homeless
Jewish Family & Career Services
September 12, 2007
Jewish Family & Career Services’ annual "soup kitchen" event benefits the Project Connect program to assist homeless people. The Annual Empty Bowl Dinner will be held Sunday, November 11.
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Beat a woman? Play on! Beat a dog? You're gone
By Sandra Kobrin
Women's eNews
Posted August 23, 2007, on AlterNet
[W]hile male student-athletes are 3 percent of the population, they represent 19 percent of sexual assault perpetrators and 35 percent of domestic violence perpetrators.
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Walking a mile: How Indians and non-Indians think about each other
Public Agenda Alert
August 29, 2007
This new study is one of the most in-depth examinations ever made of the thinking of American Indians and non-Indians about each other.
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Boys cast out by polygamists find help
By Erik Eckholm
New York Times
September 9, 2007
Over the last six years, hundreds of teenage boys have been expelled or felt compelled to leave the polygamous settlement that straddles Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah.
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The outcome of wanting (gay) sex
By Sandip Roy
New America Media
Posted Sep. 5, 2007, on AlterNet
I come to defend Larry Craig, not to bury him. He is a homophobe and a hypocrite. He is a holier-than-thou Senator with feet of toilet paper. But Larry Craig has been forced to resign his seat for all the wrong reasons.
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Rejecting radical Islam -- one man's journey
CNN.com /US
August 17, 2007
The path to faith often takes unexpected twists. In the case of Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, the road went through three of the world's major religions -- Judaism, Islam and Christianity -- and ultimately brought him to the FBI.
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Short on labor, farmers in U.S. shift to Mexico
By Julia Preston
New York Times
September 5, 2007
An increasing number of farmers have been testing the alternative of raising crops across the border where there is a stable labor supply, growers and lawmakers in the United States and Mexico said.
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Presidential campaign coverage rises, war coverage falls
Ethics Newsline
Institute for Global Ethics
August 20, 2007
Study finds that Fox News covered the war only half as much as its rivals, while MSNBC spent twice as much time on presidential campaign as its rivals
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What's wrong with America
By Will Durst
AlterNet
August 14, 2007
You know what's wrong with America? Our national obsession with "me." Nobody ever thinks about "us" anymore. It's all about "me". "You" are on your own.
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Congress approves ethics, earmark reform
Public Agenda Alert
August 2, 2007
The Senate overwhelmingly passed new ethics legislation today that will put new limits on lobbying and require greater disclosure of "earmarks" that fund the pet projects of legislators. The House endorsed the legislation earlier this week. Earmarks have been a controversial source of pork-barrel spending over the past several years, in part because legislators are able to hide their sponsorship.
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Minorities account for majority
in one in 10 counties
Public Agenda Alert
August 9, 2007
Non-whites now account for the majority in one out of 10 counties in the nation, according to a new Census Bureau report. That figure includes one-third of the most-populous counties in the country. Researchers attribute the greater diversity to the spread of immigration and the increasing suburbanization of blacks and Hispanics.
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None so blind as the 'Color Blind'
Opinion by Sean Gonsalves
AlterNet
August 6, 2007
No matter how many times a disturbed white male shoots up a school, church or workplace, bombs an abortion clinic or is arrested for being a serial killer, nobody raises questions like: is something wrong with white suburban culture? The response is either: that's one sick individual, or it just goes to show you how bad society is getting.
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Affordable housing needs support
Editorial by Lyle V. Harris
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
July 6, 2007
The promise of decent, safe and affordable housing for every citizen is not a right enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. But the compassionate impulse to provide quality shelter for those desperately in need is deeply woven into our national character -- as well it should be.
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Texas town, now divided, forged Bush's stand on immigration
By Jim Rutenberg
New York Times
June 24, 2007
Mr. Bush has pursued a goal of providing citizenship for the millions of illegal immigrants with rare attacks on his conservative supporters, who have derided his approach as tantamount to amnesty. There are various political motivations for Mr. Bush to push for his plan, including the rapid growth in the nation's Hispanic population, a voting group that he has long considered to be potentially Republican.
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Young Americans are leaning left, new poll finds
By Adam Nagourney and Megan Thee
New York Times
June 27, 2007
Young Americans are more likely than the general public to favor a government-run universal health care insurance system, an open-door policy on immigration and the legalization of gay marriage, according to a New York Times/CBS News/MTV poll. The poll also found that they are more likely to say the war in Iraq is heading to a successful conclusion.
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The reality of race: Is the problem that white people don't know or don't care?
By Robert Jensen
AlterNet
July 14, 2007
"Study shows that white people are mean and uncaring." That would have been my headline for a recent story from Diverse: Issues in Higher Education [that] reported an Ohio State University study of white people's understanding of the black experience. Curiously, the psychologists who conducted the research spun the data in exactly the opposite direction, and the conflicting interpretations tell us much about race relations in the United States.
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"I am both Muslim and Christian"
By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times
June 17, 2007
Shortly after noon on Fridays, the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding ties on a black headscarf, preparing to pray with her Muslim group on First Hill. On Sunday mornings, Redding puts on the white collar of an Episcopal priest. She does both, she says, because she's Christian and Muslim.
