This info has been around for some time, from reliable sources, and has been bottled up long enough: Friends General Conference is set to name Barry Crossno as its new General Secretary. As was true of the other two Quaker big groups which have hired CEOs in recent months (AFSC & FCNL), Crossno is a … Continue reading Breaking: FGC Set to Tap Barry Crossno as New General Secretary
Ah, January. It’s the season of snow and ice and other annoyances. But there’s an UP-side: in the supermarkets I can find tubs of fat, dark, juicy blueberries. I love ‘em. Call me an old anti-oxidant junkie. (In fact, some of you might have noticed that my Gmail address is supposed to be “wild blueberries” … Continue reading Will It Ruin The Planet If I Buy These Blueberries??
My musical hero Beethoven (born around this date in 1770; baptized on December 17; died 1827) wrote only one opera, Fidelio. In it, instead of rhapsodizing about Teutonic gods, or killing off ill-fated sopranos, his story dealt with a group of political prisoners who win their freedom from an oppressive system, mainly through the heroism … Continue reading Beethoven’s Message to Guantanamo — And To Us
It’s easy to think of reasons to trash Dwight Eisenhower. For one thing, he was a segregationist; he enforced it in the Army, and disliked the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown decision. For another, he approved several nasty covert CIA wars and coups (Iran, Guatemala, the beginnings of Vietnam, etc.) We’re still dealing with the fallout … Continue reading Cutting Ike Some Slack
Over at the Quaker House blog there are some thoughts on the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” an ugly policy that was long overdue for the chopping block. The change has implications beyond only the individual soldiers and sailors who will now be able to serve openly. Check the post out here.