In March, I wrote about my experience at a retreat with fifteen practitioners and some program officers from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation where we shared personal stories of racial healing. Last month, the same group served as facilitators for the America Healing conference in Asheville, North Carolina, when the foundation convened 250 grantees, racial justice advocates, and leaders of national […]

In January, 1998, I was in Washington working with a team recruited by the White House to design a dialogue guide for the President’s One America initiative on race when the media erupted over Bill Clinton’s alleged affair with Monica Lewinsky. There was gloom in the room and groans of, “There goes all our work down the tubes.” No question, […]

Amid all the negativity in our nation’s capital, I was encouraged and inspired last week to meet with several people who are working constructively in various ways to bridge divides.   “The walls are high but they are not held together by very strong nails. People are willing to think beyond party lines if they are not going to be […]

I was struck by a remark by Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, as reported recently in the Wall Street Journal. “It’s about trust,” he told a group of businessmen in Richmond. “It’s about making sure that, at the end of the day, you are going to have to link arms with somebody and take a jump.” Warner was talking about […]

Disheartened by the dearth of political courage and statesmanship displayed by our representatives in Washington, I turned for inspiration to the memoirs of a remarkable Australian politician, Kim E. Beazley.* Among his many accomplishments as Minister for Education were the abolition of university fees and the introduction of needs-based funding for all schools. He also put the issue of Aboriginal […]

“Historical imagination is the ability to imagine walking in the other person’s shoes,” says Alex Wise. One hundred and fifty years ago this week, his ancestor of the same name was a prominent and decisive voice in the debate that concluded with a 90-45 vote by the Virginia state convention to succeed from the Union. The state that had produced […]

“Why spend the day talking about trust?” asks Walter Rice, a senior U.S. District Court judge in Dayton, Ohio. “Because nothing less than the future viability of this community – economically, socially, and politically is at stake.” I’ve just spent thirty-six hours consulting with a remarkable group of leaders in this Midwestern city who have sustained a Hope in the […]

Watching the remarkable events unfolding in North Africa and the Middle East, I am reminded of a stark encounter in the summer of 2006 when the Iraq war was at its height. A group of young Tunisians had come to the Initiatives of Change conference in Caux, Switzerland. One evening, they invited Susan and me to dinner. They were bright, […]

Susan and I take walks around our neighborhood park before breakfast. It’s a wonderful opportunity to appreciate the seasons, especially spring. At this time of year, the warming sun is just appearing over the trees as we round the first bend. “Believing that spring will come is an act of trust,” says Susan as we pass some early blossoms. “Even […]

There’s a perennial debate about the relative importance of dialogue and action, the work of racial healing and the work of structural change. Two events last week showed how they go together. On March 18, Richmond’s mayor, Dwight Jones, announced an anti-poverty commission at a public forum sponsored by my colleagues at Hope in the Cities and the Virginia Center […]