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TV network debuts in metro Atlanta to connect Americans with the Muslim world
By John Baker Brown Jr.
Faith And The City e.Newsletter
June 14, 2007
Bridges TV will premier in the Atlanta metro area this month with the goal of narrowing the gap between East and West, more specifically between the people of Islamic communities worldwide and those of the United States and Canada. An English language television network that broadcasts around the clock seven days a week, Bridges TV already reaches millions of viewers throughout North America.
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Black culture beyond Hip-Hop
Opinion by Thomas Chatterton Williams
Washington Post
May 28, 2007
The cultural pressure for a middle-class Chinese American to walk, talk and act like a lower-class thug from Chinatown is nil. The same can be said of Jews, or of any other ethnic group. But in black America the folly is so commonplace it fails to attract serious attention. Like neurotics obsessed with amputating their own healthy limbs, middle-class blacks concerned with "keeping it real" are engaging in gratuitously self-destructive and violently masochistic behavior.
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Key points on public opinion and immigration
Public Agenda Alert
May 24, 2007
It may seem contradictory, but surveys suggest the public holds positive and negative views about legal immigration at the same time. For example, six in 10 say immigration is generally a good thing for the nation. Yet surveys show the public divided on whether immigration helps or hurts the economy. Half say there are too many immigrants in the country. Four in 10 Americans say immigrants improve food, music and the arts in the U.S., but pluralities say they negatively affect the economy, taxes and crime.
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Hispanic voters gain new clout with Democrats
By Raymond Hernandez
New York Times
June 10, 2007
WASHINGTON, June 9 - Helped by the fight over immigration, Democratic presidential candidates are courting Hispanic voters like never before, prompted by a string of early primaries in states with sizable Hispanic voting blocs. It has forced candidates to hire outreach consultants, to start Spanish-language Web sites and to campaign vigorously before Hispanic audiences.
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Big disparities in judging of asylum cases
By Julia Preston
New York Times
May 31, 2007
Asylum seekers in the United States face broad disparities in the nation's 54 immigration courts, with the outcome of cases influenced by things like the location of the court and the sex and professional background of judges, a new study has found. In one of the starker examples cited, Colombians had an 88 percent chance of winning asylum from one judge in the Miami immigration court and a 5 percent chance from another judge in the same court.
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Don't we have a constitution, not a king?
Opinion by Marjorie Cohn
AlterNet
June 1, 2007
In 1926, Justice Louis Brandeis explained the constitutional role of the separation of powers. He wrote, "The doctrine of the separation of powers was adopted by the convention of 1787 not to promote efficiency but to preclude the exercise of arbitrary power. The purpose was not to avoid friction, but, by means of the inevitable friction incident to the distribution of the governmental powers among three departments, to save the people from autocracy." Eighty years later, noted conservative Grover Norquist, describing the unitary executive theory, echoed Brandeis's sentiment. Norquist said, "you don't have a constitution; you have a king."
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Georgia on my mind
Opinion by James Clingman
Chicago Defender
June 1, 2007
William Mayo has been wrongfully imprisoned in Georgia for 15 years now, having received two life sentences plus 40 years (I guess that was just in case he is reincarnated) for a crime he did not commit, a crime committed by two young men who have since told the courts that William had nothing to do with the crime.
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Day of split outcomes in teenage sex case
By Brenda Goodman
New York Times
June 12, 2007
A judge on Monday ordered the release of a man who is serving a widely criticized 10-year prison sentence without parole for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17. But just after the ruling was announced, Georgia's attorney general, Thurbert E. Baker, said he was appealing it, and the prisoner, Genarlow Wilson, remained behind bars.
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Sex offenders test churches' core beliefs
By Neela Banerjj
New York Times
April 10, 2007
CARLSBAD, Calif. – On a marquee outside and on a banner inside, Pilgrim United Church of Christ proclaims, "All are welcome." Sustained by the belief that embracing all comers is a living example of Christ's love, Pilgrim now faces a profound test of faith.
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Why having more no longer makes us happy
By Bill McKibben
Mother Jones
Posted March 22, 2007
The formula of human well-being used to be simple: Make money, get happy. So why is the old axiom suddenly turning on us?
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The '60s are gone, but one of its most controversial organizations is back
By Astra Taylor
AlterNet
Posted March 22, 2007
Today Students for a Democratic Society occupies an almost mythical place in the history of the '60s, embodying both the promise and disappointment of Vietnam era youth activism. Since its fiery demise in 1969, there have been various attempts to revive SDS. All such efforts failed, until recently.
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Burger King shifts policy on animals
By Andrew Martin
New York Times
March 28, 2007
In what animal welfare advocates are describing as a "historic advance," Burger King, the world's second-largest hamburger chain, said yesterday that it would begin buying eggs and pork from suppliers that did not confine their animals in cages and crates.
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Conference on homelessness to empower faith communities
Faith And The City e.Newsletter
March 9, 2007
The goal of the Homeless Summit, a faith-based conference on homelessness, is to provide knowledge and information that will empower Faith Communities to increase their engagement with homeless persons and the agencies that serve them throughout metro Atlanta. The event is scheduled for March 16 at Peachtree Presbyterian Church. Registration is $25. For information on financial assistance, contact Johnny Myers at 404.842.5830. For more information on the conference or to register, visit www.homeless-summit.org.
