Where Are We Going? Backwards or Forward?

By: Rich Feldman
I have read about half of the book: “Blessed Unrest” by Paul Hawken.
Thanks, Grace and Shea, for pushing this book. It is the first book that begins to explain to me why so many of the young people in and around Detroit Summer have moved beyond the thinking of the New and Old [...]

Living for Change: Obama and MLK

by Grace Lee Boggs
[This article first appeared in the Michigan Citizen, Jan. 20-26, 2008. Then it was published on Saturday, April 5, 2008 by YES! Magazine and appeared on commondreams.org]
The new energies being unleashed by Barack Obama hold great promise. In his person and prose Obama embodies the achievements of the movements of the 20th [...]

A White Man’s View of Obama’s Race Speech

By Matt Birkhold
[giantmag.com originally featured this article on March 27, 2008]
My father has been a “Jesse Jackson is a pain in the ass” Republican since at least the Carter years. I was shocked to hear that he plans on voting for Barack Obama.
Up until very recently I’ve felt like I pretty much had my people [...]

Yes, We Can - A Poem

Back in February, Detroit City of Hope held two events called MLK’s Words, Our Conversations. Those that gathered explored how Martin Luther King’s legacy should impact our current work in Detroit. During the event, we divided into small groups and used activities to engage certain themes. Those of us in the [...]

Obama, Race and the Dynamism of America

Juan Cole places Obama speech in Detroit context in his posting on Informed Comment.

Obama Gets Real

Please check out Adrienne Maree Brown’s posting on WireTap Magazine’s blog, where she explores her excitement about Obama’s speech on race.

Big Changes. Really Big.

By: Frank Joyce
The forces changing our world are not those that are measured by years or even decades. We are in the midst of changes that are measured by centuries. We all know something about the transformation from feudalism to capitalism or the shift from an economy based on agricultural production to an [...]

1964, 1968 or 2008

By: Rich Feldman
In 1968, I volunteered for Eugene McCarthy, traveled across the country to campaign against the war in Vietnam, danced in the streets of Wisconsin when LBJ announced that he would not run for a second term and demonstrated in Chicago against the pro-war policies of the Democratic Party Leadership.  This was my initiation [...]

Time Management

By: Zakia Carpenter
For a couple weeks I’ve been thinking about history and the present with respect to utilizing time, as if time were something that could be braided, woven, folded, or unraveled like colorful fabric.  Obama has brought me back to this idea that we as individuals interact with elements which seem so much larger [...]

We Must Each Become the Change

By: Julie Rosier
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood,
divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the
vast and endless sea.”
- Antoine de Saint Exupéry
Obama has the audacity to hope. He also had the audacity to build a
campaign to run for president. [...]