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Affordable Workforce Housing Opportunity Fund to provide living options for Atlanta workers
Atlanta City Newsbytes
March 6, 2007
Yesterday, the Atlanta City Council approved an inter-governmental agreement between the City of Atlanta, the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) and the Atlanta Development Authority (ADA) to establish an Affordable Workforce Housing Opportunity Fund totaling $75 million.
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Between black and immigrant Muslims, an uneasy alliance

For many African-American converts, Islam is an experience both spiritual and political, an expression of empowerment in a country they feel is dominated by a white elite. For many immigrant Muslims, Islam is an inherited identity, and America a place of assimilation and prosperity.

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Families behind bars: Jailing children of immigrants
By Kari Lydersen, In These Times
Posted on Feb. 22, 2007, on AlterNet
The inmates are immigrants or children of immigrants who are in deportation proceedings. Many of them are in the process of applying for political asylum, refugees from violence-plagued and impoverished countries like Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Somalia and Palestine. (Since there are different procedures for Mexican immigrants, the facility houses no Mexicans.)
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Teen 'sport killings' of homeless on the rise
By Ashley Fantz
CNN
Feb. 20, 2007
For some teens, "this passes as amusement," expert says. There were 122 attacks, 20 murders in 2006, according to National Coalition for the Homeless. Nathan Moore says he wanted to do was smoke pot and get drunk with his friends. Killing Rex Baum was never part of the plan that day in 2004. "It all started off as a game," Moore said.
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Atheist Richard Dawkins on 'The God Delusion'
By Terrence McNally
AlterNet
January 18, 2007
In the last few years, Americans have seen the dark side of religion. The events of 9/11 brought home the extremes to which some radical Muslims would go to defeat infidels and attain virgins. At home, we've seen assaults on the separation of Church and State and attacks on the teaching of evolution and the distribution of life-saving condoms. And now, it appears the godless are fighting back.
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The Dawkins Delusion
Opinion by Alister McGrath
AlterNet
January 26, 2007
Alister McGrath, a biochemist and Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford University, may be Richard Dawkins' most prominent critic. As the author of "Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes and the Meaning of Life," he was interviewed extensively for Dawkins' recent documentary, "The Root of All Evil." Not a frame of these interviews made it into the final edit. Below is a slightly modified version of remarks delivered by McGrath in response to Dawkins' latest book, "The God Delusion."
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Teepen: America's racist past still lives ... just ask Oprah
Opinion by Tom Teepen
Cox News Service
January 12, 2007
Oprah Winfrey recently opened a private school in South Africa for 152 girls. The idea is to educate high-qualifying, high-promise young women from poor homes, nearly all of them black, for leadership roles. The TV talk show hostess put $40 million into the project. This, you'd think, would be universally accounted a good thing, and while Winfrey might not have expected praise to bubble like champagne in a flute, certainly she must have been caught off guard by the cascade of criticism that soaked her.
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Gonzales questions habeas corpus
Opinion by Robert Parry
Baltimore Chronicle (crom.com)
January 19, 2007
In one of the most chilling public statements ever made by a U.S. Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales questioned whether the U.S. Constitution grants habeas corpus rights of a fair trial to every American. Responding to questions from Sen. Arlen Specter at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Jan. 18, Gonzales argued that the Constitution doesn't explicitly bestow habeas corpus rights; it merely says when the so-called Great Writ can be suspended.
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Outsourcing Iraq war a grave threat to democracy
By Jeremy Scahill
Houston Chronicle (chron.com)
January 25, 2007
Already, private contractors constitute the second-largest "force" in Iraq. At last count, there were about 100,000 contractors in Iraq, of which 48,000 work as private soldiers, according to a Government Accountability Office report. These soldiers have operated with almost no oversight or effective legal constraints and are an undeclared expansion of the scope of the occupation. Many of these contractors make up to $1,000 a day, far more than active-duty soldiers. What's more, these forces are politically expedient, as contractor deaths go uncounted in the official toll.
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Noted TV chef serves holiday dinner
to transitioning homeless families
Faith And The City e.Newsletter
January 9, 2006
Five formerly homeless moms relaxed with their children one December evening and enjoyed gourmet cuisine prepared by Marvin Woods, cookbook author, TV cook show host, and head chef at Spice Restaurant, one of Midtown Atlanta’s trendiest eateries. The five families, working with Cascade United Methodist Church, are in the process of transitioning from shelters for the homeless to homes of their own as part of the Faith And The City Mentor A Family Program.
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Critic of Oprah really insulted all black people
Opinion by Leonard Pitts Jr.
Miami Herald
December 11, 2006
50 Cent makes the mistake a lot of white people do: assuming that there is but one monolithic black experience and that it is street, poor and hard-core. Which doesn't insult just Oprah Winfrey. It insults all of us because it denies a simple fact: Black is many things. That's something Mr. Cent should consider next time he's holed up in his mansion in Farmington, Conn. (median income $67,000, black population 1.5 percent), writing rhymes about how hard life is for poor black folks on mean streets.
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Facing up to the nation's finances:
Understanding public attitudes about the federal budget
Public Agenda Alert
December 12, 2006
The public has little difficulty understanding the magnitude of the fiscal challenge facing the nation and is willing to consider tough tradeoffs to address the growing national debt. But public support comes with one key condition: finding ways to increase trust that their leaders will spend their money responsibly.
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A U.S. picture, by the numbers
By Bob Dart
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
December 15, 2006
Washington – Next year, Americans will spend 65 days watching TV, 41 days listening to the radio and about a week each surfing the Internet, reading a newspaper and listening to recorded music. That's almost half the hours in the year. Of 8,760 total hours in 2007, 3,518 – almost five months – will be occupied by media.
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Bills' redesign will help blind
By Melissa Hoyos
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
November 30, 2006
Fives fold the short way. Tens the long way. Twenties are two-fold. Ones don't get folded at all. The blind or visually impaired use these special folds to keep track of their cash when they shop or go to the bank.
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Bought and sold
Opinion by Bob Herbert
New York Times
November 2o, 2006
One of the most tightly kept secrets in the U.S. is the extent to which children are sexually exploited, not just by child pornographers and compulsive pedophiles, but by men who are viewed by their relatives, friends and neighbors as quintessentially solid citizens.
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Tis the season to be jolly, merry, and – get this – more religious
Opinion by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
American Jewish Life Magazine
November/December 2006:
As a Jewish boy growing up in America, I loved Thanksgiving but, understandably, felt utterly alienated from Christmas. In fact, the very existence of Thanksgiving made me feel so proud to be an American.
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Redistricting will never be politics-free
Opinion by Jim Wooten
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
November 28, 2006
Had they been a bit less clever, Democrats might still rule Georgia. But cleverness and greed caused them to overreach in drawing legislative districts, provoking a fair-minded electorate and an equal-protection court to collapse the empire.
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The loneliness of old age cries out for comfort
Opinion by Beverly Beckham
Boston Globe
November 26, 2006
People who love you don't come along every day. That's what children and grandchildren need to remember. And people who love you aren't guaranteed to stick around forever. One day they may not be there opening the door, smiling at the sight of you.
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Depiction in 'Borat' doesn't do Kazakhstan justice
Opinion by Kamal Fatehi Hash
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
November 8, 2006
If there is one thing I want people to know about Kazakhstan, it is that it is filled with smart, highly educated people who are modernizing the country quite rapidly, much faster than Russia. I tell people that if I were a citizen of the former Soviet Union, of all the republics I could choose, I'd want to live in Kazakhstan.
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Immigration ought to be a quick fix
Opinion by Cynthia Tucker
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
November 8, 2006
For a fraction of the billions a fence would cost, Congress could purchase a mechanism that would actually curb illegal immigration: an instant verification system for Social Security numbers, a network that would eliminate the fraud of fake documents. If all employers were required to check Social Security numbers through the system, they'd know immediately whether prospective workers were in the country legally.
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Into a moral desert
Opinion by Harold Meyerson
Washington Post
Sep. 20, 2006
Lindsey Graham, John Warner, Colin Powell and above all John McCain know firsthand what war can do to men and why we need laws to keep men from becoming their nightmare image of their enemy. Their knowledge is as old as Homer, as American as John Ford.
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U.S. population hits 300 million
Associated Press
October 17, 2006
The nation's population officially hit 300 million at 7:46 a.m. EDT Tuesday, when the Census Bureau's population clock rolled over to the big number. But there weren't any wild celebrations, fireworks or any other government-sponsored hoopla to mark the milestone. Why bother? Many experts think the population actually hit 300 million months ago.
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When career and commute collide
Faith And The City Newsletter
Spring 2006
As a young urban professional. April Simon was living outside the perimeter, where housing is more affordable, and working in midtown. Her commute kept her stress level high, her spirits low, and she was spending a disproportionate amount of her budget on gasoline costs and vehicle maintenance. Her frustration was evident in her work life and her personal life. It was time to make a change – but where to begin?
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Different focus in Atlanta on Young's remark
By Shaila Dewan and Michael Barbaro
New York Times
August 19, 2006
[P]eople who have known Mr. Young for decades seem rather satisfied that his comment that Jewish, Arab and Korean store owners had "ripped off" black neighborhoods, "selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables" had severed his link with his most high-profile client, Wal-Mart Stores, in whose defense he made the remark.
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Stereotypes fester – thanks even to Young
Opinion by Cynthia Tucker
Atlanta Journal Constitution
August 27, 2006
Unlikely though it may seem, Andrew Young, the embattled ambassador for social justice, is in a unique position to push forward a candid, searching conversation about race in America. Two weeks ago, when he inexplicably meandered into the territory of vile ethnic stereotypes, he revealed what we all know but rarely acknowledge: Bigotry is not the exclusive domain of any race or religion or region. Most of us – a few saints excluded – harbor ugly prejudices, unfortunate biases and harsh preconceptions.
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In Defense of Andrew Young
Opinion b y John H. McWhorter
Washington Post
August 27, 2006
Andrew Young unwittingly ended his brief tenure as Wal-Mart's ambassador to U.S. cities this month with his remarks about the nation's urban mom and pop shops: "Those are the people who have been overcharging us -- selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables," he told the Los Angeles Sentinel, an African American weekly. "First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs," he added. "Very few black folks own these stores."
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Ambassador Andrew Young and the Los Angeles Sentinel interview:
A perspective from someone in the room
Opinion by John Hope Bryant
Newswire
August 18, 2006
It is unfortunate that Ambassador Andrew Young is caught in a storm of misconceptions based on some remarks he made that were grossly misinterpreted. Ambassador Andrew Young is not anti-Semitic. You see, I was in that room with Ambassador Young … and I know first hand that what appeared in the newspaper today did not reflect the underlying concerns Ambassador Young has for the people of the urban inner-cities.
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Census reports immigrant population growing
Public Agenda Alert
August 16, 2006
The number of immigrants in American households has increased 16 percent since the year 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's latest American Community Survey. Immigrants now make up 12.4 percent of the nation's population, up from 11.2 percent in 2000. In addition, immigrants are spreading beyond the traditional “gateway states" and are settling in new places like the Upper Midwest, New England and the Rocky Mountain states.
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Welfare reform, 10 years later
Public Agenda Alert
August 23, 2006
This week was the 10th anniversary of the landmark welfare reform law that set time limits and work requirements for recipients. Welfare rolls have been dramatically cut since 1996, although poverty persists.
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Affordable housing and the American Dream
Faith And The City Newsletter
Spring 2006
Like millions of others, Tracy is doing her best to live the American Dream. She grew up with a vision of success that includes a family that is defined as a husband, wife, 2.2 kids, and a dog - with a home in the suburbs and maybe even a white picket fence. But Tracy soon discovered her dream perhaps wasn't quite within reach after all.
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Literalism blocks Bible's big picture
By Leonard Pitts Jr.
Miami Herald
August 28, 2006
Or has no one else noticed how literally some Christians interpret those Scriptures that give them license to condemn, yet how elastic and liberal their readings are when dealing with Scriptures that convict their personal behaviors? Meaning that it's always a little more difficult to catch people being literal about turn the other cheek, do not store up treasures on earth, do not turn away the borrower, love your enemy. Yet, you can't go to the store without tripping over someone who wants you to know the Bible calls homosexuality an abomination.
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In search of a new New Deal:
How will the good jobs of the future be created?
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
The Washington Post
June 13, 2006
There is no sturdier liberal or Democratic slogan than "Jobs, jobs, jobs." But liberals have a problem: The old capitalist job-production machine is not working the way it used to. The venerable promise that new (progressive) leadership will create masses of well-paying jobs is harder to make and even harder to keep. In principle this is a larger problem for conservatives, whose main economic program involves reinforcing the status quo by giving tax cuts to rich people so they have more money to invest.
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Long overdue: A fresh look at public attitudes about libraries in the 21st century
Public Agenda Alert
June 13, 2006
Americans prize public library service and see libraries as potential solutions to many communities' most pressing problems, from universal access to computers to the need for better options for keeping teens safe and productive. But few Americans are aware of the increasingly tenuous financial picture faced by many libraries.
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AP: Police got phone data from brokers
By Ted Bridis and John Solomon
Associated Press
June 20, 2006
US Government spies on citizens using third parties and can legally use all evidence against citizens even when evidence is collected illegally. Of course these are most likely the same data brokers that the FBI complained that could out their under cover agents by looking up their cell phone records.
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Why white people are afraid
By Robert Jensen
AlterNet
June 7, 2006
It may seem self-indulgent to talk about the fears of white people in a white-supremacist society. After all, what do white people really have to be afraid of in a world structured on white privilege? It may be self-indulgent, but it's critical to understand because these fears are part of what keeps many white people from confronting ourselves and the system.
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Who is a Hindu? What is Hinduism?
By Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
Hinduism Today
January/February/March 2006
The first part of the answer to "Who is a Hindu?" and "What is Hinduism?" is that Hinduism is the Sanatana Dharma, or "eternal religion." It is the innate, perennial philosophy. Hinduism does not have a founder. It has neither a beginning nor an end. It is coexistent with man himself.
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The dismay of our elders sums up U.S.
Opinion by Jay Bookman
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
March 30, 2006
An eerie sense of calm has settled over the nation's affairs -- a dead calm. It's not merely that the Bush administration has run aground on its own illusions. The real problem runs deeper, much deeper, and at its core, I think, lies the fact that out of fear and laziness we insist on trying to address new problems with old ideologies, rhetoric and mind-sets.
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Young baffles the AJC? Now that's curious
Opinion by Doug Gatlin
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
May 1, 2006
For Young, listening to those with whom we disagree is a vital step toward mutual understanding, respect and resolution -- perhaps something he learned at the side of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. And I suspect most of us would agree that -- in our increasingly complex and too-often polarized world - more listening would lead to more resolution.
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On being black at a Latino march
Opinion by Van Jones
HuffingtonPost.com
Posted on May 5, 2006
At Monday's "Dia Sin Inmigrantes/Day Without Immigrants" march in San Francisco, I saw a beautiful, exciting and hopeful vision of the future of this country. I also caught a glimpse of a familiar past, fading away. And I shed a few tears for both.
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Atlanta's core all too close to meltdown
Opinion by Bob Barr
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
May 10, 2006
For years, political candidates have been on to the fact that there are two Atlantas, one that exists within a few miles of downtown and the rest that sprawls in a mostly northern arc above the top of the city. Unfortunately, the corporate leadership of the first Atlanta that centered on downtown does not seem to have caught up with reality.
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Bling-bling, rap culture rob blacks of Ali types
Opinion by Kamau Bobb
May 12, 2006
Extravagance is awesome by definition. Many of these celebrities are fantastically popular and their lifestyles are public in the extreme. What is conspicuously missing from their public personas is a cause. Very few of them have taken a decisive public stand on any of the assortment of issues that are strangling the black community.
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Death epitomizes thug life
Opinion by Cynthia Tucker
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
May 10, 2006
It may be comforting to think that the violent lyrics of rap music are just the overly dramatic musings of creative, if rebellious, young minds. It's just words, isn't it? Think again. In the last 12 months alone, several young black men linked to rap music have been killed in disputes stoked by a code of conduct that finds respect in retribution and mistakes slaughter for strength.
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Citing a verse doesn't make a partisan into a scholar
Opinion by Ton Ehrich
IndyStar.com
April 22, 2006
Those who claim they are "defending the biblical faith" by demanding a certain doctrine or moral code based on a few convenient Bible passages that prove their point are actually undermining biblical faith in order to get their way.
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Bloggers strike back
Opinion by Glenn Greenwald
AlterNet
Posted May 11, 2006
With the consolidation of news media in this country, many Americans are frustrated by the closed and corporatized outlets for news and opinion. The same set of pundits have spewed their opinions, the same handful of established media outlets have decided what constitutes news and citizens have long been forced to just listen. The blogosphere is changing all of that.
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So, why don't they call themselves Hindu?
By Swami Shankarananda
Hinduism Today
October/November/December, 2005
Thousands of non-Indians follow the practices of Hinduism and are intrigued by its philosophy. So, why don't they call themselves Hindu? As Western Hindus, we are pioneers writing on a clean slate. We are on the cutting edge of a cultural and spiritual evolutionary process.
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Not heard from the pulpit
By Tom Ehrich
USA Today
March 14, 2006
Preachers and Sunday school teachers are pulling their punches these days regarding morality. Our nation needs ethical and religious instruction in the basics: honesty, fidelity, humility, sharing wealth, sharing power and sacrifice.
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Can blogs revolutionize progressive politics?
By Lakshmi Chaudhry
In These Times
Feb. 8, 2006 (Posted by AlterNet)
Bloggers tout the rise of the netroots as changing how politics works, but will the internet just become a new method of conducting politics as usual?
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Congregations join Faith And The City to help families escape homelessness
Faith And The City
March 13, 2006
Homeless. It was a place Angie Aikens never expected to be. After all, she had worked steady since she was 18. And she was still working fulltime every day. But there she was, with her three teenagers, living in an emergency shelter at the United Methodist Children’s Home in Decatur.
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Negative perception of Islam increasing: Poll numbers in U.S. higher than in 2001
By Claudia Deane and Darryl Fears
Washington Post
March 9, 2006
As the war in Iraq grinds into its fourth year, a growing proportion of Americans are expressing unfavorable views of Islam, and a majority now say that Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
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Saving our democracy
By Bill Moyers
AlterNet
Feb. 27, 2006
In the words of Louis Brandeis, one of the greatest of our Supreme Court justices: "You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy, but you cannot have both." As great wealth has accumulated at the top, the rest of society has not been benefiting proportionally. In 1960 the gap between the top 20% and the bottom 20% was 30 fold. Now it is 75 fold.
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Stretched to limit, women stall march to work
By Eduardo Porter
New York Times
March 2, 2006
For four decades, the number of women entering the workplace grew at a blistering pace, fostering a powerful cultural and economic transformation of American society. But since the mid-1990's, the growth in the percentage of adult women working outside the home has stalled, even slipping somewhat in the last five years and leaving it at a rate well below that of men.
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A constitutional crisis
Opinion by Al Gore
AlterNet
Jan. 17, 2006
Congressman [Bob] Barr and I have disagreed many times over the years, but we have joined together today with thousands of our fellow citizens -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- to express our shared concern that America's Constitution is in grave danger.
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Lobbying limits: GOP owes party and the people
Opinion by Newt Gingrich
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jan. 13, 2006
In Washington today, neither party has been willing to put effective limits on the growth of federal spending. Together with a broken campaign finance system, growing Washington power is simply a recipe or destruction.
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The real cost of homeland security
Opinion by Ben Friedman
AlterNet
Feb. 9, 2006
Conventional wisdom says that none of us are safe from terrorism. The truth is that almost all of us are. The conventional belief is that in response to terrorism, the federal government has spent massive sums on homeland security.
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Finding words to talk about race
Opinion by Maria Luisa Tucker
AlterNet
Jan. 16, 2006
What's needed are a million personal conversations between ordinary Americans…. Ordinary people are the true experts in cross-racial, cross-ethnic dialogue, if only we would start talking.
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Metro Commutes Shorter, But Congestion is No Better, Study Shows
By Ariel Hart
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nov. 21, 2005
Atlanta drivers may not believe it. It may not seem possible, given their sluggish, endless commutes. But it's true, according to a new study. Drivers here are driving less.
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Jews, Muslims Join Fight for Christian Christmas
By Andrea Useem
Religion News Service
The movement defending Christmas as a Christian holiday has attracted some unlikely allies: religiously observant Jews and Muslims.
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The Era to Bring Back
By Joel Kotkin
Washington Post
Oct. 9, 2005
Hurricane Katrina did more than drown a city last month. It also exposed how water-logged partisan politics in the United States have become. Dominated by narrow, self-interested elites, America's political parties have built a dysfunctional system that's run aground on the constant conflict between two flawed ideologies.
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Gibson Plans Holocaust Miniseries
Associated Press
Los Angeles , Dec. 7 - Mel Gibson is stirring passions again with his latest project--a nonfiction TV movie set against the backdrop of the Holocaust. Gibson's Con Artist Productions is developing "Flory" for ABC, based on the true story of a Dutch Jew.
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Hindu Monkey God Stars in India's First Animated Feature
By Ramola Talwar Badam
Associated Press Writer
From The Asian Reporter
Nov. 1, 2005
It's a bird. It's a plane. It's ... the superhero monkey god? While Bollywood stars often achieve a mythical status in film-crazy India, the star of India's first animated feature film is a genuine deity drawn from the Hindu pantheon.
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A Media Monster is Eating the Dems
By Flavia Monteiro Colgan
AlterNet
Nov. 19, 2005
If Give-'em-Hell Harry was around today, he would probably blow a gasket when he realized that not only do most Americans rely on a single news source, but whatever source they depend on is most likely slowly congealing into one mega-corporation.
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Rev. Ridiculous – Pat Robertson Rises Up Again
Opinion by Leonard Pitts Jr.
Miami Herald
Posted Nov. 14, 2005
And the Lord did look with discontent upon the town of Dover in the province of Pennsylvania. For Dover was a wicked and prideful place and had turned its back on God. Its people had voted out school board members who tried to introduce intelligent design into schools as an alternative to the theory of evolution.
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Renowned Atheist Says He Believes in God
Associated Press
Dec. 9, 2005
A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than a half-century has changed his mind. At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe.
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Vatican Publishes Gay Priest Document
Associated Press
November 29, VATICAN CITY – The Vatican published its long-awaited document on gays in the priesthood Tuesday, affirming that men with "deep-seated" gay tendencies should not be ordained but that those with a "transitory problem" could be if they had overcome it for three years.
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Good Works: Hurricane Aftermath
By Gracie Bonds Staples
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sep. 15, 2005
Religious leaders seek unity in Katrina's wake. Members of Atlanta's faith community issued a call to action Wednesday to guide congregations helping victims of Hurricane Katrina. "In the past, we've been fragmented in our approaches, but today we intend to call for unity,'' said Robert Franklin, board president of the Regional Council of Churches of Atlanta.
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Just a Living Legacy to the Leader of the Band
By Samuel G. Freeman
New Your Times
Sep. 14, 2005
On the afternoon before Hurricane Katrina hit, as he was packing his car to flee, Lawrence Winchester called Prof. Prof was Edwin Harrell Hampton, Mr. Winchester's music teacher and bandmaster a half-century earlier at St. Augustine High School in New Orleans, and his mentor ever since. By now, Prof was 77, a widower with a failing memory, and it was the surrogate son who played the paternal role.
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Crises Bring Out the Best,
Worst in Some People
Opinion by Leonard Pitts Jr.
Miami Herald
Sep. 26, 2005
The women were on the roof of the hotel, calling for help as floodwaters rose. Then a motorboat full of police officers came by. ''Can you help us?'' the women cried. The police officers replied, ''Show us what you've got!'' and motioned for them to lift their T-shirts. The women said no. The police officers left them there.
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Exiles from a City and from a Nation
Opinion by Cornel West
The Observer
Sep. 11, 2005
It takes something as big as Hurricane Katrina and the misery we saw among the poor black people of New Orleans to get America to focus on race and poverty. It happens about once every 30 or 40 years.
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Uncivil Tone of Discourse Survives Storm
Opinion by Jim Wooten
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sep. 9, 2005
Katrina, in ways often frightening, provided a chance to see our values and our institutions under stress. New Orleans' immediate descent into anarchy the moment authority was immobilized revealed a deeply troubling immunity in some segments of the population to the values required to sustain a healthy society.
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Be Honest: Objections Faith-Based
Opinion by Jay Bookman
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sep. 12, 2005
"Teach the controversy." That's all that advocates of intelligent design ask. Go ahead and teach what they call the scientific evidence for and against the theory of evolution. But at the same time, why not also teach the "competing scientific theory" that only an intelligent being could have created the marvel of the world around us?
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For Blacks, Caricatures Jab at Old Scars: Foreign Images Revive Debate on Racial Attitudes
By Mary Lou Pickel
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
July 27, 2005
Just a few weeks after Mexican President Vicente Fox blundered by saying Mexican immigrants in the United States do work that "not even blacks" will do, the country came out with a postage stamp touting a 1940s-era comic book character of a black boy with ape-like features, reviving a debate about racial attitudes.
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Real Election Chicanery on Other Foot
Opinion by Jim Wooten
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
August 9, 2005
Barely three years ago, Georgia was in the final stages of the most bodacious power grab since 1876, when the county-unit system of tallying votes was adopted, guaranteeing that a country vote would count more than a city slicker's. The black and white Democrats who ran Georgia vanished behind closed doors and concocted a modern version of the outlawed county-unit system that was designed to keep them in power for another decade.
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U.S. Sacrifices Science on the Altar of Religion
Opinion by Cynthia Tucker
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
August 7, 2005
When the Soviets stunned the world with the launch of Sputnik in 1957, the United States rushed to the barricades with money for science labs and math classrooms. Nor was there any conflict among mainstream Christians about promoting scientific advancement. But that was then. Now, this country is led by a cult of religious fundamentalists who wish to impose their narrow thinking on the rest of us.
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From the Vedas: One God, Many Functions
Hinduism Today
April/May/June 2005
Imagery of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva performing the acts of creation, preservation and destruction as three separate beings has wrought confusion for elementary school children, all the way up to Internet forums where Western academics pontificate on Hindu polytheism-monotheisim-henotheism, while missing the point altogether, which is: all of the above are true. There is only one Supreme Being, Who creates preserves and destroys. There are also many great Mahadevas who are not mere diverse mental projections of the Supreme, but who are real Purushas, Persons, living in the causal plane, as souls, as real as you or I.
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Combating Ethical Lapses: Why Compliance Isn't the Answer
Commentary by Rushworth M. Kidder
Ethics Newsline, Institute for Global Ethics
April 25, 2005
"There oughta be a law!" It's a phrase you hear more and more these days. It pops up whenever the ethical issues in the news are particularly rotten. And it's a natural response. Let me take a contrarian view. I'm all for vigorous efforts to identify wrongdoing, enact laws, and ensure compliance. But compliance is no substitute for ethics. Yet a look around the corporate landscape suggests that we're galloping into a new Age of Compliance -- on a horse named Sarbanes-Oxley.
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American History in Black And White
Opinion by Leonard Pitts Jr.
Tribune Media Services
July 1, 2005
So how is the history of black people not "basic American history?" The problem is, black history leads us places we don't always want to go, shows us things we don't always want to see, teaches us lessons about the capacity for arrogance and inhumanity that we don't always want to learn. This is not the American history of Iwo Jima and "one small step." It is a more painful, more complete and truer American history. Small wonder some of us find it easier to turn away.
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Sin and Redemption in Atlanta
By Rebecca Fowler
Religion in the News
Spring 2005
Twenty-six hours after the shootings in the courthouse, the suspect, Brian Nichols, 33, surrendered to police after a woman he had held hostage overnight in her apartment persuaded him to give himself up peacefully. Let’s restate that with a little more contextual detail: In the Deep South, an African-American man, an accused rapist and alleged murderer, held a young, white woman hostage in her own apartment and, after spending the night in intense spiritual conversation, was persuaded by her to go quietly into police custody. And so, a violent crime story pivoted into a classic American morality tale that boggled the minds of cops, reporters, and millions of citizens.
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Black Rednecks and White Liberals
Opinion by Thomas Sowell
Townhall.com
May 5, 2005
Black identity has become a hot item in the movies, on television, and in the schools and colleges. But few people are aware of how much of what passes as black identity today, including "black English," has its roots in the history of those whites who were called "rednecks" and "crackers" centuries ago in Britain, before they ever crossed the Atlantic and settled in the South.
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> Dual Georgias Need a Single Firearms Law
Guest Column by Bob Barr
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
May 25, 2005
Gov. Sonny Perdue may be trying hard to make us into "One Georgia," but the latest spat over Roswell's municipal firearms laws shows how much work it's going to take to achieve that goal. When I look at Georgia's cultural landscape I definitely see two Georgias: the rest of the state and metro Atlanta. In short, we're half Alabama and half New England.

> Latinos' Political Clout Grows: Balanced Party Alliances, Voter Turnout Key
Guest Column by Mary Sanchez
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
June 10, 2005
Black Republicans are often seen as traitors to their race. Mention Condoleezza Rice or Clarence Thomas at a large gathering of black people and the tear-down commentary usually begins quickly. That's what happens with so much of the black vote locked up as Democrats.

> Is Persuasion Dead?
By Matt Miller
New York Times
June 4, 2005
Speaking just between us - between one who writes columns and those who read them - I've had this nagging question about the whole enterprise we're engaged in. Is persuasion dead? And if so, does it matter?

> What Women Want
By John Tierney
New York Times
May 25, 2005
Suppose you could eliminate the factors often blamed for the shortage of women in high-paying jobs. Suppose that promotions and raises did not depend on pleasing sexist male bosses or putting in long nights and weekends away from home. Would women make as much as men?

> Sabbath Resistance
By Barbara Brown Taylor
The Christian Century
May 31, 2005
In his book Jewish Renewal, Rabbi Michael Lerner says that anyone engaging the practice of Shabbat can expect a rough ride for a couple of years at least. This is because Sabbath involves pleasure, rest, freedom and slowness, none of which comes naturally to North Americans. Most of us are so sold on speed, so invested in productivity, so convinced that multitasking is the way of life that stopping for one whole day can feel at first like a kind of death.